China has opportunities for service industry upgrading

BEIJING - Director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Pascal Lamy said Monday in Beijing that China has huge opportunities to upgrade its service industry.

Lamy made the remarks at the forum "WTO and China: Beijing International Forum", part of the China Beijing International Fair for Trade in Services (Beijing Fair) that opened Monday.

China is a country with boundless ability for growth and innovation, and it boasts great opportunities for its service industry upgrading, said Lamy.

The boundary between the manufacture and service industries is become increasingly vague, as manufacturers, especially in developed countries, combine more services with their products, according to Lamy.

Nearly 60 percent of American enterprises had combined manufacture and services, and the trend is starting to appear in China, the WTO chief said.

Five year ago, less than 1 percent of China's manufacturers claimed to provide services, but 20 percent of them now claim to do so, he noted.

China is now at the critical phase amid economic globalization, a great opportunity to develop its own service industry and transfer services and products from high quantity to high value, he said.

Lamy also pointed out that China faces severe challenges in uneven development at the same time.

Hosted by the Ministry of Commerce and the Beijing municipal government, the five-day Beijing Fair, akin to China's major commodities fair, the Canton Fair, has attracted more than 22,000 service providers from 82 countries and regions to foster trade in the sector.