BEIJING -- President Xi Jinping has called for striving to break new ground in the high-quality development of China's service sector.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in an instruction conveyed at a national conference on the service sector held in Beijing from Tuesday to Wednesday.

China's service sector has steadily expanded in scale and continuously improved in quality and efficiency since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, playing an important role in supporting industrial upgrading, meeting people's livelihood needs and driving job growth, according to Xi.

Underscoring demand-driven development, reform breakthroughs, technology empowerment as well as opening up and cooperation, Xi called for carrying out capacity-expanding and quality-upgrading initiatives in the service sector.

Efforts must be made to advance producer services toward greater specialization and the higher end of the value chain, foster high-quality, diverse and accessible consumer services, and build more "China Services" brands, he said.