22nd China-ASEAN Expo concludes with fruitful achievements, including forming AI results

<article><section data-type="rtext"><img data-alt="Visitors to the 22nd China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit that officially open in Nanning, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on September 17, 2025 take pictures at the Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Center. Photo: VCG" src="//img.huanqiucdn.cn/dp/api/files/imageDir/bc0362c004d8cde7eda3a9df1b7efbaa.jpeg?imageView2/2/w/750" />The 22nd China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) wrapped up on Sunday, reaping fruitful achievements including forging new consensuses, facilitating trade orders, reaching investment projects and forming artificial intelligence (AI) results, the Global Times learned from the event's organizer on Sunday. The five-day expo, held in Nanning, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, came as the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) upgrade protocol is about to be signed, said Wei Zhaohui, secretary-general of the CAEXPO Secretariat, during a press conference on Sunday detailing expo's results. Wei highlighted that with unprecedented AI content, the expo injected new energy into building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future. According to Wei, this year's expo attracted 3,260 enterprises from 60 countries. Among them, 432 were representative enterprises, including Fortune Global 500 and China's Top 500, a 7.5 percent increase compared with the previous session. The exhibition area for ASEAN and other international participants accounted for 30 percent of the total, with 627 ASEAN enterprises participating, representing 32.8 percent of the exhibitors and maintaining the largest ASEAN exhibition area and scale among domestic expos, Wei said. As of Saturday, according to incomplete statistics, more than 700 outcomes were achieved, including more than 500 economic and trade project agreements and more than 270 outcomes across various fields and forms, Wei added. She said that Chinese and foreign leaders at the expo reached greater consensus on accelerating the implementation of the CAFTA 3.0, strengthening cooperation in AI, and building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future. In addition, 155 projects were signed, including 94 industrial projects and 44 "AI+" projects empowering various industries covering "AI+" manufacturing, services, agriculture, and cultural tourism, according to Wei. The AI pavilion recorded deals exceeding 140 million yuan ($19.68 million), while a matching event of China-ASEAN agricultural products and food procurement achieved trade transactions and cooperation intentions worth nearly 75 million yuan, Wei said. A series of AI achievements were formed, with more than 140 related cooperative outcomes, including the release of 23 industry-specific large-scale models, 25 AI+ application scenarios, and seven action plans, according to Wei. The secretary-general of the CAEXPO Secretariat noted that at this year's event, the proportion of high-tech exhibits significantly increased, with AI or AI-enabled exhibits accounting for more than 50 percent of the total. The inaugural AI Pavilion showcased approximately 1,200 exhibits, including about 20 large-scale models, 60 intelligent robots, 230 digital service platforms/systems, and 520 AI terminal products, featuring the latest achievements from multiple leading enterprises. Highlights included Unitree's humanoid robot performing street dances and boxing, the world's first consumer-grade artificial intelligence plus augmented reality all-in-one glasses from Rokid, and the global debut of an AI interactive medical specialist digital human supporting ASEAN minority languages, among other groundbreaking AI innovations. "Various initiatives of China-ASEAN AI cooperation, ranging from AI for tourism, AI for local manufacturing and AI-driven service platforms from Guangxi, were showcased at the CAEXPO. This augurs well for deepening collaboration between the AI research institutes of China and their ASEAN counterparts in their common pursuit of enhanced productivity and a changing paradigm of social life," Ong Tee Keat, president of the Belt and Road Initiative Caucus for Asia Pacific, told the Global Times on Sunday. Noting China-ASEAN cooperation in AI,ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn told the Global Times in an earlier group interviewthat "For ASEAN, we have been negotiating for the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework. Next year, we will finalize the application process and implementation. So, we are on track to want to get together in parallel." With the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, economic cooperation between ASEAN and China is expected to reach new heights, particularly in new areas like e-commerce, digital trade, and digital payments, which are very important, particularly in the context of current global economic dynamics, Kao noted. China-ASEAN trade is an evolving model, moving from conventional agricultural produce to a more diversified spectrum of sectors with more manufacturing inputs. With the rise of the digital economy, merchandise trade looks set to be elevated to a higher level, alongside paving the way to enhancing services trade, where ample potential is yet to be fully harnessed. This bodes well for an envisaged deeper value-chain integration between the bloc and China, Ong Tee Keat noted. China has maintained its position as ASEAN's largest trading partner for 16 consecutive years, while ASEAN has been China's number one trading partner for five consecutive years. From January to July this year, China-ASEAN trade reached $597 billion, up 8.2 percent year-on-year, accounting for 16.7 percent of China's total foreign trade during the period, according to Vice Minister of Commerce Yan Dong.</section></article>

The 22nd China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) wrapped up on Sunday, reaping fruitful achievements including forging new consensuses, facilitating trade orders, reaching investment projects and forming artificial intelligence (AI) results, the Global Times learned from the event's organizer on Sunday.

