He attributed the underdevelopment of the services sector to the country's heavy reliance on manufacturing and processing trade in the past decades.

"It takes some time for the public to realize the importance of the emerging sector. And regulations and policies need to be further improved," Lu said.

He added that a comprehensive guideline, called the 12th Five-Year Plan on Services Industries, will be soon issued after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

A total of 34 departments, including the Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission, jointly released the 12th Five-Year Plan on Trade in Services in November 2011. The plan stressed the development of the service sector, and by 2015 China's total import and export volume will reach $600 billion with an annual growth of 10 percent.

China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) also stressed on increasing the share of services industries in the GDP structure by 4 percentage points and to enhance the weight of services trade in China's foreign trade through promoting services export and further opening up the sector. The services sector development was taken as a strategic move to optimize China's industrial structure.

"In addition to life-style related service industries, the service sector also covers manufacturing-related service industries. The latter can inherently advance manufacturing upgrading through improvement in research and development, logistics and financing," Lu said.

He added that next year China will mainly develop high-end services sectors, including IT, cultural and creative industries, and modern services industries such as modern logistics and convention exhibition.

"The services industries will play a more important role for mainland enterprises to enable them to secure resources as they are at an upgrading and transformation stage as well as expanding overseas markets," Lam said.

lijiabao@chinadailyhk.com