Opinions of the State Council on Promoting the Expansion and Quality Improvement of the Service Sector

National Development Document No. 7 of 2026

To the People’s Governments of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government; to all ministries and commissions of the State Council, and to all agencies directly affiliated with the State Council:

To enhance the capacity and quality of the service sector, promote its high‑quality, efficient development, and better leverage its role in supporting industrial upgrading, meeting the needs of the people, and expanding employment, the following recommendations are hereby put forward.

I. General Requirements

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we will thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the successive plenary sessions of the 20th Central Committee, earnestly carry out the arrangements set forth at the Fourth Plenary Session, and fully, accurately, and comprehensively apply the new development philosophy. We will uphold the synergy between an efficient market and a capable government, pursue both capacity expansion and quality improvement, and coordinate development with regulation. Emphasizing demand-driven approaches, tough reforms, technology‑enabled innovation, and open cooperation, we will balance the enhancement of new growth drivers with the revitalization of existing assets, vigorously advance initiatives to expand capacity and elevate the quality of the service sector, remove institutional and systemic barriers that constrain its development, promote the extension of producer services toward specialization and the high end of the value chain, and foster the high‑quality, diversified, and convenient development of consumer services, thereby providing strong support for accelerating the building of a modern industrial system.

By 2030, significant progress will have been made in the high-quality development of the service sector, with the sector’s total size surpassing RMB 100 trillion. A development pattern characterized by higher quality, a more optimized structure, superior standards, and greater dynamism will be essentially in place. More “China Service” brands will be cultivated, and the sector’s global competitiveness and influence will be markedly enhanced, while the sense of gain among the people will continue to grow.

II. Strengthening Weak Links in the Productive Services Sector Across the Entire Value Chain

(1) Strengthen the supporting role of science and technology services

Research and development, as well as design. Foster leading industrial design enterprises and enhance their professionalism and internationalization. Strengthen the service capabilities of the national network management platform for major scientific research infrastructure and large-scale research instruments, and refine the evaluation and assessment mechanisms for the open sharing of research facilities and equipment. Elevate the quality of end-to-end services in engineering surveying, design, supervision, and other related processes.

Intellectual property. Develop services such as intellectual property strategy consulting and patent navigation, and identify high‑value patents. Support the establishment of patent pools for key industries, systematically enhance the quality of intellectual property services, and strengthen capabilities in managing cross‑border intellectual property risks and providing legal assistance. Strengthen capacity building for international copyright operations.

Technology transfer and commercialization. Strengthen policy support for the high-quality development of incubators, and strategically establish incubators to serve emerging and future industries. Develop a pilot‑scale service network for manufacturing, progressively nurture pilot platforms in the manufacturing sector, and build national AI application pilot bases to high standards. Enhance the network of technology‑transaction service platforms, and foster top‑tier institutions for technology transfer and dissemination. Establish regional technology transfer and commercialization centers at universities to facilitate the aggregation of innovation‑related resources.

Inspection, testing, and certification. Aligning with world-class standards, we will enhance inspection and testing service capabilities and promote international mutual recognition of test results. We will advance the development of industrial product quality control and technical evaluation laboratories, quality inspection and testing centers, and industrial metrology and testing centers. We will strengthen our capacity for assessing and evaluating infrastructure conditions and agricultural product quality. Furthermore, we will intensify research and development of high-end metrological instruments and advanced inspection and testing equipment and facilities.

(II) Enhancing the Comprehensive Competitiveness of Modern Logistics

Freight transportation: Enhance the multimodal transport system and promote the implementation of “single‑document” and “single‑container” solutions. Vigorously develop rail‑water intermodal transport, and accelerate the shift of bulk and medium‑ to long‑distance freight from road to rail and from road to water. Speed up the transformation of railway freight operations into railway logistics, and refine industry regulations on railway dispatching, settlement, and track‑connection. Improve the operational scheduling mechanisms for oil and gas pipeline networks, and expedite nationwide interconnectivity. Strongly expand international maritime and air transport services. Accelerate the development of integrated logistics providers, and strengthen resource allocation and supply‑demand coordination.

