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China's State Council, the country's cabinet, issued guidelines to promote high-quality development of consumption of services sector and expand opening-up of the fields including telecommunications, education, elderly care, medical care, Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.

The timely and critical move is conducive to unleashing the enormous potential of the service sector and inject new impetus into the high-quality growth of the Chinese economy, which has established a well-developed industrial system in the manufacturing sector and is experiencing rapidly rising demand for improved consumption among residents, experts said.

While emphasizing the exploration of the potential of improvement-oriented consumption in areas such as cultural entertainment, tourism, sports, education and training, and residential services, the guidance also encourages the growth of emerging sectors including cruising, yachts, recreational vehicle camping, low-altitude flight, Xinhua reported.

China's manufacturing industry and the real economy have developed rapidly. Promoting high-quality service consumption will contribute to the balanced and sustainable growth of China's economy, Cao Heping, an economist from Peking University, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Many service consumption areas cited in the guidelines are those that need to be further developed in the process of increasing China's national income levels, according to Cao.

China's growth will remain resilient at around 5 percent in 2024 despite challenges. The country's service sector is an underutilized driver of growth. Reallocating resources to services has helped boost productivity over the past two decades, according to an IMF article published on Friday.

The proportion of service consumption in urban residents' spending now exceeds that of goods consumption, with a relatively higher growth rate. Promoting the growth of service consumption at this time will aid in the overall recovery of consumption, Tian Yun, a veteran economist based in Beijing, told the Global Times on Saturday.

China will continue to relax market access restrictions for the service sector, deepen the opening-up of the fields of telecommunications, education, aged care, medical care, and promote the comprehensive implementation of opening-up measures in the fields of technology services, tourism, according to the guideline.

China plans to further streamline border entry policies and enhance the consumption environment to expedite the increase in the number of flights, offer a variety of payment services, explore opportunities to expand visa-free countries, and enhance cultural tourism year activities, according to the guideline.

Expanding openness in these areas will further support the continuous recovery and upgrading of China's industrial structure, according to Tian.

Relaxing market access and expanding opening-up policies will help attract more foreign capital and foreign tourists to engage with China's service consumption market. This will be a favorable policy promotion for the development of related fields, Cao added.

Global Times