BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) opened Wednesday in Beijing, as China steps up efforts to expand opening-up in services trade at the outset of the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).
Running through Sept. 13 at Shougang Park, a former industrial site and venue for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the fair has drawn participants from 90 countries, regions and international organizations, with over 1,800 companies exhibiting on-site. Among them are 473 Fortune Global 500 firms and other industry leaders, including Honeywell, Johnson & Johnson and Siemens.
Themed "Global Services, Shared Prosperity," this year's CIFTIS features a Global Trade in Services Summit, co-hosted by China's Ministry of Commerce and the Beijing municipal government, together with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). A series of forums and business matchmaking activities will also be held during the fair.
During the summit, Zimbabwean Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said the CIFTIS is expected to create many investment opportunities across conferencing, exhibition, infrastructure, and digital services, adding that it will help Zimbabwe identify opportunities for trade in services, build export capacity, and attract credible partners across technology, finance, tourism, education and health care.
Alexander Poulev, deputy prime minister and minister of Economy, Investment and Industry of Bulgaria, said at the summit that trade in services is an important pillar of the China-Bulgarian relationship. "We want to see more Bulgarian products reaching the Chinese market and more Bulgarian companies building long-term partnerships with Chinese businesses," he said.
More than 100 new products and services will make their debut at the fair, covering fields such as information and communications, fintech, and digital and intelligent healthcare.
Another highlight is a new overseas expansion services roadshow area, which offers Chinese companies one-stop professional support to enter foreign markets and expand the global footprint of Chinese services.
"Going global today is no longer just about competitive pricing, but also about adapting to different rules, managing compliance and navigating risks," said Li Yao from KPMG China, adding that the new service area comes at an opportune time.
The core exhibition area also debuts a showcase of more than 140 innovation cases spanning all 12 categories of services trade, including artificial intelligence, large language models, and intelligent agents, offering a glimpse of where China's services sector is headed.
Advancing trade in services and promoting opening up and cooperation in the services sector is not only China's choice but also a global necessity, Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang said in a keynote speech at the summit. He noted China's efforts in actively promoting trade in services and opening up its services sector wider, which are creating more opportunities for countries and businesses around the world.
The fair itself offered a glimpse of that openness in action. Norway, this year's guest country of honor, presented a pavilion featuring a wide range of exhibits, including health and nutrition, green transition, and design and lifestyle.
Henning Kristoffersen, commercial counselor of the Norwegian Embassy in Beijing, said the opportunity allows Norway to show a much broader picture of its commercial relationship with China. "What we want to do at CIFTIS is to broaden it further into services, technology, culture and knowledge-based cooperation," he said. China is Norway's largest trading partner in Asia, with around 160 Norwegian companies operating in China, he added.
Klaus Hoseth, CEO of Hoseth Technology, a Norwegian fish-processing technology firm, is attending CIFTIS for the first time and looking to cooperate with Chinese robotics and AI companies. "We hope to improve automation and efficiency in our production line, and leverage Chinese open-source AI technologies to make factory systems smarter," he said. He also noted the strong potential for cooperation between China's vast market and Norway's marine food industry.
The interest shown by international participants comes as China's services trade continues to grow.
China has posted rapid growth in services trade, with strong exports of knowledge-intensive services supported by the country's IP and innovation ecosystem, said WIPO Director General Daren Tang in his video address to the summit.
Latest official data showed that in the first seven months of 2026, China's services trade totaled nearly 4.45 trillion yuan (about 656.6 billion U.S. dollars), up 8.3 percent year on year.
A report released at CIFTIS on Wednesday also highlighted the growing strength of China's services brands. China ranks second globally with 21 brands in the world's 100 most valuable trade in services brands, with a combined worth of 876.8 billion U.S. dollars, according to the report titled "Trade in Services 100 2026" released by Brand Finance, a leading brand valuation consultancy.
Advancing high-quality development of services trade is a key task in the outline of China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), which calls for intensified efforts to optimize negative list management of services trade, ease cross-border restrictions, encourage services exports, and foster knowledge-intensive services trade.
