The State Council, China’s cabinet, recently approved legislation to comprehensively expand innovation in the country’s services trade in 28 provinces and cities.

Harbin, the capital city of China’s northernmost Heilongjiang province, is included on the list, local officials said.

Under the plan, Harbin will expand its system and mechanisms for the innovative development of the services trade, create a springboard for services trade development and promote the transformation and upgrade of foreign trade and high-quality development.

Since Harbin got the green light from State Council in July 2018 to extend its service trade innovation pilot work from the Harbin New Zone to the whole city, the government has been making efforts to implement the pilot plan in nine major areas -- including in international transportation, service outsourcing, travel and culture.

Over a three-year period, the city has established 20 national-level international scientific and technological cooperation centers. Of these, 15 centers focus on cooperation with Russia as the main direction, deepening the joint scientific and technological innovation work between China and Russia.

Meanwhile, Harbin's services outsourcing business continues to grow, officials said. Data showed that there are currently 1,000 participating companies in Harbin's outsourcing business.

In 2019, the value of contracts in the city’s services outsourcing sector reached $3.45 billion, an increase of 89.35 percent year-on-year and the executed value was $1.75 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27.15 percent.

Harbin has cultivated a number of national representative services outsourcing backbone companies including Harbin Electric International Company Limited and Harbin Hafei Airbus Composite Manufacturing Centre Co.

In addition, Harbin is continuing to attract e-commerce facilities. Currently, there are 17 cross-border e-commerce warehouses in the city and a total of 503 enterprises involved in e-commerce have settled in its 14 e-commerce industrial parks.