Warehousing: Promote the renovation, upgrading, and modernization of aging logistics and warehousing facilities; explore ways to repurpose idle assets and railway freight yards; and advance the development of distributed warehousing infrastructure. Strengthen capabilities for cold storage and fresh‑keeping at agricultural production sites, as well as post‑harvest pre‑cooling, sorting, and packaging services. Coordinate the planning and deployment of public‑use, circulation‑oriented, and multi‑functional cold storage facilities, and undertake the renovation and upgrading of outdated cold storage units.

Wholesale. Guide the rational spatial planning of bulk commodity spot markets and promote the coordinated development of futures and spot markets. Diversify business models in the industrial consumer goods market and explore integrated services such as centralized procurement, warehousing, and distribution. Strengthen the systematic layout and policy support for agricultural product wholesale markets, and drive the renovation and upgrading of farmers’ markets.

(3) Accelerate innovation and development in the software and information services sectors.

Software. We will deepen the implementation of the “AI Plus” initiative, accelerate the research, development, and deployment of intelligent programming tools, and support the procurement of large-scale models and AI agent services. We will expedite breakthroughs in industrial software innovation and establish demonstration centers for industrial software compatibility, adaptation, and application across key sectors. We will strengthen the foundational software ecosystem and foster open-source communities. Additionally, we will optimize the smart audiovisual systems ecosystem.

Information transmission. We will deepen the large-scale deployment of fifth-generation mobile communications (5G) and promote the development of 5G‑A networks, while intensifying research and development on sixth-generation mobile communications (6G) technologies. We will also advance the construction of mobile IoT infrastructure with appropriate forward planning and develop satellite‑based internet applications and services.

Data and information technology. Deeply implement the Industrial Internet Innovation and Development Project. Advance the Industrial Data Foundation‑Building Initiative, foster data‑collaboration consortia, and develop a number of high‑quality industry‑specific datasets. Develop specialized services such as data annotation and certification, and explore the establishment of a classification‑and‑grading framework for data ownership confirmation, valuation, and pricing. Steadily promote the deployment of computing power and the construction of edge computing infrastructure, and refine the intelligent computing cloud service ecosystem. Accelerate the adoption of urban information modeling platforms and building information modeling technologies.

(4) Enhance the professional service capabilities of supply chain finance.

Banking, securities, and insurance. Guide financial institutions to provide collateral‑based financing—using inventories, orders, warehouse receipts, and other assets—while ensuring compliance with laws and regulations and maintaining controllable risk levels. Establish a full‑life‑cycle financing system that invests early, in small enterprises, over the long term, and in hard‑tech sectors. Leverage the role of the National Venture Capital Guidance Fund, and refine and promote the “Innovation Credit Score” system as well as evaluation frameworks for the specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative development of SMEs. Roll out new financial service tools such as supply‑chain bills. Expand coverage of product liability insurance, introduce pilot‑scale testing service insurance, and effectively implement the first‑of‑its‑kind (set) insurance compensation policy. Launch initiatives to harness digital RMB. Explore mutual recognition of cross‑border supply‑chain finance standards.

Financial leasing. Leasing companies are encouraged to adopt a diversified range of service models, including direct leasing, sale-and-leaseback, and joint leasing, to offer tailored solutions that reduce lessees’ operating costs. Strengthen monitoring and assessment of lessees’ creditworthiness and repayment capacity, and establish a sound valuation framework for leased assets. Leverage the role of government-backed financing guarantee institutions and put in place a risk-sharing mechanism for supply-chain finance.

(5) Actively develop energy-saving and environmental protection services.

Energy conservation and carbon reduction. Promote energy‑efficiency diagnostics in key industries, advance the energy‑cost‑management service model for public institutions, and carry out energy‑saving and carbon‑reduction upgrades in public institutions and large public buildings. Conduct collateralized financing for carbon emission rights, pollutant discharge rights, water‑use rights, and other such instruments in a lawful and prudent manner. Encourage financial institutions to participate in carbon‑market trading, explore the development of carbon‑insurance products, and promote innovative financial instruments such as carbon‑neutral bonds.

