After 17 years of continuous efforts, the China-ASEAN Expo and Business and Investment Summit has become a major platform for open cooperation between China and ASEAN countries. It has built high-level consensus on building a China-ASEAN community of shared future. A total of 83 Chinese and ASEAN leaders and more than 3,300 ministerial officials attended the previous 16 sessions of the China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit.

It has deepened economic exchanges and trade and promoted the building of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the China-ASEAN FTA. Since the China-ASEAN Expo was launched, a total of 832,000 businesspeople have participated in the expo and cooperated in trade in goods, investment, trade in services, international industrial cooperation and the building of cross-border industrial parks. On the CAEXPO platform, they have achieved concrete outcomes on economic cooperation and trade, boosting the building and upgrade of the China-ASEAN FTA. Under the CAEXPO framework, more than 200 conferences and forums have been held, covering more than 40 fields.

This year is the 10th anniversary of the China-ASEAN FTA. With the theme "Building the Belt and Road, Strengthening Digital Economy Cooperation", the physical exhibition of the 17th CAEXPO will be held on November 27-30; and “Cloud CAEXPO” (online exhibition) will be launched on November 27, with permanent presence online and regular maintenance afterwards.

The expo this time has the following four features.

First, innovative approaches. In response to the COVID-19, the CAEXPO and BIS will “go cloud” and hold both physical and online exhibitions. To be specific, the organizers will hold physical exhibition mainly participated by domestic participants and exhibitors and, in parallel, “Cloud CAEXPO” mainly joined by overseas participants and exhibitors. The opening conference will be held both online and offline.

Second, many highlights. During the expo, a special forum on the 10th anniversary of the China-ASEAN FTA will be held, and three commemorative activities will be held to mark the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Thailand, the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Myanmar, and the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the Philippines. To implement the Statement of the Special ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), the third China-ASEAN Health Cooperation Forum and sub-forums will be held.

Third, enormous business opportunities. This year's expo will set up a Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area cooperation exhibition area for the first time, expand the exhibition area for New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, improve the financial exhibition area centered on building the gateway of the financial opening-up, and retain the ASEAN commodity exhibition area; hold a promotion conference on the China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone; and invite more domestic buyers to tap the potentials of domestic demand and serve a new development pattern that takes domestic economic circulation as the mainstay and promotes the mutual reinforcement of domestic and international economic circulation. Eight high-level forums will be held on health, international industrial cooperation, technology transfer, information harbor, agriculture, the environment, statistics and finance.

Fourth, upgraded services. The organizers will work with Alibaba Group to build a digital platform for never-ending "Cloud CAEXPO" to conduct uni-marketing. Exhibitors can be on this digital platform throughout the year to display, negotiate, and live broadcast. This will give them better experience in participation and exhibitors, and help them create more business opportunities and achieve better outcomes. High-level forums and economic and trade promotion activities will be held both online and offline in parallel; offline, the organizers will continue to improve exhibition layout and on-site services to help enterprises explore new markets. The first English-language Blue Book on China's digital economy and opportunities for ASEAN businesses will be published to deepen the cooperation between Chinese and ASEAN enterprises in the field of digital economy.

The 17th China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit will be streamlined and held both online and offline, with full consideration of the current epidemic prevention and control situation. In addition to the opening ceremony, the summit will also hold the roundtable dialogue between leaders of the country of honor (Laos) and Chinese CEOs and the China-ASEAN Business Leaders Forum.

This year's Business Leaders Forum will focus on the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the China-ASEAN FTA and invite government officials, heads of chambers of commerce and industry, and business representatives from China and ASEAN countries to review progress in economic and trade cooperation since China-ASEAN FTA was fully established 10 years ago. They will explore the new normal imposed by the pandemic and new areas in post-COVID China-ASEAN FTA economic and trade cooperation, take a close look into how to further improve the China-ASEAN supply chains, deepen the digital economy and e-commerce cooperation, and help promote the building and upgrading of China-ASEAN FTA. In addition to the above activities, three events—Symposium on China-ASEAN Business Law Cooperation, China-ASEAN Young Entrepreneur Forum, 2020 China- ASEAN High-tech Industry Cooperation and Development Conference in other time in light of the epidemic prevention and control situation will be organized.

PV