SWOT analysis and public policy of Macao’s digital trade in services

Abstract Macao’s trade in services has grown exponentially over the past 20 years. Based on the interview and secondary data analysis methods, this article examines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Macao’s digital trade in services. According to the SWOT analysis, the strengths of Macao’s digital trade in services include the significant progress in technical transformation and an increasing proportion of enterprises using computers and the Internet. The weaknesses lie in the poor information network infrastructure and a shortage of talents in information technology. Developing the digital economy in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and building an international hub for digital trade in the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone-Hengqin provide opportunities for the digital industry. The I.T. technology including ABCD, digital twins, industry 5.0, and FinTech Bridges agreements also bring the opportunities for digital trade. However, Macao’s digital trade in services faces threats from political conflicts and mistrust between countries. This paper has also made suggestions for future practice, including seeking a suitable development model for Macao’s digital trade in service, cooperating with Hengqin to build an international digital trade port and learning about successful experiences from other countries or regions such as Ireland. The findings of this paper will be beneficial to understand the strategic management and SWOT of Macao’s digital trade in services. Thus, it would be of interest to scholars as well as policymakers.


Introduction
Global product flow, international capital flow, and the third engine of globalization-the global movement of data-are the three waves of globalization that have emerged throughout history. The global economy has promoted the rapid growth of trade in services, which maintained a steady increase in its share of GDP. The volume of exports and imports of global trade in services exceeded 9.5 trillion dollars, of which about 2.5 trillion dollars came from Asia, accounting for 26.6% of international trade in services in 2020 (IPIM(MSARG), 2021).
The White Paper on the Development of China's Digital Economy, issued by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology in July 2022, shows that the size of China's digital economy reached $7.1 trillion in 2021, ranking second in the world, accounting for 39.8% of GDP (Xinhua News, 2022). During the 14th Five-Year Plan period in 2021-2025, accelerating high-level opening up with a focus on trade in services is a challenge and a crucial step towards developing a new framework for a higher-level open economy in China (Chi, 2021).
Macao's digital economy is developing increasingly vigorously under the influence of the promulgation of the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and various policies in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, abbreviation as "GBA". Many traditional industries have begun to realize industrial digital transformation. With the rapid growth of trade in services globally, it has also experienced positive development in Macao. In 2000, the volume of Macao's trade in services was only MOP 35.41 billion, accounting for 65.1% of GDP. This figure has sharply increased by ten times and reached MOP 392.11 billion in 2019, accounting for 88.1% of GDP. Within the well-developed tertiary sector, gaming & junket activities are the primary services, followed by public administration, education, health and other services and real estate activities (IPIM(MSARG), 2021). Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Macao's trade in services declined in 2020, but digital trade development further accelerated. Macao's local information technology industry has been developing positively in recent years, and digital technology is widely used in trade in services as digitalization has become the global mainstream. A prominent example is the newly emerging and disruptive financial innovations in financial services, a combination of finance and technology, called "FinTech", which has positively impacted e-commerce (Smeets, 2021). However, Macao's digital services experienced negative growth under worldwide digitalization in recent years, instead of following the economy's speedy development and expanding the information and communications technology service exports.
Thus, this article tries to answer the following questions: What are the advantages and disadvantages of Macao's digital trade in services? What are the opportunities and threats of Macao's digital trade in services? What kind of public policies should the government make based on the SWOT analysis?

