Ministry of Commerce: Continue to deepen China-ASEAN cooperation in cutting-edge fields such as cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and green energy sources

People’s Finance and Information April 2—On April 2, at a regular press conference, He Yadong, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, said that the China–ASEAN Free Trade Area upgrade protocol for Version 3.0 was officially signed on October 28 last year. The upgraded Version 3.0 is aligned with new trends in international economic and trade development and, for the first time, brings emerging areas such as the digital economy, the green economy, and interconnectedness across production, supply, and industrial chains into the framework. According to the provisions of the protocol, the agreement will enter into force once China and at least five ASEAN member countries approve it. Currently, we are working with ASEAN member countries to synchronously speed up the domestic approval procedures for the protocol, striving to have it enter into force and be implemented as early as possible. Regarding how China and ASEAN countries will deepen cooperation in industrial chains, we will fully leverage the protocol’s effectiveness, support Chinese digital and new energy enterprises to deepen their presence in ASEAN markets, and continue to deepen cooperation between the two sides in cutting-edge fields such as cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence, financial technology, green equipment, and green power, so as to promote deep integration across the production and supply chains.