The five-day expo, held in Nanning, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, came as the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) upgrade protocol is about to be signed, said Wei Zhaohui, secretary-general of the CAEXPO Secretariat, during a press conference on Sunday detailing expo's results. Wei highlighted that with unprecedented AI content, the expo injected new energy into building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

According to Wei, this year's expo attracted 3,260 enterprises from 60 countries. Among them, 432 were representative enterprises, including Fortune Global 500 and China's Top 500, a 7.5 percent increase compared with the previous session.

The exhibition area for ASEAN and other international participants accounted for 30 percent of the total, with 627 ASEAN enterprises participating, representing 32.8 percent of the exhibitors and maintaining the largest ASEAN exhibition area and scale among domestic expos, Wei said.

As of Saturday, according to incomplete statistics, more than 700 outcomes were achieved, including more than 500 economic and trade project agreements and more than 270 outcomes across various fields and forms, Wei added.

She said that Chinese and foreign leaders at the expo reached greater consensus on accelerating the implementation of the CAFTA 3.0, strengthening cooperation in AI, and building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

In addition, 155 projects were signed, including 94 industrial projects and 44 "AI+" projects empowering various industries covering "AI+" manufacturing, services, agriculture, and cultural tourism, according to Wei.

The AI pavilion recorded deals exceeding 140 million yuan ($19.68 million), while a matching event of China-ASEAN agricultural products and food procurement achieved trade transactions and cooperation intentions worth nearly 75 million yuan, Wei said.

A series of AI achievements were formed, with more than 140 related cooperative outcomes, including the release of 23 industry-specific large-scale models, 25 AI+ application scenarios, and seven action plans, according to Wei.

The secretary-general of the CAEXPO Secretariat noted that at this year's event, the proportion of high-tech exhibits significantly increased, with AI or AI-enabled exhibits accounting for more than 50 percent of the total.

The inaugural AI Pavilion showcased approximately 1,200 exhibits, including about 20 large-scale models, 60 intelligent robots, 230 digital service platforms/systems, and 520 AI terminal products, featuring the latest achievements from multiple leading enterprises. Highlights included Unitree's humanoid robot performing street dances and boxing, the world's first consumer-grade artificial intelligence plus augmented reality all-in-one glasses from Rokid, and the global debut of an AI interactive medical specialist digital human supporting ASEAN minority languages, among other groundbreaking AI innovations.

"Various initiatives of China-ASEAN AI cooperation, ranging from AI for tourism, AI for local manufacturing and AI-driven service platforms from Guangxi, were showcased at the CAEXPO. This augurs well for deepening collaboration between the AI research institutes of China and their ASEAN counterparts in their common pursuit of enhanced productivity and a changing paradigm of social life," Ong Tee Keat, president of the Belt and Road Initiative Caucus for Asia Pacific, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Noting China-ASEAN cooperation in AI,ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn told the Global Times in an earlier group interviewthat "For ASEAN, we have been negotiating for the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework. Next year, we will finalize the application process and implementation. So, we are on track to want to get together in parallel."

With the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, economic cooperation between ASEAN and China is expected to reach new heights, particularly in new areas like e-commerce, digital trade, and digital payments, which are very important, particularly in the context of current global economic dynamics, Kao noted.

China-ASEAN trade is an evolving model, moving from conventional agricultural produce to a more diversified spectrum of sectors with more manufacturing inputs. With the rise of the digital economy, merchandise trade looks set to be elevated to a higher level, alongside paving the way to enhancing services trade, where ample potential is yet to be fully harnessed. This bodes well for an envisaged deeper value-chain integration between the bloc and China, Ong Tee Keat noted.

China has maintained its position as ASEAN's largest trading partner for 16 consecutive years, while ASEAN has been China's number one trading partner for five consecutive years. From January to July this year, China-ASEAN trade reached $597 billion, up 8.2 percent year-on-year, accounting for 16.7 percent of China's total foreign trade during the period, according to Vice Minister of Commerce Yan Dong.