The concept of digital trade in services
Trade is as ancient as civilization; it has been an essential part of every society as a means of acquiring or exchanging goods and services. According to the Statistics and Census Service of the Macao SAR Government, trade in services is the abbreviation of global trade in services. Trade in services includes exports and imports, while export of services is the sale of services to other parts of the world, and import of services is the purchase of services from different parts of the world. According to the General Agreement on Trade in Services, abbreviation as "GATS", there are four modes of supplying services: cross-border trade, consumption abroad, commercial presence, and presence of natural persons in Table 1 (United Nations Statistical Division, 2002;WTO, 1995).
The concept of "Digitizable Trade in Services" is an emerging trend in services trade. According to UNCTAD, digitized services can be delivered remotely over the Internet, including insurance services, financial services, intellectual property royalties, ICT services, etc (UNCTAD, 2015). According to China's Industrial Information Security Development Research Center, digitizable trade in services is "a kind of digitizable trade, in which information network works as the main form of delivery, and services and data is the main subject of cross-border transaction activities". In 2020, the concept of International Trade in Digital Delivery Services was added to the latest update of the statistical database of UNCTAD (Zhu et al., 2021).
ICT, also known as "information and communications technology", is an essential part of the digitizable trade in services. According to UNCTAD's definition, ICT refers to "all cross-border transactions that are delivered remotely over ICT networks-i.e. over voice or data networks, including the internet, in an electronically downloadable format.". Over the past 100 years, varying degrees of new element-digital technology-have been incorporated into the relationship between the producer and consumer (Kandampully et al., 2022). ICT will be connected to commerce in services such as banking, telecommunications, and software services. And it will alter the nature and composition of trade in services and expand the scope and diversity of the ICT service trade with services like big data analytics, network security solutions, and remote cross-border quantum computing. For example, exports of digitizable services accounted for 55.9% of total services exports in 2010, and the number rose to 73.7% in 2020 in the United States (BEA(U.S.), 2021). The development of digitizable services has accelerated in the last decade. It has become the core of the services trade in the U.S., especially in knowledge and technology-intensive services sectors such as intellectual property royalties and finance.

The review of digital trade in services
Some foreign scholars have analyzed digital trade in services and its role in different countries and regions, adopting various approaches. The U.S. approach tends to focus more on the "digital" nature of digital trade, while the Chinese approach prefers to address the issue from the traditional "trade" perspective (Gao, 2018). Digital technologies are cutting trade costs for services, turning more services from non-tradable into tradable, and putting trade in services on a more vital relative growth path than the trade in goods (Drake-Brockman et al., 2020). There is a study about how Bangladesh can benefit from digital trade in services and what it will take for Bangladesh to adapt to the new trade regime in the digital age. Bangladesh's potential for digital trade is limited by some issues, including a lack of adequate internet connectivity and ICT infrastructure, flaws in trade facilitation and logistics, a lack of skilled labour, a gender gap in digital literacy and knowledge, complicated financial regulations and payment-related issues, and a lack of sufficient funding (Khatun & Kamruzzaman, 2021). Some scholars utilized the four modes from the General Agreement on Trades in Services framework to analyze international student mobility in Hong Kong (Oleksiyenko et al., 2013). Some scholars believethat policymakers and business leaders need to better understand the drivers of this paradigm for trade and find solutions for potential issues in dialogue with stakeholders to ensure digital trade policies that are more sustainable and inclusive for all (Elms, 2020).
Some scholars have analyzed the advantages of Macao's trade in services, especially in traditional trade. For example, Macao has a highly liberal and open business environment as a free port and a micro-economy with a population of nearly 700,000. It emerges as a central player through trade, politics, and culture in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Haddad, 2013). The service industry has long been essential in Macao and services trade accounts for a higher percentage of its GDP, value-added and workforce than other regions. The WTO rates Macao as one of the world's most open trade and investment economies. It not only enjoys the status of a free port and a separate tariff zone but also has an extensive international market network and close ties with Portuguese-speaking countries, which gives Macao considerable advantages in trade in services. External trade activities are a significant contributor to Macao's economic growth. Some scholars suggested adopting RMB for international settlement in cross-border transactions. Also, the Macao SAR government must support preferential tax policies to attract export-oriented enterprises at home and abroad to trade with Portuguese-speaking countries via Macao (Chao & Jian, 2020). The usual benefits of free-market transactions apply to digital trade and other forms of trade. In 2003, China signed the regional trade agreements with Hong Kong and Macao, the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangements, referred to as CEPA (Emch, 2006;Region, 2012). Some scholars believe that developing the international higher education industry and international trade in higher education services may effectively promote its economic transformation (Tang et al., 2022).
From the existing research, it can be seen that most scholars have focused on the traditional trade in services and there's still a research gap in Macao's digital trade in services and its strengths and weaknesses. Thus, this article focuses on Macao's digital trade in services.

