China will launch the national and free trade zone versions of negative lists for cross-border service trade within the year to further open up the service trade sector at an institutional level, said the director of Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau, Yan Ligang.

China will also accelerate the process of building a comprehensive demonstration area and a pilot open platform for opening up service trade, said Yan at the closing ceremony of China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTS) Wednesday in Beijing.

The country will continue to open up the service market and service trade to the world, speed up the innovation for service trade system, and promote the formation of an international and domestic double economic circulation system.

Read more: Beijing to expand opening-up in service industry

China will strive to create a sound and open environment for service trade, actively expanding cooperation with key trading partners, especially with Belt and Road countries. China will join countries around the world to improve the international order for service trade, actively build a relaxed and orderly development and cooperation environment. 

Highlights from CIFTS:

- A total of 5,926 domestic and international companies participated CIFTS through offline and online platforms. The companies that had exhibits at the CIFTS showcased how they used technologies such as 5G, big data and artificial intelligence to push industrial upgrading. 

- In the physical comprehensive exhibition area, 42.3 percent of the 227 exhibiting companies are international players, they represented the new top-notch technologies and services in their respective fields. 

- The official app of CIFTS attracted over 8 million visits worldwide, and a total of 5,372 companies build an online exhibition on the platform, 2,037 of them are in 3D. The participants launched 550,000 online business negotiations, and 26.4 percent of those online meetings are with overseas companies.