Xiamen in East China's Fujian province receives approval last August from the State Council to expand the innovative development of its service trade. [Photo/xmnn.cn]

The coastal city of Xiamen in East China's Fujian province rolled out 32 specific measures to boost trade in services, local news reported on Jan 9.

In contrast to the trading in merchandise – commodities and goods – services refers to the sale and delivery of intangible products such as transportation, tourism, telecommunications, construction, advertising, computing, and accounting.

According to these measures, the city will strengthen efforts to promote the development of its service trade, with the proportion of foreign trade expected to expand to more than 14 percent.

In addition, more pilot programs will be carried out for the creative promotion of the city's trade in services and more replicable and promotable institutional achievements will be made in an effort to develop Xiamen into a hub for the development of trade in services.

Local authorities have said that Xiamen boasts unique strengths as one of oldest special economic zones in the country. Due to the country's preferential policies, the city has become a hub for a large number of foreign enterprises, contributing to the rapid development of the city's services trade.

In the future, Xiamen plans to leverage the combined strengths of the pilot free trade zone, the comprehensive experimental zone, and the core zone of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and continue exploring new ways to accelerate the development of its trade in services in a bid to foster new growth drivers.