China's trade in knowledge-intensive services enjo

China's trade in knowledge-intensive services has enjoyed vibrant growth despite this year's COVID-19 epidemic, with exports of high-quality services helping many enterprises integrate into the global value chains.

China's trade in knowledge-intensive services reached 1.15 trillion yuan (168.44 billion U.S. dollars) from January to July, up 8.9 percent year on year and accounting for 44 percent of the total service trade in the January-July period. The ratio was up 9.7 percentage points from the same period last year, the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.

Of the total, the export of knowledge-intensive services reached 610.3 billion yuan, up 9.7 percent year on year and accounting for 56.2 percent of the total service export. The ratio was up 5.7 percentage points from the same period last year.

Located in Beijing's technology hub Zhongguancun, iSoftStone is a leading China-based innovative software and IT service provider. The company not only participated in the design of a digital health application of Britain's biggest insurer Prudential plc, but also provides technical support for the latter's digital services in China.

"In the digital field, China is leading the world in application. So, many overseas companies have realized China's digital technology capability and choose to cooperate with their Chinese partners. We see many new opportunities," said Peng Qiang, chief digital officer of iSoftStone.

Glodon Company is providing professional applications and services based on a digital building platform. It aims at the technology demands of overseas construction companies and has already served many customers in Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Sweden and other countries.

"When technologies like cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and building information model (BIM) integrate together, the effect is very eye-catching. In recent years, the construction industry has shown willingness to adopt digital and latest technologies. So we want to seize the opportunity. Once we compete with others in digital, management and software on the global stage, we must have them tested on overseas markets where the requirements are most stringent," said Yuan Zhenggang, CEO of the company.

Digitalized trade has become a new engine for global trade growth and there is a large space for Chinese companies to explore in the export of knowledge-intensive services.

"I think there is a large room for us to improve the export of knowledge-intensive and digital services. China tops others in the world when it comes to the number of college students and scientific researchers. In addition, we have abundant innovation resources and a gigantic market base. We still need to raise the value-added level of the entire service trade value chain in the future," said Wang Xiaohong, deputy director of the information department of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.