A new campaign promoting fruits from members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was officially launched in Nanning, the capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on June 18, 2025.
Chen Gang, secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional Committee, attended the event and delivered a keynote speech.
China's Vice Commerce Minister Sheng Qiuping and Sok Siphana, senior minister of the Royal Government of Cambodia in charge of multilateral trade and economic affairs, addressed the event via video.
In his speech, Chen said Guangxi is dubbed China's "fruit platter," highlighting the region's unique position as both China's top fruit-producing area and a strategic gateway for ASEAN fruits entering the Chinese market.
He emphasized the campaign's role in facilitating the flow of fruits and other quality goods from countries participating in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) across China, advancing cooperation in sectors such as cultural tourism and cross-border e-commerce, with the ultimate goal of deepening regional economic integration and contributing to building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.
Guangxi looks forward to working with various parties to strengthen economic and trade ties, enhance infrastructure connectivity, and build efficient import-export clearance systems to open up a broader market space for fruit trade between China and ASEAN countries, Chen noted.
Chen added that the region is ready to deepen collaboration in artificial intelligence and the digital economy, particularly in smart agriculture applications such as fruit breeding and cultivation, to become a highland for international AI cooperation between China and ASEAN.
He further pledged continued efforts to expand the opening up of Guangxi. He also vowed to deepen and expand pragmatic cooperation in various areas, aiming to jointly build stable and secure regional industrial and supply chains.
In his remarks, Sheng said China's Ministry of Commerce, in coordination with other government departments, has been working to upgrade product consumption, expand service consumption and maintain steady growth in overall consumption this year.
Sheng reaffirmed Guangxi's role as a vital window for China's high-standard opening up and cooperation with ASEAN. He pledged full support for leveraging its geographic advantages to bring more high-quality products from ASEAN and RCEP countries into the Chinese market.
As part of the launch event, diplomatic envoys from eight countries, including Vietnam, Brunei, Cambodia and Indonesia, promoted their countries' fruits and other high-quality products through on-site presentations or video messages.
Representatives from multiple cities in Guangxi, such as Nanning, