CHINA’S services sector is moving further into the center of the country’s high-quality development agenda at the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) period.
Local governments roll out detailed road maps aimed at expanding capacity, improving quality and strengthening the sector’s role in supporting industrial upgrading, domestic demand and employment.
The momentum has been reflected in recent plans issued or released for public comment by Shanghai, Guizhou, Guangdong, Chongqing and other provincial-level regions, whose priorities vary according to their industrial foundations and regional roles.
The Shanghai Municipal Government on Monday announced the city’s services sector development plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period, saying that by 2030, the sector’s added value should reach about 6 trillion yuan ($830 billion), with steady improvements in digitalization, standardization, integration and internationalization.
Under the plan, Shanghai aims to build a high-quality and efficient services system led by stronger urban core functions, with high-end producer services as the mainstay and high-quality consumer services as the support.
The plan also said that Shanghai will make the sector a stronger “resilient foundation” for economic growth and a more influential “dynamic hub” for the global allocation of services resources.
The local rollout follows a broader national policy push. The 15th Five-Year Plan outline calls for comprehensively enhancing the quality, efficiency and competitiveness of the services sector, while better leveraging its role in supporting industrial upgrading, meeting people’s needs and driving employment expansion.
Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, said that Shanghai’s services sector plan shows that high-quality development of the sector has become an important part of implementing the country’s broader strategic agenda, as services hold vast potential in supporting industrial upgrading, expanding domestic demand and improving people’s quality of life.
“The sector’s development today is no longer only about quantitative growth in the traditional sense. It now puts greater emphasis on digitalization, integration and green development, which point to the upgrading direction of modern services,” Cong told the Global Times on Monday.
Local governments have increasingly recognized the service sector’s vast potential, Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times.
Other regions are advancing services sector policies based on their own advantages. Guangdong province on May 20 announced a three-year action plan for the high-quality development of trade in services from 2026 to 2028, pledging to innovate in services and digital trade, raise the development level of high-end services trade and build itself into a national and global hub for trade in services.
The plan sets a target for Guangdong’s total services trade to exceed $310 billion by 2028, with an average annual growth rate of more than 10 percent. It highlights areas including inbound tourism, international logistics, telecommunications, computer and information services, as well as the high-end upgrading of software outsourcing services.
Guizhou province has also issued an action plan to expand capacity and improve the quality of its services sector, targeting added value of 1.45 trillion yuan by the end of 2027 and 1.7 trillion yuan by the end of 2030, with average annual growth of about 5 percent during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
The plan focuses on areas including technology services, modern logistics, software and information services, finance, health care, eldercare, culture, tourism and sports, while calling for digital transformation, stronger branding, deeper industrial integration and steady opening up.
Cong said that the differing priorities in local plans reflect the policy of “developing in light of local conditions” alongside nationwide coordinated progress.
“Regions build on their comparative advantages and steer clear of homogeneous competition, which will help foster a pattern featuring division of labor, coordination and complementary strengths.”
