Strategic Research On China's Foreign Trade In Services

　　 I. Introduction

Since 1980s, the growth rate of world service trade has been faster than that of commodity trade. The focus of global economic competition is shifting from trade in goods to service trade. The development level of service industry and service trade has become one of the important signs to measure the modernization level of a country. Since the implementation of reform and opening up policy in China, the scale of service trade has been expanding. Especially after joining the WTO, it has made extensive and in-depth commitment to the service sector, greatly promoted the development of service trade and promoted China's position in the global economy. However, the overall development level of China's service trade is still lagging behind. Accelerating the development of service trade has become the main task of China's foreign trade development.

During the period from 1998 to 2008, the service trade of our country has made great progress in general. China's total trade in services increased from US $52 billion 900 million in 1998 to US $304 billion 450 million in 2008, with an average annual increase of 18.98%. Due to the impact of the financial crisis in 2008, the first half of 2009, the import and export volume of services in China showed a "double drop" situation: the total import and export volume of services was 125 billion 740 million US dollars, down by 14.4%. compared with the same period last year, of which the export volume was US $54 billion 500 million, which was 24.1% lower than the same period last year, and the import volume was 71 billion 240 million US dollars, down 5% from the same period last year. At present, China's service trade is further developing. In the period of "12th Five-Year", accelerating the development of service trade is the key to China's continued position as a trading power and the transformation from a trading power to a trading power.

　　 Two, China service trade Problems in the development process

(1) the structure of service trade is unreasonable.

Whether the structure of service trade is reasonable is an important index affecting international competitiveness. With the progress of service technology, the world service structure is developing towards the direction of technology and knowledge intensive. The proportion of technology related service industry and high-tech service trade in world service trade is on the rise. China is at a rather underdeveloped stage in many service trades. China's service trade is mainly distributed in transportation, tourism and other labor-intensive and resource intensive industries. In 2009, China's total trade in services amounted to US $388 billion 400 million, of which exports and imports amounted to US $23 billion 600 million and US $46 billion 600 million respectively, accounting for 18.2% of total trade in services exports and 29.3% of imports. Tourism exports and imports amounted to 39 billion 700 million US dollars and 43 billion 700 million US dollars respectively, accounting for 30.7% of the total export volume of service trade and 27.5% of total imports. Insurance, finance, consulting, post and telecommunications, advertising, film and audio-visual industries with high added value or high technology are restricted by the basic factors such as system, technology, knowledge and culture, and the development speed is relatively slow. Therefore, the overall structure of China's service trade is uneven.

In addition, from the statistical data, the regional development of China's service trade is unbalanced, and the phenomenon of "East strong west" is very obvious. The import and export of China's service trade is mainly concentrated in the eastern provinces and municipalities, while other regions, including the central and western parts of the country and the northeast, only account for a small proportion. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce in 2009, the total trade in services in eastern China reached 220 billion 754 million US dollars in 2007, accounting for 87.98% of the total import and export volume of trade in services in China, of which 101 billion 45 million for service trade and 113 billion 609 million for trade in services, accounting for 87.99% and 87.90% of the total export and import volume of trade in services respectively. The total volume of trade in services in the vast Midwest and Northeast China accounts for only about 12% of China's total trade in services, of which 3.2% in the central region, 5.05% in the West and 3.81% in the northeast.

(two) the country (region) structure of service trade is unreasonable.

The regional distribution of China's service trade is uneven, and the import and export of services are mainly concentrated in developed countries and regions. In 2008, China's import and export services were mainly concentrated in China's Hongkong, the United States, the European Union, Japan and ASEAN, with an import and export volume amounting to US $208 billion 250 million, accounting for 68.4% of the total import and export volume of our country in that year. Among them, China, Hongkong, the United States, the European Union, Japan and ASEAN have become the top five export markets in China. Hongkong, the European Union, the United States, Japan and ASEAN are China's top five sources of service imports. To be more specific, the first and second places in China, Hongkong and the United States account for about 1/3 and 20% of China's transport service market respectively; Hongkong, China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan account for nearly 60% of China's tourism export market; the United States and the east alliance account for half of the total export of computer and information services in China. Due to the concentration of the service trade area and the impact of the global financial crisis, the European Union, the United States and Japan have been declining, resulting in the widespread obstruction of the various sectors of China's service trade. The large number of export enterprises in coastal areas have been forced to cut production or stop production, which has had a very negative impact on China's service trade.

