Services bring cheer to trade amid tough times

To support its anticipated workloads, Taikoo (Xiamen) will explore outsourcing some of its workshops and relocating some activities to other locations in Xiamen. This approach will create remote jobs rather than jobs within the airport.

In January alone this year, China's trade in services reached 459.5 billion yuan, with transport and travel propelling the sector, said the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

In the 2012-21 period, the figure increased more than 70 percent to $821.2 billion, with its global share rising from 5.4 percent to 7.1 percent. For perspective, trade in goods climbed from 24.4 trillion yuan in 2012 to 39.1 trillion yuan in 2021, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

Market watchers and business executives said China's influence in the services sector has been bolstered by factors like soaring growth in foreign creative and cultural trade and knowledge-intensive services. They are convinced China's trade in services will be a long-term thriving force that will shore up the country's economic growth.

They also noted that China's trade in services has emerged as a big hope in the global market, contributing to the ongoing global economic recovery, thanks to government policies that seek to make opening-up broader and deeper.

One potential driver of China's future economic growth could be the rising exports of human capital-intensive services, which require a higher level of expertise and skill. These services could include technology consulting, engineering, and research and development, said Zhang Wei, chief expert of the Shanghai-based China Association of Trade in Services.

He said rising demand for high-quality foreign services among the country's growing middle-income earners will be another factor to contribute to the national economy. These services could include education, tourism, healthcare and entertainment.

Echoing the sentiment, Zheng Wei, assistant researcher at the Shanghai-based China Service Outsourcing Research Center, said a distinct upside still exists in the growth of trade in services in China as its scope now extends to artificial intelligence, the metaverse and other such fields, with huge potential for high growth.

China's trade in knowledge-intensive services rose nearly 8 percent year-on-year to 2.51 trillion yuan in 2022, said the Ministry of Commerce. Travel services continued to recover last year as trade in this segment rose more than 8 percent year-on-year to nearly 856 billion yuan.

Phillipa Harrison, managing director of Tourism Australia, a government agency responsible for attracting international visitors, said with the easing of COVID-19 measures for international travel to and from China, the agency remains optimistic about the outlook for the industry this year and beyond.

"We believe the industry will recover in an orderly manner," she said, adding that early indications suggest there is strong interest in visiting Australia among Chinese travelers and a steady return of visitors is expected in the weeks and months ahead.