Beijing has announced its plan for spurring international trade in services with a view to curbing the Chinese deficit in such trade by 2020, Xinhua reports.

The state-run news agency says the plan is to make the service sector account for 56 percent of gross domestic product by 2020.

The report says the plan envisages the average annual rate of growth of Chinese trade in services outpacing that of global trade in services from last year and until 2020.

“China will further open up its finance, telecommunications, education and culture industries and ease restrictions on foreign shareholding in domestic securities and futures management companies,” the plan says.

The Chinese deficit in trade in services rose to US$260 billion last year from US$206 billion the year before, Xinhua says.