Guizhou drafts fresh plans for services sector development

New plans are for Southwest China's Guizhou province to extend its supply-side structural reform and innovation of systems and institutional mechanisms – making the services industry a booster to overall economic growth.

That's according to the Guizhou Provincial Development and Reform Commission, which recently issued a development blueprint for the modern services industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period.

From 2021 to 2025, Guizhou will accelerate the development of designated service industries – such as tourism, big data and health care – to achieve upgrades to producer services, as well as improvements to consumer services. As a result, a high-quality, high-efficiency and open modern services system is expected to be created.

By 2025, Guizhou's added value in the services industry is projected to reach 1.31 trillion yuan ($201.91 billion) with an average annual growth rate of 7.5 percent. Fixed-asset investment is predicted to grow by an average of 10 percent annually.

It's estimated Guizhou will have 900,000 services enterprises with 7 million employees, contributing 142 billion yuan in annual taxes from 2021 to 2025.

During the same period, Guizhou's R&D investment in the services industry is seen growing 12 percent annually, while the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people will grow by 15 percent annually.

Guizhou also plans to improve the production efficiency of the services industry. Labor productivity is projected to improve 25 percent from 2021 to 2025, while the proportion of external logistics fees to GDP will be decreased and below the national average, and the proportion of the service industry's added value to GDP will be gain 2-3 percentage points.

Under the plan, from 2021 to 2025, Guizhou will improve the quality and efficiency of modern services industry clusters, enhance infrastructure construction and cultivate more business operations in the services industry.

The blueprint also sets out that the province during the period will continue to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, expand its regional cooperation, build high-end and open platforms, enhance its international service trade cooperation and optimize the investment environment for the services sector.