At the 2025 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) Service Trade Development Forum, the Development Research Center of the State Council’s Department of External Economic Research and the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) released the “Digital Trade Development and Cooperation Report (2025).” The publication is positioned as the fifth installment in the two institutions’ joint research series.
The report frames digital trade as a new trade paradigm created by the deep integration of digital technologies and international commerce. It argues that digital trade is expanding the traditional boundaries of trade, accelerating business-model innovation, and enabling a broader set of participants to engage in cross-border economic activity. In the report’s assessment, this resilience and growth potential help explain why digital trade is increasingly viewed as a strategic choice for economies navigating heightened uncertainty and structural shifts in the global economy.
Event coverage referencing the report also points to continued expansion in digitally enabled services trade. One cited indicator is the global scale of digital services trade in 2024, described as reaching USD 4.64 trillion, up 8.3% year-on-year—underscoring the role of digital delivery and platforms in sustaining services trade momentum.
Beyond the market narrative, the report places heavy emphasis on cooperation and rule-making. It calls for an open, inclusive, fair, and non-discriminatory digital development environment and highlights the need for deeper coordination to capture digital trade opportunities while managing associated governance and security risks. For policymakers, the message is that digital trade is no longer a niche topic: it is becoming central to competitiveness and to the design of practical, interoperable rules that can support wider participation over time.