Theoretical framework
The theoretical framework of SWOT, i.e. strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, was used in this article to analysis Macao's trade in services. Originating in the early 1950s, SWOT has been around for decades and is arguably the most widely used strategy tool in modern times. Apart from its extensive adoption by industry, commerce, and charitable and voluntary organizations (Sarsby, 2016), SWOT has become a vital tool for strategic business planning (Benzaghta et al., 2021). By listing favourable and unfavourable conditions, both internal and external, in the four quadrants of a SWOT analysis grid, planners can better understand how strengths can be leveraged to realize new opportunities and how weaknesses can slow progress or magnify organizational threats.

Research method
This article uses a qualitative research method, and we interviewed 15 people related to Macao's digital trade in services. As for the sampling, this study primarily uses the expert sampling approach, a non-probability random sampling technique, which can help better construct experts' opinions in a particular field (Etikan & Bala, 2017 Hongkong [H]. The interviewees were assigned identification codes to ensure anonymity, such as O1/S1/E1-F/W-M/H/S/Z-July 2022, representing Official 1/Scholar1/Entrepreneur 1-Face-to-face /Website-Macao/Hong Kong/Shenzhen/Zhuhai-interview time in July 2022. This article also adopts secondary data analysis. Secondary information on Macao's digital trade in services was obtained from July 1 to August 31 in 2022 from various sources, including published official reports, government statements, policy papers, industry reports and academic literature (Liu et al., 2021). These included digital trade in service sources from Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, the Macao Government Information Bureau, Macao Statistics and Census Bureau.

Strengths
Macao enjoys a "high degree of autonomy" under the principle of "One Country, Two  (Jun et al., 2018). Other indicators of Macao's trade in services are also among the world's top, such as the composite development index ranking third place worldwide, after America and Ireland; the services structure index ranking second, the services size index ranking fourth and the services status index ranking eighth (Jun et al., 2018).
Although emerging services are one of the weaker links in the development of Macao's overall service trade, the emerging ICT trade in services holds significant potential for future growth. According to the WTO ITC trade map, trade in services in Macao reached 2.4 billion dollars in 2019, accounting for 5.6% of the total services exports. Among them, financial and insurance services exports amounted to 1.38 billion and 531 million dollars, respectively. In addition, insurance services, professional and management consulting services, and audiovisual and related services all showed multiple growths from 2015 to 2019 in Table 2, indicating that the associated services also have a particular potential for digital development (IPIM(MSARG), 2021).
ICT services is a significant component of digital trade in services. According to the WTO, Macao's demand for ICT services has been increasing in recent years, with 138 million dollars of ICT services purchased from overseas in 2019, mainly provided by places such as Hong Kong SAR, mainland China and India etc in Table 3. In contrast, Macao's export of ICT services has been gradually decreasing, with only about 25 million dollars worth of ICT services sold in 2019, mainly to the United States and Hong Kong, mainland China, etc. Table 4 shows a decline of about 68.4% in the sale of e-services over the five years. Under the new trend of increasing demand for ICT services in Macao and the world, Macao's ICT services have not expanded their exports in line with the rapid development of the overall economy but instead experienced negative growth in ICT service exports (IPIM(MSARG), 2021).
The trade in services driven by the service industry has developed into the pillar of Macao's economy, and Macao's services trade exports outweigh its imports to a great extent. As an essential part of the cultural industry, the information technology industry is itself an industry with solid externalities. It cannot be measured directly by calculating GDP but requires systematic and gradual planning [E2-F-M-2101].
In recent years, the Macao SAR Government has strongly supported the development of science and technology innovation in Macao, and tertiary institutions have made significant progress in transforming technological achievements. The Macao's Science and Technology Fund was estab-  Table 5, with an increase of 10.9 % from 2012, and access Internet via computers comprised 64.8% of the total (DSEC(MSARG), 2018).
Although Macao's ICT service exports has a relatively small share in international trade, the local information industry has started to develop positively in the past few years, with a specific increase in the number of information companies, employees and service revenue. According to Cultural Industry Statistics 2020, four core domains of cultural industries in Macao are "Creative design", "Cultural exhibitions& performances", "Art collection" and "Digital media". The number of "Digital media" companies has increased from 291 in 2015 to 398 in 2020, while the number of active employees reached 2105 in 2020, and the service revenue has increased to MOP 1.5 billion (DSEC(MSARG), 2020).
The "information industry" is a significant component of the "digital media", which includes information, publishing, radio and television production, cinema operation, film production and distribution services. Table 6 shows that "Digital media" take up the highest shares, at 52.6% of the total Service Receipts and 63.0% of the Gross Value Added in the cultural industries (DSEC(MSARG), 2020).
It is worth noting that the use of the Internet for customer service delivery is rising. In the second quarter of 2022, the volume of Macao's mobile payment transactions reached The mainland China 21 Unit: million dollars 6.4 billion MOP, which is about three times higher than the same period in 2020 (AMCM(MSARG), 2022). The popularity of mobile payment will promote the development of Macao's digital services.

