China, Zhongguancun Group Sign ASEAN Innovation Pact

The International Cooperation Center of China’s National Development and Reform Commission and the Zhongguancun Development Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement during the ASEAN Innovation Cooperation and Development Forum held in Beijing in early April 2026. The agreement is designed to support enterprises in attracting overseas resources, expanding their operations abroad and promoting the integration of industrial and innovation chains.

The forum was organized as part of the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum and was conducted in accordance with the Plan of Action to Implement the ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (2026-2030). Participants at the event focused on strengthening cross-border innovation collaboration and underscored the necessity for tighter coordination across the finance, industry, and innovation sectors to build a more integrated ecosystem.

Strategic Focus Areas for Innovation

Business leaders and experts attending the forum stated that China and ASEAN are well-positioned to deepen their collaboration due to their geographical proximity and complementary industrial strengths. The discussions highlighted three primary areas for enhanced cooperation: the digital economy, biomedicine, and green technology.

This push for innovation follows a broader trend of integrating technology into the trade relationship between the two regions. In Nanning, the capital of South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the building of the China-ASEAN AI Innovation Cooperation Center has been put in motion to use artificial intelligence to invigorate various industries.

Practical applications of AI are already being deployed in cross-border trade. At the Friendship Pass, China’s largest land port with ASEAN, AI is being used to transform customs clearance and port operations. Specifically, Vietnamese truckers have utilized AI-enabled gadgets to receive real-time safety tips and navigation while entering China.

Further AI integration is occurring within e-commerce industrial parks, where Southeast Asian live streamers provide speech data for a specialized ASEAN language corpus. This data is used to improve AI translation models, facilitating smoother communication and trade between the regions.

Industrial Coordination and Trade Ties

The focus on innovation is supported by long-term industrial goals. In September 2025, China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Li Lecheng, stated during a ministerial roundtable in Nanning that China would increase industrial cooperation with ASEAN through practical measures and better-coordinated mechanisms.

Minister Li noted that China is prepared to establish cooperation platforms for high-end, green, and smart manufacturing. He also emphasized China’s support for enterprises from all countries to join global supply and industrial chains, with a specific focus on promoting digital transformation within the manufacturing sector.

During that September 2025 meeting, participants adopted an initiative aimed at strengthening strategic alignment and enhancing the coordination of industrial policies. The goal of this initiative is to share practical experiences and foster a regional innovation ecosystem.

These developments occur against a backdrop of strong economic interdependence. China has remained the largest trading partner for ASEAN for 16 consecutive years, while ASEAN has served as China’s top trading partner for five consecutive years.

The recent strategic agreement in Beijing and the ongoing implementation of the 2026-2030 roadmap represent a continued effort to shift the partnership toward high-tech integration and coordinated industrial policy.