Digital trade is a major focus of the 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services (hereinafter referred to as the “Services Fair”). Experts interviewed by reporters from China Economic Times believe that the development of digital trade is a brand-new and promising field, containing both opportunities and challenges. It is hoped that through China’s pioneering experiments in digital trade, the creation of digital trade demonstration areas and industrial agglomeration, and the cultivation of talents, more Chinese models and Chinese experience will be accumulated, and the development of digital trade will be promoted together with other countries in the world, and promote the development of international trade. high-quality development.
China Economic Times: Why does the central government attach importance to the development of digital trade? How to understand the creation of a digital trade demonstration zone?
Li Jun: Digital trade, digital economy, and digital technology represent the direction of future industrial technology development. If you grasp digital trade, you will grasp the general trend of future development, and you will be in a more favorable position in international competition. Therefore, we must attach great importance to enhancing the competitiveness of the digital economy and digital trade, so as to improve my country’s position in the international division of labor. At present, the digital economy has become the main force driving China’s economy. According to statistics, the digital economy accounts for nearly 38% of total GDP, and digital trade accounts for nearly 45% of service trade. This year’s Service Trade Fair focuses on the digital economy and digital trade, which reflects the trend of future economic development, the foresight of policy formulation and the leadership of agenda setting.
The central government proposed to create a digital trade demonstration zone, which means that in the future, China will promote digital transformation and vigorously develop the digital economy and digital trade. At the same time, cooperation and opening up in the field of digital trade will be further accelerated, and various new reform and opening-up measures focusing on the digital economy and digital trade will be gradually introduced, which will undoubtedly bring huge development opportunities to countries and enterprises around the world.
Chen Jin: The “14th Five-Year Plan” has clearly put forward two key directions for my country’s digital development: industrial digitalization and digital industrialization. Digital trade is an important driving force for the growth of service trade. The central government’s emphasis on digital trade is mainly based on the fact that China’s economy has entered a stage of high-quality development, and trade in services must also focus on high-quality development. That is to say, it is necessary to improve the high-quality development of service trade through digital means.
Wei Hao: From the perspective of the development trend of world trade, the service industry will become an important driving factor for the economic recovery of countries around the world, and service trade will become a new engine for world trade growth in the post-epidemic era. Judging from the characteristics of digital trade itself, digital trade is an important part of the digital economy, and is becoming the core force and development direction to promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional trade and the growth of international trade. On the one hand, data flow will drive and accelerate the flow of technology and capital On the other hand, the new generation of information technology is widely used in the field of international trade, which will accelerate the improvement of trade efficiency, the optimization of trade processes, and the reduction of trade costs. , the birth of new industries. From the perspective of China’s own development, the digital economy will become a new kinetic energy and a new engine to effectively promote the high-quality development of my country’s economy, and it will be an important opportunity for my country’s economic overtaking. Economic and trade relations, and accelerate the construction of a new development pattern.
The central government proposes to support Beijing and other places to carry out the first trial of international high-level free trade agreement rules and build a digital trade demonstration zone. The development from a digital trade pilot zone to a demonstration zone indicates that Beijing will continue to vigorously develop service trade, especially digital trade. It provides a “Chinese solution” for the development of global digital trade and the formulation of global digital trade rules; the third is to firmly express the country’s determination to vigorously develop the digital economy, especially digital trade. It can be expected that the implementation of relevant policies in the later period will install an “accelerator” for the development of Beijing’s digital trade. Beijing will provide more replicable and promoteable experiences for the reform, innovation and expansion of the country’s digital trade. Digital trade will also become a leveraging force for Beijing. It is an important lever and new driving force for the development of the whole country.
Chen Hongna: The country attaches great importance to the development of digital trade, and there are three main considerations: First, to stimulate new growth drivers of international trade and achieve the goal of stabilizing foreign trade. Digital trade has greatly reduced the cost of international trade, enabling small, medium and micro enterprises to participate widely, finding niche markets, achieving economies of scale, and making full use of my country’s manufacturing advantages; The greatly enhanced trade, such as education and medical care, is of great significance for expanding the breadth and depth of international trade. During the epidemic, the development advantages of digital trade have become more prominent, and it has become an important starting point for my country to achieve the goal of stabilizing foreign trade.
