The annual Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing recently, which arranged next year's economic work. The conference proposed that high-standard opening-up should be expanded.  Specifically, there are three main takeaways.

First, expanding trade in intermediate products was proposed for the first time. As China continues to improve technology and advance industrial transformation and upgrading, some final products can also be processed in Europe and America, bringing a global division of labor adjustment and then further expanding foreign trade and attracting foreign investment. Therefore, expanding trade in intermediate products will help increase export potential.

Second, expanding service trade, digital trade and cross-border e-commerce exports was proposed. In recent years, China's cross-border e-commerce exports have developed by leaps and bounds, seeing an increase of 17 times in the past five years. According to official data, the proportion of cross-border e-commerce exports in China's foreign trade in goods rose from 1% in 2015 to 5% in 2022.

Third, relaxing market access in telecommunications, medical and other service industries was proposed. Efforts should be made to benchmark against international high-standard economic and trade rules, earnestly solve problems such as cross-border data flow, and continuously build a market-oriented, law-based, and international first-class business environment.