The Chinese government will take measures to boost the development of its service industry to create more jobs, and to expand the opening-up of the sector, said Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan.

    China's service industry has seen continuous expansion with the rapid growing economy since the nation's implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, Zeng said while addressing the opening ceremony of the first China Service Industries Convention and Exposition Wednesday.

    He said added-value of service industry grew 10 percent annually in the past 25 years, accounting for 33.1 percent of the gross domestic product in 2003 compared with the 23.7 percent in 1978. About 170 million workers entered the industry since 1978, making employment of the industry accounting for 29.3 percent of the total labor force in 2003.

    Zeng said China has many advantages to boost the development of service industry, including that the strategic adjustment of the economic structure would further lift the status of the service industry in the national economy, improvement in people's living standard would provide multi-level market demand, perfection of market system would offer new areas for the service industry, and utilization of both domestic and overseas markets and resources would create greater development space for the service industry.

    The Chinese government will improve the quality of the service industry by taking different measures according to the respective features of each trade, he said.

    Traditional service industries like trade and catering, which are labor-intensive and closely related to the people's life, should make use of advanced technology and modern operational methods on the basis of adequate competition to lift their quality.

    New knowledge-intensive service industries like accounting, lawservice and consultation service should be regulated and develop orderly.

    For service industries concerning the people's life and the nation's economic security like finance, insurance and telecommunication, the standard of market admittance should be lowered and effective supervision should be enforced.

    Zeng stressed that boosting the opening-up of the service industry has been China's long-term policy, and China will actively participate into the bilateral and multi-lateral cooperation in service, trade and international investment.

    China will also introduce in experience from overseas and perfect laws and regulations in accordance with the rules of the World Trade Organization, so as to create a sound environment for foreign companies to come and cooperate with Chinese ones. Enditem