The second is to achieve high-quality development and help the new development pattern of “dual circulation”. Digital trade is not only a change in the way of trade, but also has a profound impact on the way of production organization and the economic and industrial structure. For example, enterprises transform the professional knowledge accumulated in the production process into various types of digital services, from the provision of products to the provision of full life cycle management. Transformation, from providing equipment to providing system solutions. The improvement of foreign trade quality is itself an important part of the “dual circulation”.
The third is to seize the “new track” of economic development. Digital trade shows the characteristics of “network effect” and high concentration in many fields. The development of technology not only brings new growth opportunities, but also may fall into a vicious circle of “one step behind and one step behind”. Take advantage and quickly “break the circle”.
China Economic Times: How is my country’s digital trade going? What are the new features and trends of development?
Li Jun: I think that although China’s digital economy ranks among the top in the world in terms of scale, development efficiency, corporate entities, digital platforms, competitiveness, and digital technology innovation, the competitiveness of digital trade is insufficient. That is to say, the internal circulation of my country’s digital economy is relatively well done, and the development of digital industry and digital consumption is relatively sufficient. On the external side, international cooperation in the digital economy, whether it is “going out” or “bringing in”, is always It is insufficient, which leads to the insufficient development of my country’s digital trade. In other words, the development of digital trade and digital economy and the status of service trade are not matched.
From the perspective of the development environment, governments at all levels now attach great importance to the development of digital trade and are actively building an international cooperation platform to promote the digital economy. From the perspective of specific formats, technological innovation has promoted the development of digital trade in my country. For example, the application of new technologies such as blockchain, cloud computing, and big data has promoted the development of new formats of digital trade. Although the scale is small, the growth rate is relatively high. Fast, the future trend can be expected. In addition, the software and information service trade mainly based on service outsourcing has been growing rapidly.
Chen Jin: Judging from the development situation, the proportion of digitized service exports has exceeded 50%. Especially under the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the development of digital trade is still very strong, surpassing traditional service trade. It can be seen that my country’s digital trade has great development space in the future.
Wei Hao: Digital trade has become the new engine of my country’s economic growth and the main format of foreign trade. Specifically, the characteristics of my country’s digital trade development include: First, the scale of digital trade has increased rapidly. During the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, the scale of my country’s digital trade increased from US$200 billion in 2015 to US$294.76 billion in 2020, an increase of 47.4%, and its proportion in service trade increased from 30.6% to 44.5%. Second, the development momentum of cross-border e-commerce in digital trade is very rapid. The scale of cross-border e-commerce in my country has increased nearly 10 times in five years. In the first half of 2021, the growth rate of cross-border e-commerce reached 28.6% year-on-year, and cross-border e-commerce exports increased by 44.1% year-on-year. The third is the preliminary formation of the digital trade laws, regulations and policy system. Fourth, new forms of digital trade will continue to emerge. Fifth, the development potential of digital trade is huge.
Chen Hongna: Generally speaking, China is relatively competitive in the development of digital trade. It has grown rapidly in recent years, but there is a certain imbalance. This can be seen from the just-released “Digital Trade Development and Cooperation Report (2021)”.
First of all, cross-border e-commerce is thriving. my country is the world’s largest cross-border e-commerce retail export economy. Data released by China Customs shows that in 2020, my country’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports totaled 1.69 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31.1%. speed.
Second, digital service trade is developing rapidly but there is still a lot of room for it. In the past ten years, the scale of my country’s digital service trade has basically doubled, from US$164.84 billion in 2011 to US$294.76 billion in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.7%, and the growth rate ranks among the top among major countries. Digital service trade The proportion of service trade has increased from 36.7% to 44.5%, but there is still a certain gap with the global average of 62.8%.
Third, some areas of digital service trade have sprung up. Benefiting from the construction of China’s super-large information infrastructure network, accelerating the creation of a market-oriented, legalized, and international business environment, and continuing to expand the opening up of finance, telecommunications and other fields, from 2011 to 2020, my country’s intellectual property, financial services, ICT The average growth rate of the development of subdivided digital services such as services was 31.7%, 19.6% and 17.4% respectively, all of which were higher than the world average.
Finally, the scale and proportion of digital services provided by the business presence model is at the forefront of the world, but the structure is unbalanced. The service exports under my country’s commercial existence model are mainly leasing and business services, and the scale of digital services such as information communication and culture is relatively small. For example, in 2018, my country’s ICT service exports under the commercial presence model were US$54.56 billion, about 10% of that of the United States.