Environmental governance. Develop green, high-yield, and efficient agricultural technical services, as well as services for the treatment and utilization of agricultural waste. Accelerate the development of environmental protection services such as marine ecological restoration and pollution control. Expand services including water‑saving assessments, environmental monitoring, and pollution insurance.

Recycling and reuse. Promote the principles of green consumption and resource conservation, encourage the replacement of existing products with higher‑efficiency models, and, in accordance with laws and regulations, phase out products that meet mandatory scrapping standards or fail to comply with safety and technical specifications. Optimize the network of recycling collection points, improve the “trade‑in + recycling” logistics system, and coordinate the development of sorting centers for recyclable resources. Support key industries in expanding remanufacturing services. Establish a certification system for recycled materials and advance international cooperation on mutual recognition. Deepen research into carbon‑footprint accounting standards and methodologies for priority recyclable materials.

(6) Strengthen and enhance business services.

Law and consulting. Actively develop foreign-related legal services and foster a group of world-class arbitration institutions and law firms. Vigorously expand professional services such as business consulting, asset valuation, accounting and auditing, taxation, and advertising, while strengthening capabilities in quality management consulting and supply chain management. Strengthen the development of industry think tanks and build world‑class consulting brands.

Human resource management. A catalog of talent needs in high‑end, specialized, cutting‑edge, and urgently needed fields has been released, and the Professional and Technical Talent Knowledge‑Updating Program is being continuously implemented. The China‑specific vocational skills competition system has been refined. Service offerings such as large‑language‑model‑based job‑search and recruitment platforms and virtual‑reality training are being developed. In-depth efforts are underway to advance the Belt and Road Initiative’s human resource services program.

III. Elevating the Development Level of Key Areas in the Consumer Services Sector

(7) Enhance the high-quality supply of residential services

Community-based domestic services. Innovate integrated community service models to expand coverage, enhance quality, and boost efficiency across entire communities. Launch initiatives to improve the quality of property management services. Promote institutional and model innovation in the domestic services sector, develop new at‑home service offerings, elevate the skills and professional standards of service providers, and enhance the everyday experience of residents. Focusing on vulnerable groups, prioritize meeting their specific care needs.

Retail. Promote rational planning and spatial layout of the retail sector across urban and rural areas, implement an innovation‑driven upgrading initiative for the retail industry, and support eligible cities in developing tailored, scenario‑based consumer experiences on a “one store, one strategy” basis. Encourage the development of instant‑delivery models such as community micro‑cold storage facilities and forward‑stocking warehouses. Launch a high‑quality e‑commerce development program for rural areas and advance the transformation and upgrading of the “Thousand Markets, Ten Thousand Stores” initiative.

(8) Enhancing the alignment of elderly care and childcare services

Elderly care: We will improve the three-tiered elderly care service network at the county, township, and village levels, expand community-based elderly care services, and encourage home‑based age‑friendly renovations. We will also increase the supply of rehabilitation and nursing services, integrated medical‑and‑elderly‑care services, and long-term care, while developing new models such as travel‑based elderly care.

Childcare and early childhood education. We will develop inclusive childcare and integrated care-and-education services, carry out pilot programs for childcare subsidies, and support children’s welfare institutions in providing care, rehabilitation, special education, and other services to children with disabilities who are in need.

(9) Enhance the professional capacity of health services

Healthcare. Support medical and health institutions in providing personalized family‑doctor contracting services, including health assessments, chronic disease management, home visits, and medication guidance. Steadily advance pilot programs for international medical services.

Preventive healthcare. Develop preventive health services for women and integrated healthcare delivery, and strengthen the network of health services for children and older adults. Enhance the socialized service system for mental health and psychiatric care. Accelerate the development of services such as sports data analysis and nutritional counseling.