Weaknesses
The slow start of the information industry in Macao is due to the monopoly of franchised businesses and the severe lag in government policies. Macao lacks a complete policy plan to support the development of a digital economy. Currently, the main direction of global digital trade rules has gradually shifted from the "on-border" practices of tariffs to the "behind-the-border" rules of industrial policies, such as intellectual property rights, environment, investment, and competition regulations, government procurement and industry regulation. The competition among the world's major powers has become fierce around cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, 5G, and big data. Only by taking the  lead in developing advanced digital technology can gain a first-mover advantage in the fierce competition in the digital trade field. The construction of digital infrastructure is an essential driving force for the industrialization of digital technology and the deepening development of the digital economy. Information network infrastructure in Macao is far from adequate, which urges the government to continue increasing related investment. Mainland China launched a commercial 5G network in 2019, and Hong Kong entered the 5G era in 2020. In contrast, Macao's 5G services are still being piloted and tendered and haven't been used on a large scale in areas such as healthcare and education. However, a framework agreement was signed between the Macao SAR Government and Alibaba Group to establish a cloud computing centre called "Pilot Cloud" in August 2017. Just as the interviewees said: Macao relies on imports for key and core technologies, and the phenomenon of "nonautonomous" core technology services is common [S1-W-Z-2208].

It's essential to determine whether 5 G in Macao is a commercial or governmental public service [S8-F-S-2109]
Another limit is a shortage of I.T. talent in Macao. Various factors contribute to this, such as Mainlanders who worked in Macao returning to the Mainland China, Macao residents migrating to foreign regions such as Singapore, the population aging, and the impact of low fertility rates. In 2018, the Hong Kong government officially launched the "Technology Talent Admission Scheme", which aims to bring in professionals to work in R&D for the technology industry in Hong Kong. Applicants should hold a degree in a STEM discipline such as science, technology, engineering or mathematics from one of the top 100 universities, and at least one year of working experience is required for students holding a bachelor's degree but not for those with a master's or doctor's degree. From its implementation to the end of 2019, 441 applicants have been allotted quotas. According to the breakdown statistics on quotas allotted under the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme, 563 applicants from the information technology and telecommunications industry in 2021 accounted for 28.09% of the total 2004 applicants (Immigration Department(HKSARG), 2022). Just as the interviewees said:

