Since being designated as a national experimental center for service trade innovation by the State Council in February 2016, Guangzhou's service industry has gone from strength to strength.

Carrying on from 2016, where service trade volume for the city reached 323.54 billion yuan ($48.47 billion), a year-on-year growth of 42.7 percent, the industry has continued to grow in the first half of 2017 at a rate of 10.1 percent, bringing in 177.78 billion yuan in service trade.

The Guangdong province capital now ranks third among 15 cities and districts in China in terms of its annual total volume of service trade.

After being designated as an experimental center for service trade innovation, the government compiled a team including the mayor, deputy mayors and 36 department leaders to create support policies for the industry, according to the Guangzhou municipal commission of commerce.

The total government funding to support service trade has now hit 120 million yuan, with 18 million yuan invested to upgrade 24 public service platforms for service trade.

Guangzhou has also put a strong emphasis on the implementation of experimental tax credit policies, to relieve the burden on experimental centers for trade innovation. So far this year, 17 firms have been recognized as high-tech service enterprises, making them eligible for tax credits, bringing the total number to 55 at present.

Innovations in transportation service have led to accelerated customs clearance for international passenger cruise lines, with health quarantine checks being made prior to ships docking in port.

The Guangzhou Nansha Shipping Industry Fund, with a scale of 5 billion yuan, has been founded to sponsor shipping service projects. Beneficiaries include the first route for passenger liners starting from Nansha, which opened in 2016 carrying 360,000 passengers that year. As of the first eight months of 2017, 263,000 passengers have travelled via the port. The free passage of yachts between Nansha, Hong Kong and Macao has also been permitted for the first time.

In the area of cultural service, Guangzhou has integrated the Guangzhou International Performing Arts Fair, the China International Comics Festival and other cultural events into a "Cultural Industry Exchange Season". At the Guangzhou International Documentaries Festival, the international presale of documentary proposals has been implemented to promote the export of cultural services.

In the area of financial service, China's first joint-venture securities investment consulting firm was founded in Guangzhou, issuing the first publicly-raised Panda Bonds in the domestic exchange market. In 2016, the cross-border RMB trade between Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macao was valued at 400.67 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 7 percent.