(10) Innovating Cultural, Tourism, and Sports Service Models

Culture and tourism: Guide the healthy and orderly development of sectors such as performing arts and entertainment, gaming and animation, and online literature, while promoting positive values. Encourage popular scenic spots and cultural and museum institutions to extend their opening hours. Enhance public facilities at tourist sites, revitalize existing tourism projects, strengthen refined management, and optimize service offerings.

Sports and fitness: Widely promote nationwide fitness initiatives to enhance public health. Drive high-quality development of the sports‑event economy and the ice‑and‑snow economy, foster emerging sectors such as RV camping, and develop premium outdoor‑sports destinations. Cultivate new models of sports consumption that are intelligent, customized, and experience‑oriented.

Accommodation and dining. In response to the evolving public demand—moving from simply “having a place to stay” to “staying well and getting good value”—we will raise safety and hygiene standards, introduce new service models, and develop emerging accommodation formats that highlight cultural heritage, technology, family‑friendly experiences, and other distinctive elements. We will also foster healthy, safe, nutritionally balanced dining options that reflect local characteristics, and launch a series of premium culinary tourism routes.

IV. Enhancing the Digital, Intelligent, Standardized, Integrated, and Internationalized Development of the Service Sector

(11) Promote the digital and intelligent transformation of the service sector. Focusing on key areas such as R&D and design, inspection and testing, logistics and distribution, wholesale trade, and consulting services, we will build industry-specific industrial Internet platforms and leverage “small, fast, lightweight, and precise” solutions to lower the barriers to digital and intelligent adoption. We will launch a special initiative to accelerate the development of digital and intelligent supply chains and advance projects that harness digital and intelligent technologies to empower commerce and logistics. Centered on data-driven empowerment, we will implement large-scale, comprehensive pilot projects and high‑value application scenarios, cultivate service providers for digital and intelligent transformation, and establish benchmark models for the coordinated application of data, algorithms, and real-world use cases.

(12) Accelerate the development of standardization in the service sector. Strengthen top-level design and refine the standards framework for key areas. Improve standards and specifications in sectors such as household services, caregiving, and catering. Expedite the formulation of service standards for emerging and convergent business models, including low-altitude services and agricultural socialized services. Establish a standards system and interoperability technical specifications for industrial internet platforms, develop a standards framework for computing power services, and revise and formulate green service standards. Enhance service standards for the platform economy. Promote the establishment of international industry and standards organizations to facilitate the global outreach of Chinese standards.

(13) Enhance the level of integrated development between modern services and advanced manufacturing as well as modern agriculture. Focus on key sectors to deepen pilot programs for the integrated development of advanced manufacturing and modern services. Innovate and develop service‑oriented manufacturing, encouraging manufacturing enterprises to transform into providers of “product + service” solutions. Improve the convenient and efficient agricultural socialized service system, and optimize the functions of agricultural product market information service platforms. Actively promote deep integration between agriculture and health‑care, cultural tourism, and other related sectors.

(14) Steadily advance the opening-up and cooperation of the service sector. Further expand pilot programs for opening up in areas such as value-added telecommunications, biotechnology, and wholly foreign‑owned hospitals. Improve the management system for the negative list of cross‑border trade in services. Enhance capabilities in compliance assessments and security certifications for data transfers abroad. Strengthen service‑trade cooperation with key countries and regions, and coordinate the development and deployment of major platforms for open cooperation, including demonstration zones for innovative service‑trade development. Promote the export of cultural and tourism services, and work to expand inbound consumption.

V. Improving the Support Policy Framework

(15) Deepen reform and innovation. Uphold the principle of both “liberating market forces” and “ensuring effective regulation,” streamline unreasonable standards and restrictive measures in the service sector, and promptly remove barriers in areas such as access to production factors, qualification accreditation, tendering and bidding, and government procurement. Further advance institutional reforms in public‑service entities within the service sector to enhance their dynamism. Optimize the market‑access environment in fields like healthcare and scientific and technological innovation. Expand the supply of service‑delivery scenarios by releasing, in phases, a list of application‑scenario projects. Improve the statistical system, develop multidimensional, comprehensive indicators for assessing service‑sector development, and accelerate the adoption of big‑data‑driven regulatory approaches.

