BEIJING, Sept. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — In a lush park northwest of Nanning’s bustling center, exotic architecture and serene landscapes evoke a tourist haven. Yet, step inside an exhibition hall, and a cutting-edge world unfolds, showcasing over 110 high-tech innovations, from drones and autonomous vehicles to digital humans, smart appliances, and robots that serve coffee.
The Nanning-Zhongguancun innovation demonstration base in the regional capital of South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region represents both a hallmark of the “Green City” famed for its pristine ecology, as well as its rapid rise as an international AI cooperation hub focusing on ASEAN.
In 2017, during his inspection tour to Guangxi, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Nanning-Zhongguancun innovation demonstration base, where he described the importance of innovation in driving economic growth, the Xinhua News Agency reported at the time.
In recent years, Guangxi has been ramping up efforts to foster innovation-driven high-quality development. Notably, as artificial intelligence (AI) is driving a new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation, Guangxi, focusing on national priorities, its own strengths, and ASEAN’s expectations, is striving to foster a cross-region industrial ecosystem of “R&D in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou + integration in Guangxi + application in ASEAN,” to accelerate the creation of an international AI cooperation hub focusing on ASEAN.
Such efforts and progress will also be highlighted at the 22nd China–ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO), which officially kicks off in Nanning on Wednesday. Under the theme “Digital Intelligence and Innovation Empower Development – Leveraging China-ASEAN FTA 3.0 New Opportunities for an Even Closer China-ASEAN Community with a Shared Future,” the CAEXPO is set to inject fresh momentum into China-ASEAN cooperation with a focus on innovation in AI and other emerging industries.
Notably, pavilions showcasing AI and new quality productive forces will be newly set up in this year’s expo, along with new sections dedicated to the blue economy and premium foreign trade products, according to Xinhua.
“China and ASEAN have completed Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA) upgrade negotiations. The Version 3.0 covers nine major areas, with the first being the digital economy, indicating that the digital economy, represented by AI, has become a new driving force for China-ASEAN cooperation,” Lu Xinning, vice chairperson of Guangxi, said during a press conference regarding the expo on September 8.
Growing cooperation
Growing China-ASEAN cooperation in the digital economy is also on display at the AI+ New Technology and New Product Exhibition Trading Hall of the Nanning-Zhongguancun innovation demonstration base.
“Although the exhibition hall has only been open for five months, it has already hosted numerous business delegations from ASEAN members such as Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia. During their visits, these delegations have shown strong interest in China’s AI+ smart terminal products and frequently placed pre-orders,” Liang Ke, operational manager of Nanning ZGC Information Valley Technology Service Co, told the Global Times.
“Business delegations from ASEAN members have shown a particular fondness for coffee robots,” Liang said, adding that a manufacturer from Vietnam placed an order worth $3 million after visiting the exhibition hall.
While the exhibition hall is relatively new, the Nanning-Zhongguancun innovation demonstration base was officially launched on July 24, 2016. Its overarching goal is to create an innovation hub that serves as a key gateway for the joint construction of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, forming a Nanning-Zhongguancun-ASEAN collaborative innovation demonstration zone with concentrated resources, according to official documents.
“The demonstration base is not only a regional cooperation platform, but also a service channel for Chinese enterprises aiming for the ASEAN market, helping these high-tech companies break through geographical limitations and achieve an important platform for international expansion,” said Liang.
At the 22nd CAEXPO, businesses are eyeing opportunities for greater cooperation, particularly in the AI field.
“Moving forward, we are preparing to participate in a China-ASEAN AI innovation cooperation center, aiming to create an international AI enterprise incubator to support domestic AI companies and technologies in ‘going global’,” said Liang.
This is likely to be just one of many such cooperation between Chinese and ASEAN businesses, as about 3,200 enterprises from 45 countries have already confirmed their participation.