Opportunities
The digital economy is the driving force for accelerating global economic development, increasing production productivity, and creating new markets and industries (Ignatova et al., 2020). The digital economy in the GBA has been developing rapidly, especially in cross-border e-commerce exports. The digital trade imports and exports in Guangdong province amounted to 81.23 billion dollars, an increase of 22.7% in 2021 Laifeng & Huifang, 2022. According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the scale of Guangdong's digital economy in 2021 reached 5.9 trillion yuan, ranking first in mainland China for five consecutive years. It accounts for 47.4% of local GDP compared to the national average of 39.8%, indicating the digital economy's greater competitiveness in Guangdong than that of other provinces or municipalities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang Laifeng & Huifang, 2022. Just as one interviewee said: The GBA has leading advantages in 5G, artificial intelligence and other fields. The number of 5G base stations and patents ranks first in mainland China. Huawei and ZTE's 5G standard-essential patents account for 15% and 11.7% of the total number worldwide, respectively [S3-W-2206].
In 2022, the Guangdong Government released the Action Plan for Promoting High-Quality Development of Trade in Services in Guangdong Province (2021-2025, which proposes to "accelerate the development of emerging services trade, including digital marketing, technology trade to strengthen the protection and application of intellectual property rights, and to create a demonstration zone for digital trade ". These proposals provide an essential opportunity for Macao to develop the digital economy and trade. Digital commerce is the most critical part of the trade and can provide strong support for promoting the high-quality development of digital marketing in the cooperation zone. Hengqin is located in the southern part of Zhuhai city in Guangdong province, separated from Macao only by a strip of water and linked to Macao by a bridge. In 2021, China's central government issued The General Plan of the Development of the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, which proposed "constructing an international hub port for digital trade to facilitate the transformation from traditional to digital trade". This plan also stated that: "Efforts shall be made to promote the safe and orderly cross-border flow of internet data" (State Council (PRC), 2019). When the conditions permit, this practice will be applied to the Bay Area to drive the "big breakthrough" with a "small incision" (Jiayi & Aihua, 2018). Currently, Hengqin has completed the construction of dedicated international Internet data channels for the three major telecom operators. More than 7,500 technology and Internet enterprises have settled and flourished in Hengqin. For example, the Hengqin Kua-Jing-Shuo Network Technology company has grown from a small team of about ten entrepreneurs to a national high-tech enterprise with more than 100 employees and annual revenue of over 100 million yuan.
The Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area provides support for Macao in developing into "One Centre, One Platform, andOne Base". That is, a worldclass tourism and leisure centre, a commerce and trade cooperation service platform between China and Lusophone countries which promotes an appropriate level of diversified economic development, and a base for exchange and cooperation where Chinese culture is the mainstream and diverse cultures coexist. It is worth mentioning that the inauguration of the Asia-Pacific Headquarter of China Central Radio and Television (CCTV) in Macao marks the enhancement of Macao's function in international communication, which brings opportunities for developing trade in digital services in Macao. Also, Macao can rely on CCTV's experience in innovative programming and multimedia distribution. Some interviewees said:

The key to Macao's cultural trade is ideas, and it is necessary to add technological elements to the cultural industry[O3-F-M-2106].
Culture, industry, and scientific progress can all move in the same direction and have the same outcome (1 + 1 > 2). For example, Macao can build a 5G demonstration city, driving youth to use 5G to create more business models and to use 5G to tell the story of Macao's history and culture [O4-F-M-2106].
