Four highlights rejuvenate the 23rd China-ASEAN Expo

[ASEAN Special Line] Four highlights revitalize the 23rd China-ASEAN Expo

China News Service, Nanning, September 17th. Title: Four highlights rejuvenate the 23rd China-ASEAN Expo

China News Service reporters Yang Chen Jiang Xuelin

The 23rd China-ASEAN Expo opened in Nanning on the 17th. This China-ASEAN Expo coincides with the accelerated implementation of version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. It is also the first time that 11 countries have gathered in Nanning since the expansion of ASEAN. The four highlights of the event demonstrated the confidence and determination of China and ASEAN to jointly respond to global economic and trade challenges, and demonstrated the common expectation of promoting high-quality growth of the regional economy.

Highlight 1: The 11-nation ASEAN reunion deeply integrated into regional cooperation.

At this CAEXPO, Timor-Leste participated as a co-organizer for the first time, achieving a "family portrait" gathering of the 11 member states after the expansion of ASEAN. Timor-Leste will not only bring special products for display, but the country's Chamber of Commerce and Industry will also join the ASEAN Presidium of the China-ASEAN Business Council for the first time and participate in summits and joint business meetings to help the country connect with the Chinese market and fully integrate into the China-ASEAN regional economic and trade network.

During the conference, many ASEAN-focused activities were unveiled for the first time. The "Export to China" Thailand special event aims to help high-quality Thai goods enter the Chinese market; RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) and CAFTA (China-ASEAN Free Trade Area) coordinate the development of high-end dialogues, focusing on the dividends of the two major agreements for ASEAN, and releasing annual reports and ASEAN practical cases in the field of green and digital trade.

Highlight 2: Helping companies capture business opportunities based on the actual needs of ASEAN.

In order to promote the cooperation consensus of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 into market opportunities that can be perceived and implemented by enterprises, this exhibition closely follows the development demands of ASEAN countries. It is the first time to set up an ASEAN demand exhibition and publish an ASEAN demand list. Focusing on artificial intelligence, park cooperation, smart city logistics, cultural tourism and other fields, it gathers project and policy information from ASEAN countries and promotes on-site matching between ASEAN project owners and Chinese enterprises and scientific research institutions.

The first-ever future space and science and technology enterprise growth empowerment exhibition area will showcase cutting-edge technologies and products in the aerospace and ocean fields such as satellite navigation, commercial aerospace, and deep-sea operation equipment to ASEAN, and export cutting-edge technologies that can be implemented in ASEAN.

Highlight Three: Deeper and more substantial cooperation in emerging fields to create a new engine for economic development.

Expanding high-level open cooperation to emerging areas such as the digital economy is a new area of ​​free trade cooperation practice between China and ASEAN. For the first time, the artificial intelligence exhibition area of ​​this China-ASEAN Expo has set up an AI consumption "hypermarket". More than 40 companies participated in the exhibition with 230 artificial intelligence products in 8 major categories, creating a one-stop "exhibition, purchase and sales" consumer experience.

The newly established South A community exhibition area focuses on the cooperation cases of AI implementation in ASEAN. Relying on road shows and competitions, it promotes the adaptation of Chinese AI solutions to local application scenarios in ASEAN and helps create a new engine for high-quality regional economic development.

The China-ASEAN Artificial Intelligence Supply and Demand Matchmaking Conference will also provide trade matching services through the AI ​​intelligent matching system to promote the accurate docking of China's artificial intelligence products and solutions with application scenarios in ASEAN countries.

Highlight 4: Expand new space for economic and trade cooperation and release the potential of inbound consumption.

Finance is an important support for the improvement and expansion of China-ASEAN economic and trade exchanges. During the China-ASEAN Expo, with the support of the People's Bank of China, the financial exhibition area will display AI+ finance, financial technology going overseas, financial opening up and other contents, using financial digitization to empower economic and trade cooperation upgrades. During the meeting, China will also jointly release cooperation initiatives with eight ASEAN countries to promote the coordinated output of standards, talents, and industries.

In addition, this CAEXPO will set up a "departure tax refund service area" for the first time on the exhibition site. Overseas merchants who shop at any tax refund store in Nanning can apply for tax refund at the CAEXPO site, which further improves the convenience of tax refund shopping for overseas merchants and releases the potential of inbound consumption.

Over the years, the China-ASEAN Expo has become an important pragmatic platform for China and ASEAN to deepen connectivity. Through a series of innovative practices, the institutional dividends of version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area are being transformed into visible and tangible cooperation opportunities, promoting in-depth linkage of policies, industries, and markets, and injecting stability and new momentum into regional and even global development.