China's Service Trade Development and Policy Implications for Korea: Focused on Major Industrial and Regional Analysis

Abstract

The Chinese government is pushing for the opening of the country's service sector and fostering the producer service industry through its 13th Five-Year Plan. Aiming to realize these goals, China emphasizes a highly open market and external cooperation, and focuses on the development of the service industry and the expansion of the service trade as it did in the past by opening policies. China's service trade volume was estimated to reach $657.1 billion in 2016 and exceed $1 trillion in 2020. Among Korean exports to the mass market, the share of service exports is growing from 9.7% (2011) to 14.5% (2016), and China has emerged as Korea's largest service market and largest service trade surplus country since 2013. The fact that China's service trade and Korea's exports of services to China are both expanding rapidly points toward an opportunity to increase the role of Korea's services trade with China in the future. This study seeks to explore new export engines that can boost trade in the services sector. To this end, the study examines ways to boost services trade with China based on an analysis of industries and regions with good prospects.