As the 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) gets underway in Beijing, Seychelles Finance Minister Pierre Laporte has hailed China's rapid development in services trade as a vital engine of shared global growth, noting that the sector's expansion into areas such as artificial intelligence, financial technology and digital innovation is creating tangible opportunities for smaller economies like his own.
The fair opened Wednesday and runs through Sunday, drawing participants from 90 countries, regions and international organizations, with more than 1,800 companies exhibiting on-site.
In a recent interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Laporte said China's efforts to expand its services sector were also creating opportunities for other countries.
"China's effort to lead the way in growth in services, I think, is the right thing for the country, but also the right thing for the rest of the world, especially countries like Seychelles. We see that China's trade in services reached over a trillion dollars, so it's important to have a big country like China to be among the leaders," he said.
This year's CIFTIS has put innovation front and center, highlighting the latest breakthroughs and practical applications in areas including artificial intelligence (AI).
The event's core exhibition area is debuting a showcase of more than 140 innovation cases across all 12 categories of services trade, including AI, large language models and intelligent agents, offering a glimpse into the future direction of China's services sector.
"It's provided us much more efficient way of combining our own knowledge and also from what we can learn outside. And also, for example, countries like Seychelles, we face particular challenges from climatic vulnerabilities. We have a big ocean that provides us resources like fisheries, aquaculture. So, for us, it's an opportunity to better use these tools like AI to better forecast not just weather but also opportunities for what these resources can bring for us," Laporte said.
Another highlight of this year's CIFTIS is a new overseas expansion services roadshow area, which offers Chinese companies one-stop professional support to enter foreign markets and expand the global footprint of Chinese services.
Laporte said China's leadership in services trade is creating tangible opportunities for shared growth worldwide.
"First, China has been increasingly an exporter of soft services and I think as a country has recognized the need to also innovate. It’s allowed China to really go out and be a leader in exporting different kinds of services, from financial to technology to AI, IT, etc. So this allows the country to have grown its services but also provides us, the rest of the world, an opportunity to benefit from new innovation that China itself has brought about," the minister said.
Seychelles finance minister hails China's services trade growth at ongoing CIFTIS
