Digital trade development key to growth

China's latest push to promote the reform and innovative development of digital trade is expected to foster new growth drivers for foreign trade, inject fresh impetus into high-quality economic development and strengthen its position as a strong trading nation, experts said.

Highlighting that booming digital trade has become a transformative force that is reshaping the global economy, they added that a set of goals to expand digital trade also indicates the country's firm determination to advance high-standard opening-up and create a more favorable business environment for all enterprises in the sector.

Their comments came following a guideline jointly released by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council on Thursday.

The country expects the digitally delivered services trade's share in overall services trade to exceed 45 percent by 2029 and 50 percent by 2035, according to the guideline.

The guideline stated that by 2035, an orderly, secure and efficient digital trade governance system will be established on all fronts, with comprehensive improvement seen in institutional opening-up.

Efforts will be made to ease market access and encourage foreign investment in the digital sector, expand the opening-up of telecommunications, internet and culture-related sectors in an orderly manner, as well as bolster and regulate cross-border data flows, it added.

To improve the digital trade governance system, China will actively participate in the formulation of international rules for digital trade, and help create an open, fair, just and nondiscriminatory environment for digital development, said the guideline. The country will also deepen international cooperation in digital trade and strengthen security governance in the digital sector.

Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy, said the guideline has set the direction for the development of China's digital trade, and it will not only bolster the optimization of the nation's trade structure, but also help cultivate new competitive edges and growth momentum for the country's foreign trade amid external uncertainties.

"The opening-up of digital trade complies with the vigorous development trend of the digital economy worldwide, while the move to ease market access in the digital sector will attract more foreign enterprises to invest in the Chinese market and introduce advanced management experience and technologies, thus boosting technological innovation and industrial upgrading, as well as enhancing the competitiveness of China's digital trade on the global stage," Zhu said.

China has attached great importance to the development of digital trade, which is regarded as one of the three pillars supporting the development of a strong trading nation, alongside trade in goods and services, industry insiders said.

The country has made remarkable progress in this sector in recent years. The Ministry of Commerce said China's imports and exports of digitally delivered services trade rose 3.7 percent year-on-year to 1.42 trillion yuan ($196.3 billion) in the first six months, hitting a record high.

Moreover, the country's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.88 trillion yuan in the first three quarters, an increase of 11.5 percent year-on-year, according to the General Administration of Customs.

"Digital trade has become a new driving force for international trade," said Pan Helin, a member of the Expert Committee for Information and Communication Economy, which is under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, adding that the launch of the guideline will be conducive to accelerating the building of a "Digital China" and making contributions to global economic recovery.

Pan said China has played a pivotal role in promoting global digital trade, speeding up the construction of digital infrastructure, and bolstering digital transformation and the development of cross-border e-commerce.

It is of vital significance to actively take part in the formulation of multilateral, bilateral and regional rules concerning digital trade and propel the establishment of international cooperation mechanisms in the digital field, which will further strengthen China's voice in the global digital economy governance system, he added.