It was learned from the City's Service Sector and the Tourism Working Conference that Qingdao will accelerate the development of service sector and the added value of the sector will account for 44% of the city's GDP by the 10th Five-Year-Plan period.

　　Vice secretary of the Mu nicipal Party Committee Cui Xizhu and Vice Mayor Zang Aimin, Zhangrei attended the conference.

　　Qingdao is a city endowed with rich tourism resources and superior conditions for developing service sector. The city's service sector has maintained a rapid growth of 13% annually. It realized an added value of 60.7 billion Yuan, accounting for 40% of the city's GDP, number of the employees accounted for 33.4% of that of the city's total. Between January and September, the city's service sector realized an added value of 49 billion Yuan. There were 206 foreign invested projects utilizing a foreign capital of 181 million Yuan. The service industry is one of the keys for the city's economic development. But compared to developed countries and cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the city's service sector still has a long way to go. First, the scale of the sector is small, second the traditional commercial and trade services like wholesale, retail and catering sector are dominating while the modern services industry like information, consultation and financing have lagged behind. Thirdly, the opening up of the sector isn't enough.

　　Cui Xizhu stated that the healthy and rapid growth of the service industry was the basic guarantee for the acceleration of economic development and structural adjustment. According to the time -table of China's entry into the World Trade Organization, 2004 will be the year China further opens its service sector. This will bring new chances as well as challenges to the city's service sector. He called for the officials with the city's governmental departments to open their minds and save no efforts to promote the city's construction of a regional commerce and trace center, a financial center and an information center. During the 10th 5-Year-Plan period, the added value of the city's service sector will account for 44% of the total GDP. And the employees will account for 35%. (top86)