China’s MOFCOM Unveils Measures to Boost High-Quality Development of Service Industry

On April 16, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) held a regular press conference, where He Yadong, Spokesperson of MOFCOM, detailed key measures to promote the high-quality development of the service industry and attract more multinational corporations to place their R&D links in China, according to the Chinese government website.

He Yadong emphasized that service consumption is closely linked to both the economy and people’s livelihood. To expand and upgrade service consumption, MOFCOM will integrate people’s well-being with consumption promotion, combine investment in materials with investment in people, and adhere to the principle of "opening up to the outside world and liberalizing the domestic market". It will further advance pilot projects for new consumption formats, models and scenarios, and promote the high-quality, diversified and convenient development of life service industries such as housekeeping, accommodation and catering.

In terms of advancing the opening-up and cooperation of the service industry, MOFCOM will steadily expand pilot opening-up in fields including value-added telecommunications, biotechnology and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, and improve the management system of the negative list for cross-border service trade. Meanwhile, it will coordinate the layout and construction of platforms such as National Service Trade Innovation and Development Demonstration Zones to foster new drivers for service exports and enhance the international competitiveness of "China Services", reported China News Service.

As an important part of the service industry, wholesale and retail sectors will also see innovative upgrading. He Yadong noted that MOFCOM will guide the rational layout of spot markets for bulk commodities, enrich the business formats of industrial consumer goods markets, and cultivate key agricultural product wholesale markets. It will implement a retail innovation and upgrading project, create new consumption scenarios on a "one store, one policy" basis, and stimulate consumption vitality in the sinking market.

Focusing on foreign capital, He Yadong stated that foreign-invested R&D centers are an important part of China’s innovation system. "Many multinational corporations are upgrading their ‘manufacturing bases’ in China to ‘innovation hubs’, and foreign-invested R&D centers in China are transforming from localized adaptation to global innovation fulcrums," he said.

Data from MOFCOM shows that in 2025, the actual use of foreign capital in China’s scientific research and technological services sector accounted for nearly one-fifth of the country’s total actual use of foreign capital, with its proportion rising steadily for seven consecutive years and reaching 3.8 times that of 2018. A total of 14,000 new foreign-invested enterprises were established in this sector in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 27.2%. In recent years, a number of multinational R&D centers, including Roche Diagnostics, AstraZeneca, Philips, Porsche and Schneider Electric, have settled in China.

To support foreign-invested R&D centers, MOFCOM has continuously strengthened policy support. He Yadong cited examples: the new version of the Catalog of Encouraged Foreign Investment Industries, which took effect on February 1 this year, has added more encouraging items in fields such as new drug R&D and digital creative technology R&D. In February, the Ministry of Finance, MOFCOM and other departments jointly issued a notice to continue exempting foreign-invested R&D centers from import tariffs, value-added tax and consumption tax on imported scientific research supplies, according to Xinhua News Agency.

He Yadong added that MOFCOM will work with relevant departments to attract more multinational corporations to place their R&D links in China, enabling them to give full play to their advantages and capabilities in China’s green, digital and intelligent transformation, and share development opportunities brought by China’s improved industrial system, high-quality talent pool and rich application scenarios.