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The much-anticipated 2026 edition of the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) will be held September 9-13 at Shougang Park in Beijing. Since 2025, Shougang Park has been established as the fair's permanent "one fair, one venue" home. This year's edition continues the fair's long-running theme of "Global Services, Shared Prosperity," with this year's operational focus on "expanding opening-up, deepening cooperation, driving innovation." According to an August 28 briefing from Xinhua on preparations, this year's fair is essentially ready to go, and will welcome delegations and exhibitors from more than 90 countries and international organizations, along with more than 1,800 participating enterprises.

Since its founding in 2012, CIFTIS has grown into one of the world's largest comprehensive fairs dedicated to trade in services, ranked alongside the China International Import Expo and the China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) as one of China's three major platforms for opening up to trade. Each edition combines an exhibition, a summit and forums, with the exhibition itself spanning 12 key service-trade sectors — including telecommunications, computer and information services, financial services, cultural services, tourism services, education services, health services and business services — aiming to showcase the latest developments in global trade in services across the board. Past editions have drawn large numbers of buyers, investment institutions and industry associations from China and abroad, gradually forming a comprehensive platform combining exhibitions, deal-making, forums and product launches.

Shougang Park was originally an old industrial complex belonging to the Shougang Group steel company; during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics it served as the venue for events including freestyle skiing big air, before being transformed into a mixed-use complex combining exhibitions, offices, and cultural tourism. Having hosted CIFTIS for several consecutive years now, it has become a flagship example of the transformation and upgrading of Beijing's old industrial base, blending industrial heritage with international exhibition functions and drawing many exhibitors and visitors who make a point of stopping to take photos.

In terms of the numbers, the count of participating countries and international organizations has risen from 85 in 2025, but the scale of enterprise participation has actually eased back slightly from last year's roughly 2,000 offline exhibitors and about 5,600 online exhibitors — so claims of the fair "setting a new scale record" this year should be treated with caution; a more accurate description is that international participation has widened even as the absolute number of exhibiting enterprises has contracted somewhat. As for the number of Fortune Global 500 and other industry-leading companies attending, sources give two different figures — 456 and 473 — both lower than the 480-plus confirmed for 2025; the precise number will need to be verified against the official tally once the fair concludes, and observers will be watching whether the final figures differ from the preparatory-stage estimates.

This year's guest country of honor is Norway, marking the first time Norway has held that role at CIFTIS. Norway's pavilion, covering about 260 square meters, will spotlight achievements in green energy, the marine industry and nutrition, digital services, and healthcare, alongside a China-Norway trade promotion event. For comparison, the 2025 fair ultimately drew more than 250,000 visitor admissions and produced more than 900 cooperation outcomes before closing on September 14 of that year — figures that provide an important benchmark for expectations of this year's edition.

Another highlight of this year's fair is the debut of a dedicated "China Services" exhibition zone within the core theme area, showcasing more than 140 case studies drawn from over 20 provinces and regions across 12 key service-trade sectors, alongside the first-ever "Overseas Expansion Service Promotion Pavilion," designed to offer one-stop matchmaking support for Chinese service companies looking to expand into overseas markets. Both debuts are seen as significant moves to highlight the competitiveness of "Chinese services" and support Chinese firms' efforts to go global, reflecting organizers' greater emphasis on practical commercial conversion when designing this year's exhibition layout, rather than simply pursuing a bigger footprint.

The Global Trade in Services Summit, to be held on the morning of September 9, will for the first time be co-hosted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) alongside China's Ministry of Commerce and the Beijing Municipal Government — an upgrade seen as an important marker of the fair's growing international profile. The summit and fair will also feature 15 themed forums organized around four pillars — open convergence, win-win cooperation, digital innovation, and green development — plus roughly 100 conferences and forums and more than 100 matchmaking events, including 33 dedicated matchmaking sessions: 16 country-specific, 6 provincial-level, and 11 industry-specific — a density of scheduled matchmaking rarely seen in previous editions.

Organizers say more than 80 companies and institutions will unveil over 180 innovation results at the fair, spanning artificial intelligence, healthcare, cultural exports and green, low-carbon technology, with AI large-model and agent-related results accounting for nearly 40% of the total. Multiple multinationals have confirmed their participation, including Walmart, Siemens, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Alibaba, Schneider Electric and GE Healthcare. In addition, humanoid robot products already deployed at some Beijing landmarks — such as Galaxy General's "Space Capsule" series of robots — are also expected to showcase further commercial applications at the venue. The fair will also see the release of several industry reports, including the China Service Trade Development Report 2025, the Digital Trade Development and Cooperation Report 2026, the Global Service Trade Digital Intelligence Index 2026, and the World Tourism City Development Report (2025-2026).

On the macro front, China's services trade totaled roughly 3.8 trillion yuan (about $560.4 billion) in imports and exports in the first half of 2026, up 8.3% year-on-year, with services exports growing 17.6% — a significant driver of overall foreign trade growth. CIFTIS is one of China's three major platforms for opening up to trade, and officials have explicitly linked this year's edition to the goal, set out in the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), of putting goods trade and services trade on a more equal footing — positioning the fair as an important window for China to demonstrate its commitment to further opening its services sector amid rising global trade protectionism. In recent years, China has continued to advance comprehensive pilot programs for expanding services-sector opening and reforms to its negative-list management model for cross-border trade in services, with Beijing, Shanghai, Hainan and other regions rolling out related pilot measures — making CIFTIS an important window for observing the effects of these reforms.