The service industry is gaining steam on the Yangtze River Delta, an area in east China that serves as one of the country's economic powerhouses, and is ready to become a major driving force for the local economy.

In the first three quarters of this year, the service sectors in 16 major cities in the area amounted to 947.4 billion yuan (116.8 billion US dollars) in value added output, or 39.2 percent of the combined gross domestic product (GDP) of the cities.

Five out of the 16 cities each had its service industry record more than 80 billion yuan (14.4 billion US dollars) in value-added output for the three-month period.

Hong Yinxing, an economist at Nanjing University in this capital city of Jiangsu Province, said that against the backdrop of economic globalization, the service industry leading traditional manufacturing is becoming a trend in modern economies. The service sector has evolved into a new economic pillar in advanced industrial nations.

Hong noted that development of the service sector mainly hinges upon information, science and technology and human resources, which is the most suitable combination of features for sustainable economic growth on the Yangtze River Delta, which is relatively short of land resources and energy.

Over the past few years, the service sector has advanced rapidly on the Delta.

Last year, the service sector in Shanghai realized 356.5 billion yuan (43.9 billion US dollars) in value added output, while that in Suzhou and Hangzhou realized 110.5 billion yuan (13.6 billion US dollars) and 104.3 billion yuan (12.9 billion US dollars) respectively.

At the end of 2004, the contribution of the service sectors in Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Wuxi to their respective GDPs exceeded 40 percent, according to official statistics.

The proportion in Nanjing reached 51.2 percent in the first three quarters of this year, growing by 7.7 percentage points year on year and placing the city the first among 16 major cities on the Delta.

In terms of the service sector growth rate, Suzhou ranked first with a rate of 16.1 percent, followed by Zhoushan and Wuxi, with a rate of 15.1 percent and 15.0 percent, respectively.

According to data provided by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the service industry now accounts for 67.4 percent of international direct investment. More and more enterprises from developed nations have shifted their service industry to emerging countries through outsourcing. The Yangtze River Delta has attracted a group of large transnational companies in retail sales, banking and distribution, which have brought with them huge service sector development opportunities.

Source: Xinhua