French Pavilion at 2024 CIFTIS aims to explore more partners in China

France, the guest of honor at the 2024 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), is using its national pavilion as a platform for its companies to explore new cooperation opportunities in the Chinese market.

Focusing on the theme "Choose France," the pavilion's design highlights unique charm of the European country, showcasing French cultural characteristics and draws inspiration from iconic French landmarks, such as the Arc de Triomphe, successfully catching the eyes of visitors.

The pavilion will also hold a string of activities by centering on three themes including healthcare, sports and the attractiveness of France, in an effort to carry out exchanges with Chinese enterprises.

"France is a creative and innovative country. It has renowned expertise in the field of services. French companies are open to promoting in the Chinese market and cooperating with Chinese companies. It's a very important opportunity for us to showcase France and the expertise of French companies. France had the honor to host athletes and visitors from around the world this summer, and especially a significant Chinese delegation which performed very successfully during these games. This is yet another key area of collaboration between our two nations," said Pascal Gondrand, Commercial Counsellor at the Embassy of France in Beijing.

Another scaled-down version of Paris' landmark building in the national pavilion is the Pont de Bir-Hakeim, with French companies putting up booths in the arch of the bridge to showcase their advanced products in the fields of sports, living arts, business event planning and financial services, according to Gondrand.

"It's to connect with people, obviously to connect for potential opportunity of business, also to know better what are the new innovation on the service industry. If they open up more, it's always better for us, so that's good," said Inès Ginon, president of GL events Greater China, a provider of integrated solutions and services for events operating.

France is China's third largest trading partner and third largest source of actual investment in the European Union, and China is France's largest trading partner in Asia and seventh largest in the world.

Over the 60 years since the two countries established diplomatic relations, their economic and trade relations have continued to heat up, and France attaches great importance to cooperating with China in cultural and tourism industry and looks forward to promoting more two-way exchanges and improving the well-being of the people in both countries, Gondrand noted.

Themed "Global Services, Shared Prosperity," the 2024 CIFTIS opened in Beijing on Thursday and will run through Monday.

This year, 10 companies including L'Oreal and Schneider Electronics, are participating in the French Pavilion to showcase their high-quality cooperation with China in event management and operation, cultural and tourism services, green economy, medical and health services, insurance and legal services.

French Pavilion at 2024 CIFTIS aims to explore more partners in China

China's total import and export volume of trade in sports services reached 52.89 billion yuan (about 7.45 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, said the State General Administration of Sport on Wednesday.

At a press conference in Beijing, Zhou Jinqiang, deputy director of the State General Administration of Sport, briefed on the achievements scored by China since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012.

China's sports sector has achieved high-quality development, with a widespread trend of fitness among the public, remarkable achievements in competitive sports, vibrant youth sports activities, and rapid growth in the sports industry, Zhou said, adding these advancements have contributed to building China into a leading sports nation.

"Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the total scale and added value of China's sports industry have significantly increased, with growth rates surpassing those of GDP during the same period. The proportion of the sports industry in the country's GDP has also continued to rise steadily," said Zhou.

"From 2012 to 2022, the annual average growth rate of the added value of the sports industry reached 15.4 percent, with its share of the domestic GDP increasing from 0.60 percent to 1.08 percent. In 2023, China's total import and export volume of trade in sports services stood at 52.89 billion yuan, marking a 178 percent increase compared to the previous year. At present, China has essentially forged a sports industry system that is led by competitive performances and fitness leisure, with the joint development of sports venue services, sports training, sports manufacturing, and sports media," said Zhou.

China's total trade in sports services reaches 52.89 bln yuan in 2023: official