AI Transforms Friendship Gates! China-ASEAN Join Hands to Enhance Cross-Border Trade

Public Relations Department of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Nanning, China, June 4, 2025 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/DataSet
 
At the Friendship Pass in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, trucks from Vietnam equipped with AI equipment that provides real-time navigation information and safety instructions smoothly entered China.

Meanwhile, kilometers away, in a bustling e-commerce industrial park, livestreamers from Southeast Asia are chatting enthusiastically with viewers, generating vast amounts of speech data for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) language corpus to improve AI translation models.

As China and ASEAN continue to deepen trade ties, AIs rapid evolution has opened the door to new applications that will boost economic inclusion and reshape industries across the region.
 

Enhancing cross-border trade

The Friendship Port is China's largest land port connected to ASEAN, and has applied AI technology to transform customs procedures and other activities at the port.

At a distribution center in Guangxi's Pingxiang Bonded Warehouse Zone, a network of AI cameras mounted on the walls scans every item placed on the storage floor in detail, spotting any irregularities and alerting potential risks in real time.

The introduction of new technologies has greatly reduced the need for human labor, making work more accurate and efficient.

Previously, each checkpoint required a staff member, said Liang Baoming, head of the smart checkpoint project at the Friendship Checkpoint. But now, with these powerful devices, a single staff member can handle tasks that previously required an entire shift.

Across the region, the adoption of AI technologies is truly revolutionizing the transportation and logistics industry.

At the command center of Guangxi Beitou IT Innovation Technology Investment Group CO., Ltd. in a large commercial center in Nanning, capital of Guangxi, a cutting-edge risk management platform is monitoring real-time communications between support staff and truck drivers transporting goods between China and Vietnam.

Our AI-enhanced platform analyzes drivers' facial expressions to detect signs of fatigue and sends out real-time safety alerts, said Li Heng, deputy head of the company's technology institute. Since its launch in June last year, the system has provided essential services to more than 5,000 trucks and 10,000 drivers on the road, including satellite navigation, safe driving guidance and emergency response.

The innovation is part of Guangxi's efforts to introduce AI into its trade structure, aiming to improve logistics efficiency and enhance connectivity with ASEAN economies.

To date, Beitou has made significant progress in developing a wide range of products specifically tailored to the ASEAN market to meet the regions growing demands for integrated transportation, water management, industrial finance and other emerging sectors.

Among these cutting-edge solutions, products such as aerial and ground-based inspection drones and digital certificate platforms have been carefully developed to meet the urgent needs of the region looking for more efficient logistics and safer cross-border services.

In recent years, AI has played an increasingly important role, helping to deepen trade relations and cultural exchanges.

This year, an ASEAN language translation AI model developed by Guangxi Daring Technology Co., Ltd. is poised to help broaden access to cutting-edge language technology for languages ​​that may be underrepresented in the region.

Unlike conventional models, the system is tailored for languages ​​like Vietnamese, enabling faster and more accurate translations with less computational resources, said Wen Jiakai, the company's general manager. Our focus on ASEAN languages ​​ensures that the results are highly accurate and linguistically consistent.
 

Driving innovation in the region

The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Publicity Department revealed that since the beginning of 2025, China has reiterated its commitment to building a future of cooperation with ASEAN countries in the field of AI, with a large number of projects and application scenarios progressing and being put into practice rapidly.

In February this year, Guangxi and Laos held a signing ceremony in the Lao capital Vientiane to officially establish the China-Laos AI Innovation Cooperation Center.

Interestingly, this pioneering initiative is the first AI-focused innovation platform created by China and ASEAN countries, with the main objective of systematically strengthening Laos technological foundation to enable industries to thrive in the digital age.

So far, Guangxi and Laos have signed more than 10 letters of intent, aiming to enhance cooperation in AI development and cross-border data exchange.

In April, Beitou joined forces with MY E.G. Services Berhad (MYEG), a leading Malaysian digital services company, to develop a China-Malaysia AI Innovation Center, focusing on areas such as blockchain and robotics.

Beitou Chairman Lai Shuiping Highlights Huge Untapped Potential of China-ASEAN AI Cooperation

You Lai revealed that the first project under the initiative will introduce a common digital identity certification system in China and Malaysia, with Guangxi serving as the initial pilot region.

Once implemented, Malaysians will be able to use MyDigital ID to seamlessly access financial services and tourist attractions, while also enabling Chinese citizens to travel conveniently in Malaysia, paving the way for smoother business and personal transactions.

March also marked the official launch of the Wuxiang Cloud Valley intelligent AI computing industrial park in Nanning, marking the regions efforts to develop AI in all aspects, including AI computing power, service platforms, algorithm innovation, and cloud and data security.
 
The industrial estate has also partnered with local authorities to invest in building effective training clusters and promote research and development (R&D) of customizable AI models.

The project is also expected to help create an AI computing power rental service designed for industries in ASEAN, which will promote the flow and shared use of key AI resources in the region, including computing power, technology, and talent.

Dong Weijun, head of the industrial park, said efforts are underway to accelerate the deployment of ASEAN-focused large-scale AI models in sectors such as agriculture, garments, electrical appliances, toys and cosmetics to build vibrant industrial clusters.

The project will help cultivate a strong AI industry ecosystem to push Guangxi into a new AI innovation hub tailored to the ASEAN market, he said.
 

Guangxi, an AI hub for ASEAN

Aiming to become a regional innovation hub, Guangxi has initiated a cross-border industrial ecosystem, drawing on world-class R&D from major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and then adapting these advancements locally before rolling them out across the ASEAN region.

Nanning has also started building a China-ASEAN AI innovation cooperation center, using the power of AI to boost industries.

Many leading domestic and international enterprises have flocked to the city and set up regional offices to explore cooperation opportunities, with collaborations and joint ventures gradually being established in promising areas such as model training, data annotation, and AI applications in education and cultural tourism.
 
The construction site of the AI ​​Innovation Center in Nanning International Science and Technology Industrial City, which was launched earlier this year, was bustling with activity, with overhead cranes and engineering vehicles working nonstop.

The project, covering an area of ​​more than 70 square kilometers, marks an important milestone in China-Singapore industrial cooperation, focusing on three key pillars of bilateral cooperation: AI, new energy applications and new health technologies.
 
To support this grand vision, Nanning has launched a series of measures aimed at driving high-quality project development, according to official documents.
 
The package includes 22 initiatives covering seven key areas, including promoting industry clusters, supporting open data governance, model development, and strengthening cooperation with ASEAN countries.

Officials from the Guangxi Department of Industry and Information Technology revealed that the region has set a grand vision to build a network of AI industrial parks and modern manufacturing clusters, aiming to push the output value of AI-related industries to exceed 100 billion yuan (about 13.9 billion U.S. dollars) by 2027, making Guangxi a leading AI hub for the ASEAN region.
 

Source: Public Relations Department of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region / Xinhua-AsiaNet / Dataxet Infoquest (PR)