Event in Beijing helps promote international economic cooperation and ushers in enhanced sustainable development

Themed "Global Services, Shared Prosperity", the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services showcased new technologies and innovations in the services sector that are expected to reshape people's lives for the better, with displays ranging from state-of-art service robots to 5G applications in cloud booths.

The six-day event held earlier this month in Beijing was the first major international economic and trade event held both online and offline by China since the COVID-19 outbreak.

As one of the world's largest and most comprehensive fairs for trade in services, CIFTIS attracted 22,000 enterprises and institutions from 148 countries and regions, including 199 Fortune 500 companies. A total of 240 deals were signed, said the Ministry of Commerce.

The fair focused on the forefront of science and technology innovation by displaying applications of new infrastructure, artificial intelligence, 5G technology applications, big data and service robots.

Special exhibition areas and forums dealt with the integration and development of financial science and technology, digital economy's efforts to promote transformation as well as empowering traditional industries with advanced technology.

In total, it hosted 190 forums and business presentations covering 12 major sectors such as transport, travel, construction, insurance, financial services, telecommunications, computer and cultural services.

"The service economy, supported by new infrastructure and represented by online services, is activating the momentum of development in various fields and becoming the most dynamic part of economic growth," said Vice-Commerce Minister Wang Bingnan at the fair.

The fair received 7.2 million views on its official website, and 8.05 million views on its official mobile app. A total of 5,372 domestic and overseas enterprises set up online booths, among which 2,037 were displayed in three dimensions, according to Xinhua News Agency.

More than 30 reports, indexes and rankings were published during the event, with 63 enterprises and institutions releasing their latest achievements, technologies and service solutions.

Chinese technology startup Deepwise Healthcare, which engages in the development and application of clinical imaging diagnostic systems for the screening and diagnosis of various ailments, participated in the fair boasting AI and internet-based healthcare solutions that were once used in China's fight to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.

With groundbreaking "deep-learning" AI technology and independently developed core algorithms, one of its AI systems－specifically updated for COVID-19 detection－can be used for rapid detection of various symptoms of different types of pneumonia, including the detection of COVID-19-related symptoms.

The company said the system can intelligently classify diverse symptoms of pneumonia, identify patients' computerized tomography scan features associated with the novel coronavirus very quickly, make quantitative analysis of infections and then deliver structured graphic reports according to the latest COVID-19 diagnostic imaging guidelines.

A medical AI pioneer with offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, the company said it has deployed quick updates of such AI systems in more than 200 hospitals across the country, including more than 40 in Hubei province, to help medical institutions better cope with clinical diagnosis demand. "As China has better contained the spread of COVID-19, more attention will be paid to development of epidemiology along with epidemic prevention and control," said Qiao Xin, co-founder and CEO of Deepwise Healthcare.

"A lot of technologies and products will be further widely applied and developed," Qiao added.

Xian Janssen, a pharmaceutical subsidiary of healthcare group Johnson & Johnson, displayed its innovative community-based schizophrenia management model with its long-acting injectables.

Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels and behaves and can have a major impact on an affected person's capacity to work and integrate into society.

A growing public health challenge in China, the disease is estimated to affect about 8 million Chinese, and more than half of those with schizophrenia do not receive appropriate care due to a lack of access to mental health services, according to recent studies published in medical journals including The Lancet Psychiatry.

The relapse rate of Chinese patients with schizophrenia is about 40 percent a year post-discharge, and even higher at 77 percent for those who discontinue treatment.

Research also has shown that collaborative community care improves conditions of people with schizophrenia. About 60 percent of patients will return to their families post-discharge, and the quality of family relationships significantly affects rehabilitation outcomes. Family support and intervention for instance, helps patients improve their independence and social functionality, as well as preventing future relapses.

Under the company's innovative model, patients in acute phases are admitted to outpatient clinics of psychiatric hospitals for treatment, while those in rehabilitation phases are transferred to community health service centers. Communities will provide follow-up assessment for patients' mental health status and assist them to get long-term treatment so as to allow them to undergo home rehabilitation.

Moreover, with the support of multiple government departments, patients pay little to no fees for treatment.

By the end of July, 104 communities in 19 provinces and municipalities had adopted such pilot initiatives, benefiting 2,804 patients.

Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing, said the fair, with its agenda filled with discussions and forums on pioneering areas, served as an important platform promoting international economic and trade cooperation and development, and will boost sustainability of post-epidemic economic development.

That is especially important as the rapidly developing services sector has become the new driving force of the Chinese economy, Zhou said.

In 2019, China's services sector accounted for 53.9 percent of the country's gross domestic product, said the China Association of Trade in Services.

Import and export volumes of trade in services hit 5.42 trillion yuan ($799 billion), up 2.8 percent year-on-year and ranking second globally for the sixth consecutive year, the association said.

Xinhua contributed to this story.

liuzhihua@chinadaily.com.cn