North China's Shanxi province recently formulated a plan to promote the open and innovative development of trade in services. 

The plan includes measures covering six areas, involving traditional service industries, specialized professional services, digital trade, emerging forms of trade in services, clusters of trade in services, and a support system. 

Shanxi will rely on the Belt and Road Initiative to develop traditional advantageous service sectors such as inbound tourism, international transportation, overseas engineering contracting, and international cultural trade.

Support will also be given to the development of knowledge-intensive trade in services such as telecommunications, R&D, design, and certification, as well as to the development of high-value-added service industries such as traditional Chinese medicine, human resources, language services, geospatial information, law, accounting, and consulting. 

Efforts will be made to promote the digital transformation of service outsourcing and develop production service outsourcing in areas such as R&D, design, testing, and maintenance, as well as promote the digital transformation of manufacturing through the use of emerging technologies such as 5G and the internet of things. 

Meanwhile, the advantages of comprehensive bonded zones will be leveraged to promote the development of bonded trade in services. The construction of an airport bonded logistics hub will also be promoted to create more international logistics distribution centers in the province. 

Shanxi will accelerate the incubation and recognition of provincial-level service export bases and service outsourcing pilot cities in the cultural and digital sectors, human resources, language services, and more.

Policies and measures will be enacted and implemented to promote the growth of cultural trade and service outsourcing, with increased financial support and enhanced regulatory capabilities to solidify the support system for trade in services.