Digital Dividends

When this year’s first international trade fair in China opened in Beijing on September 4, eight months after the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) hit the country, President Xi Jinping’s video message at the inauguration outlined what this digitalization-oriented event wanted to present: global services and shared prosperity.

Xi emphasized that China will continue to ease market access in the service sector and expand import of quality services. He also highlighted the development of the digital and sharing economies.

Postponed for three months, the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) has grown from the humbler Beijing Fair that debuted in 2012 to one of the three expos meant to boost China’s opening up, besides the China Import and Export Fair in Guangdong in the south and the China International Import Expo in Shanghai.

Held at a time when COVID-19 was still