BEIJING - China on Thursday issued a plan to boost the development of its service trade and ease the service trade deficit by 2020.

The country plans to make the service sector contribute 56 percent of GDP by 2020, and enable the average annual growth of service trade to outpace the global average rate during the 2016-2020 period, according to a plan jointly issued by 13 ministries and departments.

China will further open up its finance, telecommunications, education and culture industries and ease restrictions on foreign share-holding in domestic securities and futures management companies.

The country will continue to improve the yuan exchange rate formation mechanism and realize yuan convertibility under the capital account in an orderly way.

China registered a service trade deficit of $260 billion in 2016, widening from $206 billion in 2015 and $198 billion in 2014, according to statistics from State Administration of Foreign Exchange.