Staff members train a robot to work in a retail scenario at Maniformer, a physical AI data service platform, in Shanghai, east China, Aug. 5, 2026. In Shanghai"s tech companies like AGIBOT and Maniformer, embodied intelligence robots are trained in household, retail, sorting, production and other real-world scenarios, to advance their AI capabilities for real-life use. (Xinhua/Chen Haoming)

　　Nation"s value added in the service sector grew 5.2 percent year-on-year, 0.5 percentage points faster than overall economic growth. Retail sales of services rose 5.3 percent year-on-year. In the first half of the year, the service sector expanded steadily, playing an important role in supporting industrial upgrading and meeting people"s livelihood needs.

　　A meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held on July 30 called for effectively expanding domestic demand and optimizing supply.

　　From April 7 to 8, a national conference on the service sector was held in Beijing — the first national gathering in the new era devoted to the service sector.

　　General Secretary Xi Jinping called for advancing producer services toward greater specialization and the higher end of the value chain, fostering high-quality, diverse and accessible consumer services, and building more "China Services" brands, as well as striving to break new ground in the high-quality development of China"s service sector.

　　Beijing convened a municipal service sector conference and pledged to actively shape the "Beijing Services" brand.

　　Shanghai released its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) for service sector development, aiming to comprehensively enhance the global reach and international competitiveness of "Shanghai Services."