Welcome to the news conference on the Third China Trade in Services Congress. I would like, on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce - the sponsor of the Third China Trade in Services Congress, to extend warm welcome, to friends from the media at home and abroad and friends to be present at the Congress!

In recent year, global trade in services has been developing fast, becoming a new drive for world economic growth. According to the statistics by WTO, in the past 5 years, global import and export of services increased from US$4.9 trillion to US$7.2 trillion, with annual growth rate of 8.0%, 0.5 percentage points higher than that of trade in goods; the role of import and export of services in global trade reinforced, and its percentage of global total trade in goods and services increased from 18.6% to 19.0%. With the recovery of world economy, after the historical biggest decrease in 2009, the international trade in goods and services began to recover in 2010, with the import and export of goods increased by 21.3％ and import and export of services increased by 8.6% annually. Trade in services has become a new drive to strengthen international cooperation, improve people’s livelihood and boost economic growth. And the development of trade in services has become an important signal of national economic strength and international competitiveness.

Against the background of economic globalization, trade in services is of great significance to Chinese and world economy. To develop trade in services is conducive to exploring new economic growth fields, conducive to seeking new economic growth modes, and conducive to improving the coordination development of trade. Currently, China is the second largest nation of trade in goods, and ranks fourth in trade in services. However, trade in services only accounts for 10.9% of the total trade volume, which is only half of the international average level. Vigorously developing trade in services and boosting the coordination development of trade in goods and trade in services is an important subject of China’s foreign trade during the 12th Five-Year Plan period. It is expected that, by year of 2015, import and export of services will reach US$600 billion, with annual growth rate exceeding 10%.

China’s import and export of goods in 2010 reached US$2.97 trillion, increased by 15.9% year on year. China’s accumulated used foreign capital reached US$426 billion, ranking first among developing countries for 19 successive years. Investment and cooperation overseas has been developing by leaps and bounds, with accumulated direct investment overseas of US$220 billion. Though China’s trade in services started late, the developing potential is huge. China’s total import and export of services in 2010 reached US$362.4 billion, double of that in the end of the tenth Five-Year Plan. China’s world ranking of trade in services went up to the fourth in 2010 from the twelfth in 2000. However, we should notice that, compared with other trade in services powers, the percentage of China’s trade in services in China’s total foreign trade is not high, and the structure of trade in services needs further improvement.