BEIJING, Jan. 9 -- China's foreign trade in services in 2013 may hit a new high of more than 520 billion U.S. dollars, up 11 percent from the previous year, an official said Thursday.

Yan Jian, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), said at a press conference that China would remain the world's third-largest trader of services.

MOC data showed that the country's trade in services surged 12.3 percent year on year to 470.58 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, becoming the third largest in service trade for the first time.

Yao said the change in services trade last year was characterized by rapid growth of services with high added value, such as consulting, computer and information services.

"Trade in services will become a new engine for the country's foreign trade growth," Yao said, forecasting that total service trade may top 600 billion U.S. dollars by 2015 and 1 trillion U.S. dollars by 2020.