A robot waves to guests attending 2025 China-ASEAN Ministerial Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence in Nanning on Sept. 18, 2025
A week-long 22nd China-ASEAN EXPO (CAEXPO) hosted in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, concluded on Sept. 21.
AI has undoubtedly been a central topic during CAEXPO, discussed by officials from China and ASEAN countries, business leaders from both sides, and experts from ASEAN member countries.
One tenet has become a consensus among them regarding AI—more collaboration between China and ASEAN countries will be essential in the future.
Decision makers from ASEAN voice more joint efforts with China
Group photo of guests at 2025 China-ASEAN Ministerial Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence in Nanning on Sept. 18, 2025. (Photo: Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Big Data Development Bureau)
Themed “Join hands in advancing an AI-driven future,” the 2025 China-ASEAN Ministerial Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence was co-hosted by China’s National Development and Reform Commission and the regional government of Guangxi on Sept. 18, marking the first-ever ministerial conference on AI at CAEXPO.
To solidify cooperation between China and ASEAN countries on the development and governance of AI, ministers from ASEAN countries delivered keynote speeches reflecting their own national AI contexts and voiced the need for more joint efforts with China in the future.
“ASEAN and China have enormous potential for cooperation in AI research and development,” noted Boviengkham Vongdara, Minister of Technology and Communications of Laos, at the roundtable.
He projected that China’s advanced educational resources will play a vital role in cultivating and jointly developing ASEAN’s AI talent pool, which will drive growth in key sectors such as industry, agriculture, public health, transportation, and education.
Notably, a series of bilateral outcomes were reached at the roundtable, including the establishment of the China-ASEAN Artificial Intelligence Application Cooperation Center and joint AI standards between China and Laos and between China and Cambodia.
Prime examples of AI firms from China and ASEAN
Correspondingly, Presidents and CEOs of AI enterprises from China and ASEAN attended the roundtable, each with their own booths inside the AI pavilion, an ad hoc arrangement at this CAEXPO.
Liu Qingfeng receives the interview with South in Nanning on Sept. 18, 2025.
Liu Qingfeng, founder and president of iFLYTEK, a Chinese company focusing on intelligent speech technology, introduced their new products for ASEAN countries launched at this CAEXPO.
He detailed iFLYTEK’s multilingual large language model for ASEAN countries, supporting languages such as Malay, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino, Burmese, and Lao.
The model offers functions for language understanding, machine translation, knowledge question answering, text generation, mathematical skills, and common sense reasoning.
The exhibition booth of iFLYTEK shows its translation product supporting ASEAN countries’ languages in Nanning on Sept.19, 2025.
“China and ASEAN share a deep consensus on AI cooperation and the future industrial transformation,” Liu emphasized. “Both sides are eager for an AI era and share a common understanding of applying AI to promote social progress and industrial development.”
According to Liu, their product development group focused on the ASEAN market has exceeded 240,000 members, with a 50% surge last year.
“China’s technological advantages combined with ASEAN’s population and market will create a positive interaction,” he added.
The national large model of Laos produced by ALO Technology Group in Nanning on Sept.19, 2025.
ALO Technology Group, a tech firm headquartered in Laos, specializes in digital transformation, e-commerce, trade, renewable energy, and education.
Thanousone Phonamath, CEO and Founder of ALO, detailed the firm’s development from an internet start-up three decades ago to a leading technology-driven firm introducing new technology to Laos, such as 3G, 4G, 5G, and now AI.
“After I returned from Germany, there was no internet in Laos. It took me four years to convince the government to allow me to provide internet access to the Lao people,” he told reporters during the interview.
Thanousone Phonamath receives the interview with reporters in Nanning on Sept.18, 2025.
AI can empower many sectors in Laos, according to Phonamath, as they are relatively underdeveloped.
“We can jump from 2 to 4, underpinned by AI. We used to talk about digital transformation, but now we can discuss AI transformation, so that we can move faster,” he added.
Regarding the collaboration between Laos and China, Phonamath mentioned that his firm is conducting quality checks for the new EVs coming to Laos and has partnered with large Chinese companies.
He visited CATL, a leading Chinese lithium battery manufacturer, last week to plan the establishment of a service center, as more Lao people start using EVs and the batteries near expiration. “That’s why we see the opportunity to have a service center to change the batteries for the existing EVs.”
Thai expert: AI National strategies of ASEAN & China are well-aligned
AI + ASEAN enterprises exhibition area in Nanning on Sept.19, 2025.
Tiranee Achalakul, President of Thailand’s Big Data Institute, told South that the AI national strategies of ASEAN and China are very well-aligned and used three words—”collaboration, research, and innovation”—to describe the prospects for bilateral collaboration.
Delivering her keynote speech titled “Thailand’s strategic outlook on leveraging AI for national development” at the roundtable, she noted that each ASEAN country has discussed its own national development.
“It’s all in line with workforce development, infrastructure building, and how we adapt agriculture, healthcare, and tourism.”
She noted that China acts as a technology provider with AI technologies that align with these domains. She forecast that collaboration between China and ASEAN would be straightforward.
Notably, the most pressing issue regarding AI that all ASEAN countries face is manpower.
She elaborated that in the past two years, we have seen the world change, moving from neural networks and basic concepts to large models that can respond in a relatively human-like manner.
“AI technologies keep evolving every few weeks. Given that fast pace, each ASEAN country will struggle with how to build a sufficient number of people with the right quantity and quality to keep up with global trends,” she concluded.
Reporter: Zhang Ruijun
Photo: Zhang Ruijun
Editor: Yuan Zixiang, James Campion, Shen He