Investors will soon be allowed much wider market access into China's dormant service industry.

Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan made the commitment Wednesday to an audience that included Microsoft's Bill Gates at the opening ceremony of an international conference on the service industry.

Zeng said China should foster growth of its service sector through more positive policies that aid sustainable development of the national economy.

"China needs a thriving tertiary industry on its way to full industrialization," said Zeng.

Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp, echoed that development of the industry will not only benefit China's overall economy but also that of the world.

He said changes in information technology and biological sectors in recent years have brought many changes to the service industry.

"China is bracing the changes in an exciting way," said Gates.

Zeng and China's Minister of National Development and Reform Commission Ma Kai said further development of the industry is still a demanding task.

China's service industry lags far behind the world's average.

Total output of China's tertiary industries accounted for just 32.3 percent of its entire economy. But the average rate for a developing country is about 45 percent. The average rate in the industrialized world is as high as 64 percent.

Norman R. Sorensen, chairman of US Coalition of Service Industries, said China is likely to boost the current rate to 50 percent in the next 10 years.

"Then, China will be the world's No 3 economy, instead of the current No 7," said Norman.

Ma said the State will ease restrictions on market access and open sectors like foreign trade, tourism, banking, insurance, and other areas gradually, in line with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

The country will also try to funnel capital from various channels to the service sector and speed up reform of railways, airlines, telecommunications and public utilities.

He said international experience should be learnt in the endeavor.

The government's latest efforts are focused on the China International Conference on Tertiary Industry, which started yesterday in Beijing and is scheduled to end Saturday.

Ma said the financial service, logistics, tourism and intermediary service are the major areas of government concern.

"The sectors are essential to the development of China's industrialization," said Ma.

Economists said the Chinese Government should deregulate the market and introduce more competition into the service industry.

"That's the best and most urgent measure the government should take," said Lin Yueqin, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Meanwhile, he said, the government should formulate rational regulations for crucial sectors to guide the industry's development.

(China Daily July 1, 2004)