Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Shu Jueting recently introduced at the regular press conference of the Ministry of Commerce, from January to April this year, China’s service trade maintained an overall growth trend, of which the total import and export of services was 2,081.65 billion yuan, an increase of 9.1%. Among them, exports were 887.13 billion yuan, down 4.9% year on year; Imports reached 1,194.52 billion yuan, up 22.6% year-on-year; The deficit in trade in services was 307.39 billion yuan.
Zheng Wei, associate researcher of China Service Outsourcing Research Center, said that in general, from January to April, China’s service trade continued to maintain a rapid growth range, with service imports and exports exceeding 2 trillion yuan, maintaining nearly double-digit growth year-on-year. In the post-epidemic era, the potential of China’s international cooperation in trade in services will be further released, and the total volume of service imports and exports this year is expected to reach a record high.
From the perspective of structure, the proportion of knowledge-intensive service trade increased, and travel services recovered significantly.
Data show that from January to April, China’s import and export of knowledge-intensive services reached 905.79 billion yuan, an increase of 13.1% year-on-year, accounting for 43.5% of the total import and export of services, an increase of 1.5 percentage points over the same period last year. Among them, the export of knowledge-intensive services was 538.48 billion yuan, an increase of 18% year-on-year, among which the fastest growing area was insurance services, an increase of 260.5%. The import of knowledge-intensive services reached 367.31 billion yuan, up 6.6 percent year on year, with personal culture and entertainment services, the fastest growing sectors, and other business services, up 54 percent and 26.2 percent, respectively.
“This reflects the trend of high-quality development of China’s service trade. Knowledge-intensive service trade has become a shining name card of ‘Chinese service’ on the international stage.” Zheng Wei analysis said.
In terms of travel services, from January to April, China’s import and export of travel services was 444.19 billion yuan, an increase of 63.4%. Among them, exports increased by 48.5% and imports by 64.5%.
“The share of imports and exports of travel services in the total service trade has recovered to more than 20 percent.” Zheng Wei judged that, as the service sector most affected by the epidemic, travel services will continue to maintain a strong recovery in the post-epidemic era.
Data from flying pig show that in 618 this year, the sales of many outbound travel package products on the platform exceeded expectations, and many preferential products such as Banyan Tree Hotel package in Bangkok, Thailand, and two-person exchange package in Kansai Hotel in Japan were snapped up after being launched, and some packages have been replenished many times.
At the same time, many airlines also accelerated the pace of resumption of routes. For example, according to the International Business Daily reporter, Spring Airlines is continuing to resume international routes, including the resumption of Shanghai Fukuoka route in June and Shanghai Sapporo route in July; In addition to the resumed domestic flight routes to Jeju Island in South Korea, the number of popular routes will be encrypted in the summer, and the number of summer flights will increase by about 25%.
In addition, as one of the largest sectors of service trade, the import and export of transport services performed well in the first four months. Taking the China-Europe trains as an example, from January to April, the total number of China-Europe trains was 5,611, carrying 609,000 TEU of goods, an increase of 17% and 32%, respectively, and the heavy container rate was 100%. By the end of April, China-Europe freight trains had departed from 109 domestic cities and reached 211 cities in 25 European countries.