Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, recently issued an exposure draft on developing service trade, as well as upgrading and transforming service outsourcing.

The draft was published by the Guangzhou municipal commerce bureau on its official website. It stated that the city's import and export volume of service trade and outsourcing is expected to reach $80 billion by 2025, ranking among the top in the country. Service trade will play a more important role in increasing the opening-up level of service industries and making more use of foreign funds. The city will also strengthen cooperation with Hong Kong, Macao, Europe, North America, Japan, South Korea, and other countries and regions along the Belt and Road in terms of service trade.

To strengthen the cooperation of service trade in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the draft noted that Guangzhou should deepen cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao in the fields of digital trade, finance, industrial design, cultural innovation, exhibitions, and professional services, as well as drive the interactive development of trade, finance, tourism, transportation, science and technology, culture, and education in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Pan-Pearl River Delta region.

The draft encouraged enterprises to improve technology and service exports to the countries and regions along the Belt and Road. It also advocated for enterprises engaging in construction, power, energy, and transportation to undertake the services of infrastructure construction and international transportation in these countries.

To promote high quality development, Guangzhou will make more efforts to develop the digital economy and sharing economy, as well as encourage the application of big data, blockchain, 5G, the mobile internet, and service of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System in the fields of information consumption, financial services, smar manufacturing and design, biotechnology, as well as supply chain management.

The city will set up a pilot area for green finance reform and innovation. It will encourage financial institutions from Hong Kong and Macao to set up joint-venture securities, funds, futures, and insurance companies in the area. It will also support qualified foreign investors to set up life insurance firms and engage in the insurance agency business, as well as the insurance valuation business.

The draft also discusses building the "Guangzhou Public Service Platform of Service Trade" based on the city's service trade and outsourcing demonstration area to provide one-stop information service on service trade.