China's service trade volume has maintained steady growth in the first half of this year, and the country will make continuous efforts to advance its high-quality development, a senior official said on Wednesday.
At a press conference in Beijing, Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping briefed the media on the country's achievements in service trade in the first half of this year and the preparations for the 2025 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), which is slated to be held from September 10 to 14 in Beijing.
"In the first half of this year, the total service import and export volume reached 3.9 trillion yuan (about 545.23 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of eight percent, setting a historical high for the same period," he said.
He said that services export amounted to 1.7 trillion yuan (about 237 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 15 percent. The share of service exports in total foreign trade exports reached 11.5 percent, an increase of 0.7 percentage points compared to the same period last year.
Major sectors, such as travel, have achieved rapid growth during the period, he noted.
"The World Tourism Organization's 'World Tourism Barometer: May 2025' shows that in the first quarter of 2025, the total number of international tourists worldwide exceeded 300 million, a growth of five percent, and the number of international tourists increased by three percent compared to the same period in 2019. In the first half of the year, China's import and export volume of travel services surpassed one trillion yuan (about 139.8 billion U.S. dollars), with a growth rate of 12.3 percent, and it is expected to maintain rapid growth for the entire year. Additionally, it is anticipated that the growth rate of import and export of knowledge-intensive services in the second half of the year will remain at the same level as in the first half," Sheng said.
China to advance high-quality development of service trade, building on sector's growth: official
