(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-08 08:45

The fast growth of service trade is needed to promote the development of service sectors and thus facilitate the transformation of China's growth pattern.

The new guideline for the development of service trade during the period of the 11th Five-Year Plan issued by the Ministry of Commerce, the first of its kind, will give a huge boost to China's service trade.

According to the guideline, China's service trade is expected to reach US$400 billion in 2010, up more than 20 percent annually since 2006.

China's trade surplus in recent years demonstrates its rapid rise as a global trade power, especially in labor-intensive manufacturing sectors. But in service trade, it remains a relatively small player.

Statistics show that China's service exports in 2005 accounted for only 8.9 percent of its total exports and 3.1 percent of the world's total service exports.

The underdevelopment of service trade is closely related to the sluggish growth of the domestic service sector.

Given its role in facilitating domestic consumption and increasing employment, the service sector should certainly be strongly boosted to serve as a major driving force for the national economy.

And faster expansion of the service sector will also help reduce the country's dependence on energy-consuming and resource-intensive industrial production for growth.

But in spite of its obvious importance in these respects, the service sector development still falls behind that of the national economy.

Although the growth of the service sector has accelerated considerably this year, its proportion in the national economy for the first three quarters has declined 3.3 and 0.5 percentage points respectively compared with the first quarter and the first half.

Clearly, the country needs to further open the service sector and adopt more measures to boost the proportion of service exports in its total exports and in the world's total service exports.

The new five-year guideline provides a much-needed comprehensive solution to boost the country's service trade.

It is believed that a thriving service trade will propel development of the domestic service sector. The latter is crucial to both improving people's living standards and optimizing the country's industrial structure.