Beijing Fair facilitates economic integration inside Asia

The ongoing China International Fair for Trade in Services is an important platform for regional cooperation and Asian economic integration, participants said.

"We hope to improve our brand recognition through CIFTIS and boost yuan trade settlement to strengthen cooperation between China and Japan," said Hirokazu Yanaoka, chairman and CEO at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ China, during an exclusive interview with China Daily on May 28.

His company is among the more than 4,000 participants in the exhibition, which is also known as the Beijing Fair. Additionally, several other world-renowned service companies, including Wal-mart, and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, also took part.

Asian countries accounted for a considerable proportion of the participants, who came from 82 countries and regions around the world. Japan, South Korea, Singapore, India and Thailand all sent delegations to the fair.

Japan's largest and the world's second-largest financial group, the Bank of Tokyo established a delegation office in Beijing in 1980.

Now it has 15 branch banks and operations in China that cover such cities as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Dalian, Tianjin, Wuxi, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Qingdao, Wuhan and Shenyang.

Earlier reports said direct trading of the yen and yuan will begin in June. By then, the yen will become the first foreign currency other than the US dollar to be directly traded with the yuan.

Yanaoka said the bank's future business in China will focus on yuan settlement to lower risks involved in bilateral trade and boost bilateral trade and investment.

He also said the bank will increase its branches and operations in the country.

He said China and European clients are expected to account for 50 percent of the Bank of Tokyo's total business in the future.

Besides the bank, the Japan-based 7-Eleven corporation, the world's biggest chain store group, participated in the fair.

Singapore also believes the Beijing Fair can boost bilateral trade in the service industry and strengthen regional economic integration.

Twenty Singaporean companies and commerce chambers participated in the fair, mainly covering six service industry fields, including clothing, dining, accommodation, transportation, medical care and education.

Singapore's exhibition is a 90 square meter hall that showcases the country's garden-like image and optimization of urban space.

The multimedia opening ceremony of the exhibition hall showcases the fine quality of life brought about by Singapore's modern service industry.

As an important measure to support the Beijing Fair, a promotion for Singapore's medical care services and urban development solutions will be held on May 30. As the first bilateral cooperation between the Chinese and Singaporean governments in the services trade, the event is expected to improve the industry on both sides, said a Singaporean delegation member.

"Singapore has accumulated quite a lot of experiences and technologies in developing the service industry. We are fully prepared to play an active role in China's striving service industry," said Lim Hng Kiang, Singapore's trade and industry minister, at the exhibition hall's opening ceremony.

"I am confident that Singapore's companies will make lasting and meaningful contributions to China's economic development in the next stage," Lim said.

The Asia-Pacific region has become an important world service trade market. Latest statistics show that in 2010 alone, the services trade export revenue reached $963 billion, and import revenue was $961 billion, increasing 21 percent and 20 percent, respectively, over the same period of last year.

"The Asian economic entity is becoming more and more closely related through trade," according to an excerpt from the Asia Economic Integration Process 2012 Report released at the Boao Forum for Asia in April.

The report also said that free trade in services and financial integration are deepening Asian economic integration.

China hopes to play a more and more important role in the process, said Qiu Hong, deputy director of the Beijing Fair's organizing committee.

He said in 2011, China's services trade revenue was the world's fourth largest at $410 billion, but less than half that of the US, which reached $960 billion in the year and was the biggest in the world.

The country's 12th Five-Year-Plan proposes to boost service trade by increasing its revenue to $600 billion by 2015, Qiu said.

Contact the writers at xuxiao@chinadaily.com.cn and wangsujuan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/29/2012 page12)