Trade deals struck at the second China Beijing International Fair for Trade in Services totaled $1.74 billion in the first two days, the Beijing News reported Thursday, citing an official.
Most of the deals were inked between Chinese enterprises and foreign firms, according to Lü Jijian, a spokesperson for the fair and a deputy director-general of the Ministry of Commerce.
The five-day fair runs from Tuesday through Saturday and had attracted a total of 65,282 visitors as of 12 pm Thursday, according to the latest available data.
The fair indicates the growing importance of the services industry, the contribution of which to GDP will be raised to 47 percent by 2015, according to a target set by China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), as part of the economy's shift away from traditional manufacturing.
In 2012, the services industry accounted for 44.6 percent of overall GDP, according to official data.
Speaking Wednesday at a summit during the fair, Premier Li Keqiang called for more efforts to develop the services industry to make it a new growth engine for the economy.
"Increasing service supplies and improving service qualities will help unleash huge potential in domestic demand, and thus offer firm support for stable economic growth and structural optimization," Li was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency.
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