GENEVA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- China is a driving force of world economy and increasingly plays an important role as supply-demand hub in services trade, said a senior World Trade Organization (WTO) official on Friday, adding that China can positively influence and significantly contribute to international cooperation by supporting and advancing the services agenda of WTO.

In his online speech for the opening of the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing on Friday, WTO Deputy Director-General Yi Xiaozhun said that the event itself "not only highlights China's success in the combat against the COVID-19 pandemic, but also demonstrates that the Chinese government constantly promotes market opening and trade in services."

Highlighting services as the new frontier of global trade, the WTO official noted that services trade plays a crucial role in achieving sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth, adding that it is of crucial importance that policy-makers place services at the centre of their future work.

Yi called for further international cooperation to harness the potential of services trade and ensure a win-win outcome.

"Recognizing that unilateral protectionist actions lead to international trade tensions and bring damage to global economy, most WTO Members choose to cooperate within the multilateral trading system which provides rules-based, transparent and predictable conditions for services trade," he added.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 has also underscored the necessity of international cooperation, as services will be key to the post-pandemic economic recovery, he said.

The 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services opened in Beijing on Friday. It is the first major international economic and trade event held both online and offline by China since the COVID-19 outbreak.

Themed "Global Services, Shared Prosperity," the six-day fair has one comprehensive exhibition area and eight special exhibition areas. A total of 18,000 enterprises and institutions from 148 countries and regions and about 100,000 people have registered for the fair.