By Lu Hui

BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- With COVID-19 yet to be brought under full control at the global level and world economy deep in difficulties , the staging of the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) reflects China’s rock-solid determination to further open up its market, strengthen cooperation and give a shot in the arm to global economic recovery.

As the first major international economic and trade event held by China since the COVID-19 outbreak, the CIFTIS has attracted 18,000 enterprises and institutions from 148 countries and regions.

It provides both online and offline platforms for exhibitions, forums and business negotiations in different services trade sectors.

In recent years, boosted by a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, digital technologies have risen and accelerated the deep integration of various industries, enabling the services economy to thrive.

The industry and trade in services have become new engines of the world economy.

About 60 percent of the world economy’s total output comes from the service industry. Services exports, which account for 20 percent of global exports, contribute nearly half of the added value of global foreign trade.

The services economy, supported by new infrastructure and represented by online services, is becoming the most dynamic part of economic growth.

Emerging sectors in services trade featuring digitalization and Internet Plus technologies are among highlights at CIFTIS.

They range from service robots, smart interactive online classroom, to intelligent sports, 5G telecommunications, offering a glimpse of the future wave in global industrial advancement.

During the global fight against COVID-19, the digital services including telemedicine, online education and cross-border e-commerce have expanded tremendously. Cooperation in this area will be an increasingly important driver for future development.

Following this trend, it is important for countries to seize growth opportunities to give economy a fresh boost while weathering the COVID-19 impact.

To tap the huge potential in the growth of services trade, CIFTIS is a platform for exchanges and cooperation.

It acts as an important gateway for high-quality international services to enter the Chinese market, meeting the Chinese people’s demand for better lives and at the same time benefiting providers.

It also echoes China’s new development pattern of "dual circulation" -- taking the domestic market as the mainstay while allowing domestic and foreign markets to boost each other.

With a super-large market of 1.4 billion people, foreign investors are sure not to?miss opportunities?here as part of China's new development stage, enabling growth while?contributing?to the?stable development of China's economy.

In this age of globalization, countries share economic interdependency and intertwined interests like never before.

China has deeply integrated itself into globalization. China's rapid development over the decades has benefited from international interactions and cooperation and has in turn provided others with important opportunities.

Hosting the CIFTIS exemplifies China's determination to unswervingly promote its opening-up policy, and to uphold economic globalization and international cooperation.

China has been deepening reform and opening up in the services sector for years by improving its mechanism and raising its innovation level.

China will develop open platforms for the pilot program of innovative development of the services sector, further ease market access for the services sector, and take greater initiative to increase imports of quality services, said Chinese President Xi Jinping while addressing the Global Trade in Services Summit.

This promise of higher-level opening up will definitely generate more opportunities, boost faster economic recovery and create larger space for global growth.