(three) our service trade management system is backward.

As the service industry is an industry group composed of many related industries, international service trade involves a wide range of industries, and the international community requires a country to coordinate and manage its domestic service industry in an overall way. At present, there are many defects in the management system of China's service trade, which is mainly reflected in the unsatisfactory management system, unreasonable organization settings for the service management system, and differences in policies and regulations between the central and local governments in the foreign trade of the service industry. There is no unified management department to promote trade in services in the whole country. The relevant functional departments have implemented multi management in the field of service trade, and the problem of political and political problems has not yet been completely solved. All sectors of the service sector are limited to the direct management system, and some departments implement protectionism to the directly affiliated system, which leads to monopolistic operation of the industry, such as postal, telecommunications, civil aviation and so on. In addition, the administrative personnel of the service trade do not grasp the policy thoroughly, resulting in inefficient management.

(four) laws and regulations on service trade are not sound.

China's legislation on trade in services has lagged behind until recently, the legislation of trade in services in China has changed greatly. A number of important laws and regulations related to international service trade have been promulgated, such as the maritime law, the insurance law, the central bank law, the commercial banking law, the advertising law, the building law, and the law of lawyers. However, under the requirements of the liberalization of international trade in services, our country still lacks a unified basic law of trade in services. Some laws and regulations promulgated on trade in services are not only abstract and lack of operability, but also have low levels of legislation and administrative laws and regulations. The existing laws and regulations are incomplete and conflicting, and there is a certain gap between the relevant international laws. All these problems are factors hindering the healthy development of China's service trade.

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(five) lack of professionals in China's trade in services

In the world, the development of service industry is in the process of changing from labor-intensive to technology intensive. Service trade itself is a kind of intelligence intensive industry. Most of the service industry is through the human intelligence to complete the service process, some industries also need specialized science and technology and proprietary knowledge. In the field of service trade in China, although the number of employed persons has increased rapidly in recent years, countermeasures and suggestions have been made, but the quality of practitioners is not high, especially the lack of extroverted senior talents needed by the emerging service trade and knowledge service industries. This makes our country in the knowledge intensive service field with large volume of service trade, insurance, consulting and know-how.

　　 Three, measures to develop China's service trade.

(1) give full play to the role of the government in promoting it.

In the development of service trade, the effective intervention of government behavior is very necessary. First of all, the government should promote the development of service trade from macro policy and speed up the market-oriented reform of service industry. China's service industry has long been highly monopolized by the state. Only by deepening the reform of the service industry system and speeding up the marketization of services can we fundamentally promote its rapid growth. The government should establish a diversified market competition entity and an effective and sound market system, eliminate monopoly as much as possible, and create a good market environment for the healthy development of the service industry in competition. Secondly, we should develop our service trade, and the government should shoulder important responsibilities. Taking the business consulate of China's embassy abroad and the local commercial department as the main body, the support network of China's service trade between domestic and overseas should be established. In addition, the foreign business participation office helps to establish links between government departments in charge of service trade, industry associations and enterprises in China, and timely collect international market information, so as to provide help for China's service trade enterprises. China's special and local commerce departments should take the initiative to establish contacts with overseas business and business offices to provide quality services for local service enterprises to develop international markets.

(two) establish and improve service trade. management system

The key to effective macro management of China's service trade is to establish a scientific management system. First of all, we should clarify the unified national service trade management department. We should establish a highly effective and coordinated core management system with the core of the Ministry of Commerce. The Ministry of commerce faces many industries and various fields. Its main management functions should be embodied in formulating laws and regulations on foreign trade, coordinating trade relations with other countries, and implementing relevant provisions of service trade agreements. Secondly, we should establish a management organization and coordination mechanism for trade in services. Since trade in services involves many departments in China, it is necessary to set up a national service trade management organization. The Ministry of commerce should set up specialized agencies to manage China's service trade, and mainly coordinate and manage the import and export policies of the whole country.

