BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The 2019 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) opened on May 28 in Beijing, continuing to promote high-quality development of China's economy and high-level cooperation in international service trade.

The CIFTIS, which was before named China (Beijing) International Fair for Trade in Services, has a new name this year, and meanwhile combines several other well-known exhibitions.

The opening ceremony of the 2019 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) on May 28

The CIFTIS was established to facilitate exchanges in financial services, communication services, cultural services, legal services, etc. with its trading negotiation platform and industry forums.

Since 2012, the CIFTIS has attracted a total of 646,000 merchants from 179 countries and regions around the world, including all top 20 countries and regions in international service trade.

From this year on, the CIFTIS has changed from a two-year event to an annual one, with about 8,000 Chinese and foreign institutions, more than 36,000 business representatives, and over 300 experts and scholars participating in it.

The import and export volume of China's service trade has ranked second in the world for five consecutive years, accounting for an increasing proportion of international trade, and with improved quality and structure and more knowledge-intensive service products, said Jin Xu, president of the Beijing-based China Association of International Trade. With its broad platform, the CIFTIS is expected to open a new door for China's service trade, enabling more products and talents to enter the huge market, commented Jin.

In conjunction with the growth of the CIFTIS, in recent years, Beijing has continued to open up its service trade industry. In 2015, the State Council officially approved Beijing to be the only comprehensive pilot city for the expansion and opening-up of the service trade industry in China, bringing new opportunities for domestic and foreign-funded enterprises involved in this field.

Internationally renowned rating agencies such as Moody's, S&P and Fitch have set legal entities in Beijing. UBS Securities Co. Limited (“UBSS”), China's first foreign-invested fully-licensed securities firm, and Japanese record company Avex Group, etc., also settled in the city.

In 2018, the added value of Beijing's service trade accounted for 81.0 percent of the city's GDP, an increase of 3.1 percentage points from 2014. Since Beijing has become the service trade pilot city, 640,200 new enterprises have been established here, of which 95.2 percent are service enterprises. (Edited by Li Wenxin, liwenxin@xinhua.org)