Abstract: The development of manufacturing service industry is an important way to realize the industrial upgrading in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. This paper employs the non-competitive input-occupied output model and the input-output table to measure the manufacturing service rate of the 11 provinces and municipalities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, as well as the domestic service rate and import service rate of the sub-divided manufacturing industry. The findings show that compared with the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the downstream region has not only no clear comparative advantage, but a comparative disadvantage. Its specific characteristics are as follows: the lease and business service, the information transmission, software and information technology service of the manufacturing industry in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt have a significant comparative advantage; the wholesale and retail service of the manufacturing industry in the middle reaches of the region has a significant comparative advantage; while in the upper reaches the transportation, warehousing and postal service, financial service, scientific research and technical service of the manufacturing industry have a significant comparative advantage. The import service rate of the manufacturing industry is generally low, which is mainly based on the domestic service.

Key words: Yangtze River Economic Belt; manufacturing service rate; domestic productive service rate; import productive service rate