On September 2, the 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) opened in Beijing. Chen Chunjiang, assistant minister of commerce, said at the day's Digital Trade Development Trends and Frontiers Summit Forum that the current new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial change is advancing by leaps and bounds, the global digital economy is booming, and digital trade is becoming a new trend in the development of international trade and a new engine for future trade growth.

　　According to the World Trade Organization (WTO) forecast, by 2030, digital technology will prompt the growth rate of global trade to increase by 1.8 to 2 percentage points per year. Data shows that in 2022, China's import and export of digitally deliverable services reached 2.51 trillion yuan, up 7.8% year-on-year, ranking fifth globally and hitting a new record high. Among them, the export of digitally deliverable services was 1.42 trillion yuan, up 12.2% year-on-year, higher than the import growth rate of 9.6 percentage points.

　　In the first half of this year, the scale of China's import and export of digitally deliverable services continued to grow by 12.3%, higher than the overall growth rate of service imports and exports by 3.8 percentage points. Among them, the export of digitally deliverable services grew by 16%, 21.9 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of service exports, and the process of digitization of service trade was further accelerated.

　　Chen Chunjiang said, "Digital trade is an important part of international trade and an important area of international economic and trade cooperation. We will uphold the development concept of openness, cooperation and win-win globalization, establish sound promotion policies, actively participate in international rule and standard-setting, promote the open and innovative development of digital trade, and create a new engine for building a strong trading nation."

　　In terms of specific initiatives, Chen Chunjiang introduced that the Ministry of Commerce will focus on strengthening top-level design, promoting the introduction of top-level design and policy initiatives for the reform and innovative development of digital trade, and strengthening the standardization of digital trade; it will focus on strengthening platform construction, strengthening and optimizing the national digital service export base; it will run the Second Global Digital Trade Expo and cultivate a good ecology for the development of digital trade; it will also focus on strengthening the rule docking, implementing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with high quality, steadily advancing the process of joining the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement and the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, further docking the high-standard international economic and trade rules, supporting the development of early and pilot implementation in the field of digital trade, and steadily expanding the systematic opening up.

　　"We will strive to strengthen international cooperation, actively participate in the WTO e-commerce negotiations, maintain and improve the multilateral digital economy governance system, strengthen multi-bilateral and regional digital trade dialogues and cooperation, build a new pattern of open and inclusive, mutually beneficial and win-win digital trade development, share new opportunities for digital trade development, and create a better future of prosperity and development. " Chen Chunjiang said.