New Trend in Digital Trade in Services-the International FinTech Bridges Agreements also bring the opportunity to Macao's digital trade in services. Among all kinds of services, financial services face significant digital transformation. Information exchange has vastly increased transaction costs reduced with the emergence of FinTech (Feyen et al., 2021). To effectively manage crossborder trade in financial services and cooperation in FinTech regulation, FinTech Bridges Agreements have been established. FinTech represents the first steps regulators take to develop formal agreements to facilitate collaboration relating to FinTech and supporting innovation (Bromberg et al., 2018). According to the Department for International Trade, the U.K. Government has entered five FinTech Bridge agreements with other FinTech hubs, including Singapore, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, and Australia. In April 2022, the Australia Treasury and the Monetary Authority of Singapore have also signed an Australia-Singapore FinTech Bridge Agreement to "deepen bilateral and multilateral cooperation on FinTech, to facilitate trade, investment and ecosystem development in the FinTech sector" (Monetary Authority of Singapore, 2022).
FinTech Bridges represent a bespoke agreement outlining collaboration between two governments, cooperation between regulatory bodies and connectivity between two markets and ecosystems. These bilateral agreements help FinTech companies overcome barriers to international market entry and offer opportunities for global investment under cross-border regulatory cooperation. And they provide insights into the potential of digital trade in services, how cross-border cooperation can take form, and the possibility of a global trade network. Other countries like Indonesia have also started exploring their application.
Nowadays, innovation in the financial field largely depends on the progress of technology. Artificial Intelligence, Block Chain, Cloud Computing and Data, the abbreviation "ABCD", represent the technology frontier that has integrated and collaborated (L. Li et al., 2019). Cloud Computing gives more access to historical and real-time information to provide better and more secure services (Akter et al., 2020). Artificial intelligence-powered platforms have enormous potential to break down international geographical barriers and affect global trade globally. Artificial intelligence enables international trade discussions to examine negotiating partners' economic trajectories and trade barrier modifications at various rates and scenarios (Garg et al., 2022). For example, the integration of artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT can significantly improve the efficiency and profits of Macao's education services.
Blockchain's unchangeable, decentralized structure makes it a good candidate for potential use in international trade (Vurdu, 2022). Electronic signatures are necessary in overseas trade and a blockchain with a chemical signature for self-organizing process is used in social manufacturing. The introduction of blockchain technology, which can offer document integrity without the requirement for a trusted third party, has given this integration fresh hope (Civelek & Özalp, 2018). Blockchain technology provides decentralized consensus and potentially enlarges the contracting space through intelligent contracts (Cong & He, 2019). In cross-border trade in services in intellectual property, a smart contract can solve some critical tasks: reduce the time for execution of the contract by the parties, ensure the protection of intellectual property, and reduce the costs of enforcement (Mukhtarova & Lesnova, 2019). Besides, Blockchain is poised to alter how business is performed, including logistics fundamentally. Blockchain logistics applications can aid in developing a more efficient system in which customers can invest more confidently and carriers and suppliers can depend (Belu, 2019). The financial industry is an important area where blockchain technology helps regional development integration, for example, Financial Technology Talent Chain" and "Pearl River Delta Credit Information Chain" has been used in the GBA.
Digital twins are real-time, virtual replicas of physical and biological entities (Tzachor et al., 2022). A digital twin-driven service model is built to seamlessly monitor and control shared manufacturing resources (G. Wang et al., 2021). The rise of social manufacturing has aided in the evolution of resource organization in the manufacturing business, with a shift toward a flat management structure. The widespread use of socialized idle resources that lack a digitalized and intelligent foundation has impacted the efficiency of collaborative production (M. Li et al., 2021). Digital Twin is the most suitable technology to close the gap between the physical and digital world and provide insights for meeting mass personalization. Digital Twin fulfils mass personalization under Industry 4.0 (Aheleroff et al., 2020). Macao's smart city and digital twin city construction bring opportunities to the digital trade industry.
Industry 5.0 is also beneficial to digital trade, blowing the whistle on global industrial transformation (Leng et al., 2022). Industry 5.0 includes intelligent healthcare, cloud manufacturing, supply chain management and manufacturing production (Maddikunta et al., 2022).. Industry 4.0 is considered to be technology-driven, whereas Industry 5.0 is value-driven (Xu et al., 2021). Zhuhai, a city near Macao, its largest industry 5.0 space project also provides opportunities for Macao's digital industry.

