Nine Ministries Issue Measures to Boost Service Exports and Inject New Growth Momentum

The Ministry of Commerce, together with the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Finance and seven other departments, has released the “Policy Measures for Promoting Service Exports,” which sets out 13 targeted actions to provide comprehensive policy support for the expansion of service trade. The measures seek to accelerate service‑trade development as part of high‑level opening‑up and to cultivate fresh drivers for foreign‑trade growth.

The package emphasizes fuller use of existing central and local funding channels to support service exports, stronger leveraging of the Service Trade Innovation Development Guidance Fund, streamlined zero‑tax‑rate declaration procedures for exported services, enhanced export credit insurance support, improved bonded supervision mechanisms, and clearer rules to promote and regulate cross‑border data flows. The measures also call for the preparation of a catalog of important data and the issuance of practicable guidance for identifying such data, alongside optimization and dynamic updating of negative lists for data transfers from free trade pilot zones.

Experts interviewed by Shanghai Securities News view the measures as both broad and operational. Liaoning University senior researcher Chen Bo said that facilitation measures historically applied to goods trade—such as export tax rebates, export recognition processes and related financial loan supports—are now being extended to service providers, which should materially boost their competitiveness. Renmin University professor Wang Xiaosong observed that the measures address a wide spectrum of service‑trade categories, including digital services, R&D and design, supply‑chain management and geospatial information, and that the package reflects systematic thinking about the sector’s evolving landscape.

Digital trade, a core element of service exports, is explicitly addressed. The document encourages the promotion and regulation of cross‑border data flows, the establishment of an important‑data catalog, and the development of operational identification guidelines. It also supports exploring a nationwide negative list for data outbound from free trade pilot zones and recommends enabling qualified regions to develop international data services and related infrastructure, including international data centers and cloud computing hubs to serve enterprise demand.

Ministry of Commerce Research Institute researcher Bai Ming said the measures will expand development space for related industries and inject new momentum into service exports. Bai noted that China has historically adopted a cautious stance toward cross‑border data flows with a primary focus on data‑security risk mitigation, and that the new measures create scope for improving the convenience and efficiency of data mobility as governance capabilities strengthen.

The measures also single out pilot areas for accelerated implementation. Qualified zones such as the Lingang New Area of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone and the Hainan Free Trade Port are expressly supported to pilot international data‑service operations. Hainan authorities have already taken steps to facilitate orderly, compliant data flows and to define international data‑center business models that enable cross‑border services in areas including gaming, film processing, commercial aerospace, BeiDou applications, cross‑border e‑commerce and livestreaming. Hainan’s deputy director for development and reform indicated plans to leverage core Free Trade Port policies to advance comprehensive data‑element pilot zones and to foster leading cross‑border application scenarios in fields such as seed technology, deep‑sea exploration and commercial aerospace.

Looking ahead, Wang Xiaosong argued that although China’s service‑trade development has lagged goods trade, the country has accumulated competitive strengths in the digital economy, artificial intelligence and cloud computing that provide scope for accelerated advancement. He expects future service exports to be defined by technological empowerment and deep integration between digital and real economies, with emerging technologies embedded across service‑trade value chains and mutual reinforcement between services and goods trade