
BEIJING, June 2 -- China's foreign service trade amounted to 257.02 billion U.S. dollars during the first four months of the year, up 16.8 percent year on year, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.
Service trade accounted for 18.9 percent of the country's total imports and exports during the January-April period. The proportion was 3.5 percentage points higher than 2015, according to a statement on the ministry's website.
Distinct from merchandise trade, trade in services refers to the sale and delivery of intangible products such as transportation, tourism, telecommunications, construction, advertising, computing and accounting.
China is aiming to adjust the structure of its foreign service trade so that it it based on more sophisticated exports, and the data suggested it is succeeding in doing so. Exports of telecommunications, computing and information services grew at a rapid rate of 19.1 percent to 8.84 billion U.S. dollars during the first four months.
The European Union, the United States and Japan were among China's major trading partners in terms of service trade.
China's foreign service trade volume grew from 362.4 billion U.S.dollars in 2011 to 713 billion U.S. dollars in 2015, doubling the average international growth speed, earlier data showed.
The country has set the target of lifting its service trade volume to over 1 trillion U.S. dollars by 2020.
French girl ties the knot with Chinese boy
Beijing Style: ready for bare legs
Century-old station sees railyway evolution
Enthusiasts perform Kung Fu at Wudang Mountain
Stunning photos of China's fighter jets in drill
Monk's mummified body to be made into a gold Buddha statue
Former Chinese solider of the French Foreign Legion seeks wife online
Asia's longest and highest suspension bridge to open to traffic
China's first interactive robot looks like a beauty
Top 20 hottest women in the world in 2014
Top 10 hardest languages to learn
10 Chinese female stars with most beautiful faces
China’s Top 10 Unique Bridges, Highways and Roads
Donation through sex
Netizens reject student-teacher affairs ban
Lujiazui sex tape says it all about Shanghai
West should be more realistic about own racial issueDay|Week