The General Office of the Guangdong Provincial People's Government has issued the "Three-Year Action Plan for High-Quality Development of Service Trade in Guangdong Province (2026-2028)". The plan, approved by the provincial government, is now distributed to all prefecture-level and higher municipal governments and provincial departments for implementation. Any issues encountered during execution should be reported directly to the Provincial Department of Commerce.
Guided by national decisions and the provincial Party committee's "1310" specific arrangements, the plan aims to innovate and develop service trade and digital trade, elevate the development level of high-end service trade, and promote high-quality development through high-standard openness, striving to build Guangdong into a national and global hub for service trade.
By 2028, the province targets a further expansion of its overall service trade scale, with total import and export volume exceeding $310 billion, achieving an average annual growth rate of over 10%. The proportion of knowledge-intensive service exports is expected to rise to 52% of the province's total service exports, significantly enhancing export competitiveness and elevating the international influence of the "Guangdong Service" brand.
The plan outlines five major action areas:
I. Consolidating and Upgrading Advantageous Service Sectors This includes actions to enhance the international competitiveness of inbound tourism by leveraging Lingnan cultural IPs like Cantonese opera and lion dance, developing coastal tourism products, and promoting multi-destination itineraries within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It also focuses on strengthening international logistics services by supporting Guangzhou and Shenzhen in building international shipping hubs, encouraging logistics enterprises to establish overseas distribution centers, and developing new international air and rail-sea intermodal routes. Furthermore, it aims to consolidate advantages in telecommunications, computer, and information service exports by developing digital industries and innovation platforms, and to promote the high-end development of software outsourcing by building competitive industrial clusters and encouraging technology exports.
II. Improving Quality and Growth in Emerging Service Sectors This section focuses on building core strengths for cultural exports, supporting the development of original IPs in gaming and film, and establishing service centers for game industry globalization. It promotes the branded development of creative design, supporting industries like home appliances and apparel in establishing global collaborative R&D environments and cultivating leading design enterprises. The plan also aims to expand education service trade through international cooperation in higher education and vocational training within the Greater Bay Area, and to grow medical and health service trade by supporting international medical services, developing "internet + international healthcare," and promoting integrated development of traditional Chinese medicine services with tourism.
III. Enhancing Professional Service Fields This involves promoting innovation in foreign-related legal services by attracting international law firms and supporting the construction of an international commercial arbitration center in the Greater Bay Area. It seeks to expand intellectual property service trade by building national export bases and encouraging overseas IP布局. The plan aims to improve cross-border financial services by developing financial hubs in Guangzhou and Qianhai, facilitating corporate fund management, and encouraging financial product innovation for service trade enterprises. It also supports expanding construction engineering service exports, encouraging enterprises to explore markets in regions like ASEAN and Africa, and supports the development of other professional services like testing, certification, accounting, and bonded maintenance.
IV. Upgrading and Optimizing Platforms and Market Entities This includes creating service trade innovation demonstration platforms in cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen, strengthening the development of various export bases and hubs for service and digital trade, and expanding the functions of international exhibition services through initiatives like the "Service Trade Global" plan and hosting major events like the Greater Bay Area Service Trade Conference. The plan also implements a gradient cultivation strategy to nurture leading enterprises, platform companies, and SMEs in service trade, and to attract and cultivate leading digital trade enterprises.
V. Safeguard Measures These measures emphasize strengthening organizational coordination, with the Provincial Department of Commerce taking a leading role. They also focus on reinforcing policy support, including utilizing national funds, encouraging banking efficiency for frequent service trade transactions, expanding export credit insurance coverage, and implementing relevant tax policies. Furthermore, the plan calls for improving the statistical monitoring system for service trade through enhanced data sharing and analysis.
The plan assigns specific responsibilities to various provincial departments and municipal governments for the implementation of each action item.