At the baseline, the government should take the lead in improving the three-tier elderly care network across counties, townships and villages, reinforcing the social safety net. At the middle tier, the government should guide the way — using investment, tax and fee incentives, resource guarantees and institutional reform to mobilize more social forces, so that more families can access elderly care and childcare that is affordable, reliable in quality and safe. At the upper tier, industrial policy and a better business environment should support market players in providing personalized and customized services.

　　III

　　Building more "China Services" brands means seizing the initiative through the newness of innovation and winning reputation through the substance of quality.

　　Building more "China Services" brands requires deepening institutional opening-up.

　　Brands are forged only in open competition. However, barriers in goods trade sit mainly "at the border" — tariffs and customs clearance — while barriers in services trade are more often hidden "behind the border," in market access rules, regulatory systems, qualification recognition and the mutual recognition of professional credentials.

　　China needs to keep refining the negative list for the service sector and further trim its scope, so that it becomes a genuinely predictable and workable opening-up commitment. It also needs to improve regulatory transparency and consistency, align regulatory rules with prevailing international practice, and reduce hidden barriers. At the same time, cross-border mutual recognition of professional credentials for engineers, physicians and others should be actively advanced, allowing high-end service talent to move freely.

　　Building more "China Services" brands also means that, as the saying goes, it takes a good blacksmith to forge good iron.