Threats
Data has a strong scale effect and negative externalities, and attitudes toward data and information often clash with cultures and values. While the digital economy has become more globalized in the last two or three decades, there is a clear trend toward balkanization in recent years. The world has witnessed a movement in the digital economy, data legislation, and regulation in the last decade. From a trade perspective, the global nature of the digital economy means the crossborder data flows is a pressing trade issue that entails navigating seemingly incompatible domestic privacy and cybersecurity laws (Laidlaw, 2021). Currently, governments are increasingly restricting global data flows and requiring data localization, undermining the economic benefits of digital trade (Meltzer, 2019). The rapid rise of digital trade is bound to generate a great demand for financial services, breeding more opportunities for financial innovation. At the same time, it also brings challenges to cross-border financial supervision. Cross-border digital trade involves traditional cross-border financial services and various service ecological chains such as taxation, insurance, logistics, customs declaration and financing, which increase the difficulty of government supervision. To be mentioned, FinTech also gives rise to a set of important policy issues such as competition and regulatory perimeters (Feyen et al., 2021), as well as potential risks to consumers, investors and financial systems (Bromberg et al., 2020).

Public policy on Macao's digital trade in services
While claiming to manage the Macao economy in a free-market manner throughout the colonial era, the Macao SAR government played a significant and active role in the growth of the city's economy, according to historical data (Lam, 2002).
The development of digital trade in services requires strategic design and policy planning. The traditional industrial structure and development model is no longer applicable in the scientific and technological revolution era, so policymakers must seek a new development model based on continuous technological innovation. The advantage of the service trade has been strengthened due to the rapid growth of the ICT services trade. Thus, Macao should prioritize maintaining the core technology research and development and continuously shape the competitive advantage of digital trade in service. Just as some interviewees said: We call on economists to pay more attention to technology because economists who do not understand science and technology may not face the future chance of an economic world[S1-W-Z-2208].
The development of the digital economy requires top-level design because any technological and industrial revolution requires the government's participation. A prudent and inclusive regulatory system will provide space and impetus for the innovation of various industries [S2-W-S-2208].
The Macao SAR government needs to take the initiative to improve Macao's or Hengqin's skilled immigration system, for example, encourage a collection of top-tier research institutes to conduct innovative research from home and abroad. It also requires a policy system to promote the efficient and convenient cross-border flow of scientific research elements, which can be primarily facilitated by establishing a global science and technology hub. Due to the small demand in the local market in Macao, entrepreneurs must target local and overseas markets for their products and services.
Another step to be taken as a priority is to cooperate with Hengqin to build an international trade digital port and create a global knowledge city, aiming to support the dynamic demand for knowledge and information in constructing the GBA. The basic requirements are complete categories, advanced management, safety and reliability. And the specific projects of the construction mainly include an international library, a book import and export exhibition hall, a big data hub port for science and technology, and so on. The Macao SAR government can also strive for more national-level scientific and technological facilities to be deployed in Macao or Hengqin.
Learning from successful experiences in foreign countries is also essential. America ranked first in the Global Services Trade Development Index 2018 for three consecutive years, and the scale of American trade in services has been steadily expanding. In 2020, America's exports of ICT services were 83.9 billion dollars, and the imports were 46.9 dollars, resulting in a 37.0 billion dollar trade surplus in ICT services. Of the total of America's service exports, such as insurance, finance and intellectual property royalties, ICT accounts for more than 53%, which shows that ICT is a core factor in America's trade in services. Although Ireland, ranking second in the Global Services Trade Development Index 2018, shares the same high per capita services trade as Macao, its services trade concentrates on the emerging services trade, mainly the ICT services trade. Ireland is the top exporter of IT-related services (Javed, 2020) and exported €244 billion worth of services in 2020, of which ICT services, technology R&D and management services, and intellectual property royalties are the main components, accounting for more than half. Many global technology companies have a branch in Ireland, such as Google, Microsoft, Intel, Apple and Facebook.

Conclusion
China's dominant status on trade in services is anticipated to be stretched in the coming years due to structural changes in the country's economy and a supportive political environment (Gari, 2020). In the future, trade in services will undoubtedly follow the trend of rapid network development. However, in the newly increased demand for digital trade services worldwide, Macao's digital trade services have failed to follow the rapid development of the overall economy and expand its exports. They have even experienced negative growth in digital trade service exports in digitalization. This article has made a comprehensive SWOT analysis of Macao's digital trade in services. The strengths of Macao's digital commerce in services include the tremendous development in technology transformation and a growing share of firms employing computers and the Internet. The shortcomings are a lack of information network infrastructure and a scarcity of information technology personnel. The expansion of the digital economy in the GBA, as well as the construction of an international digital trade hub port in the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, present prospects for the digital sector. However, it is threatened by political problems and inter-country distrust.

Contributions
Compared with previous studies discussing Macao's digital industry, this paper contributes in four ways. Firstly, some academics have examined the benefits of Macao's trade in services, particularly traditional commerce. Most researchers have concentrated on conventional trade in services, and there is still a study vacuum in Macao's digital commerce in services and its strengths and shortcomings. Therefore, this article has offered a new perspective to evaluate Macao's digital trade in services. Secondly, this study provides a new angle for qualitative research on Macao's digital trade with a SWOT analysis including strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. Thirdly, this article adapts an expert sampling approach and in-depth interview method by interviewing more than 10 persons related to the digital industry, including officials, scholars and entrepreneurs. Fourthly, this article also has made some suggestions for public policy formulation and execution in Macao and provides a sound foundation for future research on Macao's trade in services. The findings of this paper will be beneficial to understand the strategic management and SWOT of Macao's digital trade in services. Thus, it would be of interest to scholars as well as policymakers in the service industries sector.

Limitations and future research
The SWOT model may have its limitations because past research lacks quantifiable findings on the success of the SWOT analysis (Helms & Nixon, 2010). Looking forward, the SWOT model may need to be combined with other strategic tools and methodologies for further theory building to offer more profound guidance for practitioners and policymakers. The role of data flows in enabling digital trade between Macao and the other cities in the GBA may require further attention. Furthermore, future research can look into the technical factors affecting Macao's digital trade in services, such as the I.T. technology including ABCD, digital twins, industry 5.0, FinTech Bridges agreements, etc. More public policy research on Macao's digital commerce in services is also recommended.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)