A container ship docks at a port in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/Ningbo Daily]

Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province recently unveiled a plan to develop its modern service sector during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period.

According to the plan, the city aims to lift the added value of its service sector to above 1 trillion yuan ($153.8 billion) by 2025, making it a modernized service hub in the southern end of the Yangtze River Delta region.

The proportion of employees in the service sector in Ningbo's total workforce will reach about 46 percent, while the added value of knowledge-intensive services shall account for 26 percent of the city's total by 2025.

Efforts will also be strengthened to facilitate the application of digital technologies in the service sector. By 2025, the city will strive to have its cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reach about 200 billion yuan, while its online retail sales shall amount to roughly 350 billion yuan.

Ningbo has also set the goal of increasing the total trade in goods and services to around 2 trillion yuan and raising the bulk commodity trade volume to 500 billion yuan by 2025.

The city also aims to have its foreign trade volume account for about 5.5 percent of the nation's total. The Xinhua-Baltic ISCD Index ranking for Ningbo Zhoushan Port will be among the top eight among global shipping hubs by 2025.

In recent years, the service sector has emerged as a main driving force of economic growth in Ningbo. Official data showed that the added value of the city's service industry in 2020 reached 637.64 billion yuan, accounting for 51.4 percent of the city's GDP, up 5.5 percentage points compared with 2015.