The 2019 China Beijing International Fair for Trade in Services will be held in Beijing from May 28 to June 1 2019.

The Networking Event of Embassies and Business Institutions for the 2019 CIFTIS was held in Beijing on January 23. Yan Ligang, director-general of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce, attended the promotion activity and introduced the arrangements for the 2019 CIFTIS.

Themed on “openness, innovation, wisdom and integration”, the 2019 CIFTIS will hold more than 170 forums and trade negotiations in 100,000 square meters, twice the exhibition space of last year.

This year’s CIFTIS will host over 130 business negotiations, including 30 theme-day and thematic activities and more than 100 industry promotion negotiations, and invite participation by around 30,000 representatives from domestic and overseas service trade enterprises and professional organizations.

As to the venue of the 2019 CIFTIS, the National Convention Center will still serve as the main site, while several subsidiary venues will be launched for the first time, among them the Tongzhou subsidiary administrative center, the China International Exhibition Center and the financial street in Xicheng district.

The 2019 CIFTIS will organize exhibitions, relevant industry forums and business negotiations on more than 20 topics, such as business, science and technology, culture, sports, finance, traditional Chinese medicine, intangible cultural heritages, and time-honored brands, and will display the latest technology and achievements in the service industry and service trade, as well as discuss and release the latest policies and trends of the industry.

Co-sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and the Beijing municipal government, CIFTIS was first held in Beijing in 2012 to further open up service sectors and accelerate the transformation of economic development models. It is the world's first State-level, international and comprehensive fair for trade in services and the only comprehensive service trade fair for the sector that covers all 12 major areas.

The previous five sessions of CIFTIS covered a total area of 275,900 square meters for exhibition and negotiation and held 669 activities. They attracted more than 8,500 enterprises and 646,000 customers from 179 countries and regions, as well as 12 overseas politicians, and realized turnover of $424.27 billion.

The fair also attracted three major international economic organizations, 79 foreign countries and regions active in holding exhibitions and conferences, and nearly 200 international organizations, associations and groups.

China’s service trade had a sound development momentum in 2018. The total service trade volume amounted to $719.11 billion in the first 11 months, surpassing the annual volume of 2017. Development in the key sectors of service outsourcing, technology trade and cultural trade was accelerated.