The development of the service sector in North China's Shanxi province has taken off in recent years – with its added value soaring from 589.1 billion yuan ($91.17 billion) in 2015 to 903 billion yuan in 2020.

What's more, the sector's added value has accounted for more than 50 percent of regional GDP for some years. 

In the process, the proportion of traditional service industries – such as transportation, wholesale, retail, accommodation and catering – to the sector's total added value has dropped from 33.9 percent in 2015 to 28.7 percent in 2020. In the meantime, modern service industries such as cloud computing, big data, and e-commerce have sped up their growth.

New business and industries such as online shopping, online medical care and the sharing economy have emerged rapidly. 

In 2020, employees engaged in the service industries accounted for half of total employment in Shanxi, greatly supporting local socioeconomic development. 

Under development goals announced by the Shanxi provincial authority in June, the total scale of the province's service sector will continue to grow by 2025. Producer services will accelerate their development and key industries – such as cultural tourism, modern logistics, scientific and technological services, as well as information services – will take the lead.

To help meet the goals, R&D expenditure will increase 20 percent annually on average. A group of innovative enterprises is expected to be incubated in the service sector and will aim to assume leading positions among the top 500 Chinese service industry groups.

Some 50 provincial-level service industry clusters will be built in the province to establish a new system for the modern service industry – boasting high quality, high efficiency, an optimized structure and strong competitiveness.

To achieve these goals, Shanxi has proposed 75 specific tasks. It has implemented six major projects – including the incubation of business entities, the expansion of industrial clusters, the digitalization and integrated development of the service sector, as well as the improvement of platforms and incubators.