Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, services trade is of great significance as it can pose a new breakthrough in the development of global trade, South Korean Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki said Friday, Xinhua reports.
Hong, also the country's minister of economy and finance, said at the opening ceremony of the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) via video that as the first fair held in Beijing both online and offline since the COVID-19 outbreak, the CIFTIS is a "symbolic event" which shows that China is overcoming the pandemic successfully.
"As the COVID-19 crisis, which no one had expected, broke out, global trade and the exchange of people weakened across the globe, causing a big challenge to the world economy," said the deputy prime minister.
However, during the past global crises, services trade contracted less than goods trade, he noted, adding that "services trade even showed a solid momentum."
To prevent the global economic downturn caused by the pandemic and boost trade in services as a new growth engine, Hong said that "South Korea and China are required to alleviate excessive regulations and policy barriers that restrict services trade."
"Trade barriers and regulations inflated the cost for services trade compared to goods trade," he added.
The deputy prime minister also said that the two countries should expand their bilateral exchanges and innovative services development.
"The CIFTIS can provide a great opportunity to expand the exchange of innovative services technology," said Hong.
He noted that there is a great potential in expanding services trade between South Korea and China, so that the quantity and quality of the two countries' bilateral services trade could be further upgraded.
