The service industry is an important support for high-quality economic development, playing a significant role in promoting the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, enhancing economic growth momentum, and improving the quality and efficiency of economic development. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made specific deployments to improve the system and mechanism for the development of the service industry, pointing out the direction for China's service industry reform and development in the new era. With the in-depth development of globalization and profound changes in the economic pattern, to achieve sustainable and healthy development of the service industry, it is essential to continuously improve its system and mechanism, and provide strong support for high-quality economic development through measures such as improving the system and mechanism, optimizing the policy environment, and strengthening innovation-driven development.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the scale of China's service industry has continued to expand, the scope has been continuously expanded, and the business forms have become increasingly rich. It not only better meets the growing material and cultural needs of people but also plays an irreplaceable role in improving people's livelihood, absorbing employment, promoting industrial upgrading, and stimulating economic growth. In particular, in recent years, the status of the service industry in the national economy and its driving effect on economic growth have been continuously increasing. From 2012, when the value added of the service industry exceeded the secondary industry to become the largest industry, to 2015, when the proportion of the value added of the service industry in GDP exceeded 50%, and then to 2023, it further rose to 54.6%. In the first half of 2024, the proportion of the value added of the service industry in the gross domestic product was 56.7%. The service industry not only accounts for more than half of the national economy in scale but also shows a good and positive development trend in terms of total volume, quality, and structure. However, compared with the average level of 70% in high-income countries, China's service industry still has a large room for improvement.
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A series of policies have also been successively issued. The "Outline for Innovation and Development of the Service Industry (2017-2025)", "Guiding Opinions on High-Quality Development of the Service Industry in the New Era", "Opinions on Accelerating the High-Quality Development of Manufacturing Services", and "Opinions of the State Council on Promoting High-Quality Development of Service Consumption" fully demonstrate China's high attention to the development of the service industry. By continuously increasing policy support, improving the policy system for the development of the service industry, and accelerating the improvement of the service industry system and mechanism, a new system of the service industry with higher quality, efficiency, reasonable structure, and strong competitiveness can be constructed to provide a solid support for high-quality economic development.
At the same time, the development of China's service industry also faces some challenges. In terms of the overall structure of the service industry, the proportion of traditional service industry is relatively large at present, and the development of modern service industry, especially high-tech service industry and knowledge-intensive service industry, is relatively insufficient. In terms of the market environment, the market access threshold in the service industry field is relatively high, competition is not sufficient, and the efficiency of resource allocation and service quality need to be improved. In terms of innovation ability, the innovation-driven development model has not been fully formed, and the mechanism of innovation resource allocation and innovation achievement transformation is not perfect. In terms of regional balanced development, there is a large gap in the scale and quality of the service industry between urban and rural areas, and between the eastern and western regions at this stage, and the resource allocation and industrial layout are unbalanced. In response to this, multiple measures should be taken in the future.
Promote the optimization and upgrading of the service industry structure and enhance the overall competitiveness of the service industry. Encourage the transformation and upgrading of traditional service industry through policy guidance and support, and at the same time, vigorously cultivate modern service industry, such as finance, technology, and information transmission, to improve the overall competitiveness and innovation ability of the service industry. Further release market demand and improve the marketization and industrialization level of the service industry. Relax market access for the service industry, optimize the access environment for business entities, and clean up unreasonable access restrictions. Encourage all types of business entities to participate in market competition on an equal basis, promote the service industry to further expand opening up, and deeply participate in international division of labor and cooperation. Introduce competition mechanisms and promote mixed-ownership reform.
Stimulate the innovation vitality of the service industry and innovate the service industry supervision system. Accelerate the construction of service industry standardization and quality supervision. Actively cultivate new industries, new business forms, and new models of the service industry, and promote the rapid development of new business forms such as smart logistics, service outsourcing, remote medical treatment, and remote education. Promote the deep integration of the service industry with related industries, expand new space for the development of the service industry, and achieve coordinated development of industries. With the rapid development of the service industry and the continuous emergence of new business forms and models, it is necessary to change the supervision concept, shift from focusing on pre-approval to strengthening supervision during and after the event, and establish and improve a new supervision mechanism based on credit. Strengthen the monitoring and analysis of the service industry market, give full play to the role of social organizations such as industry associations and chambers of commerce, strengthen industry self-discipline, and standardize market order.
Narrow the regional development gap of the service industry and build an inclusive and shared development mechanism for the service industry. Strengthen the connection between urban and rural services, improve the development level of rural services, narrow the "gap" in the development of urban and rural services, and allow the development achievements of the service industry to benefit all people. Strengthen the regional coordinated development strategy, optimize resource allocation, promote the development of the service industry in the central and western regions, and achieve balanced development of regional services.
Build a high-end talent training system to improve the level of opening up to the outside world and international competitiveness. Take the initiative to benchmark international standards and promote the docking of domestic and international service standards. Strengthen the training and introduction of talent in the service industry. Establish and improve the talent training system of the service industry, and cultivate a group of service industry talents with innovative spirit, professional skills, and international vision. Strengthen cooperation with colleges and scientific research institutions to carry out the integration of industry, education, and research talent training model.