(16) Enrich fiscal and financial policy tools. Enhance the targeted effectiveness of policy support, and improve the financing‑based credit‑enhancement system covering quality, standards, brands, trademarks, patents, copyrights, and other key elements. Make full use of policy instruments such as consumer‑service and elderly‑care relending facilities. Expand the development of pension‑related financial products and promote long-term care insurance. Optimize the implementation of loan‑interest‑subsidy policies for service‑sector market entities, providing temporary interest subsidies on loans to eligible small, medium, and micro private enterprises in the productive services sector, and strengthen financial support for emerging consumption scenarios. Leverage existing national government investment funds to foster the integrated development of advanced manufacturing and modern services. Support eligible projects in the service sector to issue real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the infrastructure sector.

(17) Enhance infrastructure support and safeguards. Make full use of existing resources and optimize their utilization. Accelerate the development of urban parking facilities and charging/battery‑swap infrastructure, and promote the upgrading and renovation of aging equipment. Strengthen the construction of modern agricultural service centers. Plan and build integrated, high‑efficiency quality‑infrastructure systems, and step up investment in intangible assets such as software, R&D, and data. Systematically advance the construction and functional enhancement of national logistics hubs, and optimize the layout of overseas warehouses. Expand and upgrade the “15‑minute convenience living circles” in urban areas. Facilitate the renewal and modernization of commodity trading markets, urban retail outlets, and rural commercial networks. Renovate old neighborhoods and industrial zones, and support the upgrading of business districts, cultural‑industry parks, and other types of commercial spaces.

(18) Expand the ranks of high‑quality market players in the service sector. Accelerate the development of leading service enterprises, and support eligible companies in accessing capital markets through IPOs, as well as in mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring. Promote the specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative development of small and medium‑sized service enterprises, and intensify efforts to cultivate “well‑known, specialized, superior, and new” individual business households. Strengthen the cultivation of robust, socially‑oriented agricultural service providers. Enhance the collection and sharing of industry‑wide credit information, encourage market entities to make quality‑service commitments, and advocate for premium pricing in line with quality. Support enterprises in bolstering brand building and promotion, and foster new, immersive brand‑experience scenarios.

(19) Strengthen talent development. Optimize the structure of disciplines and specialties related to the service sector, and support localities with the necessary conditions in establishing city‑level industry‑education alliances and industry‑education integration consortia. Deeply implement the “Skills Light the Way” training initiative, focusing on industries with critical shortages and key employment groups to deliver large‑scale vocational skills enhancement programs. Broaden the scope of professional talent recruitment and advance the development of one‑stop service platforms for overseas talent.

(20) Strengthen safety oversight. Improve the cross‑departmental, cross‑industry approval and regulatory framework to accommodate the integration of business models, thereby preventing gaps in management and service delivery. Enhance safety management systems for high‑density venues such as performance halls, sports arenas, exhibition spaces, and tourist attractions, and ensure that responsibilities for workplace safety are fully implemented. Standardize the conduct of food service operators and strictly uphold food safety standards. Resolutely address irregularities such as unfair contract terms and false advertising, and effectively safeguard consumers’ rights and interests. Strengthen protections for the rights and interests of workers in new forms of employment.

All regions and departments shall, under the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee, implement these guidelines in light of their specific circumstances, striving to usher in a new phase of high-quality development in the service sector. It is essential to further refine the government performance‑assessment system and fully mobilize the enthusiasm and initiative of all stakeholders. Each region should, based on its stage of development and comparative advantages, tailor measures to local conditions and ensure their thorough implementation. The National Development and Reform Commission shall strengthen overall coordination, monitoring, and evaluation. All departments, in accordance with their respective responsibilities, shall advance work by sector, enhance inter‑agency collaboration, intensify publicity and guidance, build broad social consensus, and foster a favorable environment that encourages the active participation of the entire society. Any major issues shall be promptly reported to and submitted for instructions from the CPC Central Committee and the State Council in accordance with established procedures.

State Council

April 14, 2026