(three) expand the field of service trade and optimize the industrial structure.

China's industrial structure has always been facing an unbalanced development situation. In 2009, the proportion of China's first, second and third industries accounted for 10.6%, 46.8% and 42.6% of GDP respectively. To develop our service trade, we must adjust our industrial structure, vigorously develop the service industry and improve the proportion of the service industry in the three industries. China should guide the flow of capital and technology to the service industry through the development planning and supporting policies of the service industry. In particular, it is necessary to guide foreign capital with advanced technology and management experience into our service industry so as to accelerate the development of the modern service industry. We should develop high level technology human capital intensive service industry in stages and focus, optimize the internal structure of service industry, and make the development of service industry really based on improving labor productivity. In addition, the government should encourage the development of the service trade industry in small and medium-sized cities and western regions, and gradually open up the domestic service trade market, and adjust the policies that restrict the development of service trade, so as to reduce the restrictions on the development of China's service trade.

(four) sound Laws and regulations

The level of service development in our country is not high, and there is still lack of legislative experience in the field of service trade. Therefore, there are some obvious deficiencies in the legislation of existing trade in services. Combined with the shortcomings of our current service legislation, the legislation of trade in services in the future must further clarify the legislative principles, solve the contradiction between the form and operability of legislation, and speed up the speed and enforcement of legislation. As soon as possible, we will formulate laws and regulations for opening up the service industry that suit the national conditions and conform to international norms. We will stipulate the principles of market access, international trade in services, taxation, investment and preferential terms in the form of law, so as to make the international trade in services truly legalized, institutionalized and standardized, and strictly regulate and supervise the operation of the industry in accordance with the law, so that China's trade in services can be legally supported. In addition, on the basis of straightening out the relationship between the existing laws and regulations and the service industry, we should further formulate relevant supporting laws and regulations, such as administrative rules and regulations, so as to perfect our international service trade legal system and be operable.

(five) improve the competitiveness of service trade based on comparative advantages

Financial, insurance, consulting, computer information technology and other technology intensive and knowledge intensive services industries as the strategic focus of the development of modern service trade. New capital technology intensive services, such as computer services, communications, insurance, finance, cultural and creative, exclusive royalties, royalties, consulting and advertising, account for the proportion of total exports of China's service trade. These enterprises with new capital and technology intensive services should have the spirit of innovation. Through the analysis of the demand for services, we should strive to develop new markets and form competitive advantages in new markets.

(six) vigorously develop the service.

Due to the simultaneous occurrence of service production and consumption, the "people to man" and the service industry are difficult to standardize, the quality of service personnel is highly demanded. At present, although our country is abundant in human resources, there is a lack of talents who are proficient in international norms. Our country should attach great importance to the cultivation of professional talents, establish and improve service trade personnel information database and personnel service institutions, and increase investment in all kinds of vocational training to improve the professional quality of professionals. At the same time, we should strengthen the introduction of overseas talents through preferential policies, respecting talents and scientific incentive mechanisms, so as to increase the competitiveness of China's service trade in the world.

(seven) developing service brand in China

Service brand is the advantage of a country's service economy. The creation of service brand is an arduous and complex systematic project, which involves many aspects such as industrial structure, trade contacts, market environment, law construction, financial investment and so on. It is not enough to rely solely on the efforts of the enterprises themselves. We should take the brand of supporting trade in services as an important part of the brand strategy implemented by the Ministry of Commerce, and increase the support of funds. We should develop superior brands and create a group of service enterprises and enterprise groups with prominent core competitiveness, leading role and participation in international competition, such as Neusoft. We should comprehensively study and plan the existing service brands, identify a number of influential and potential brands, give priority to market development, transnational operation and information services, and gradually expand and strengthen the "Chinese service".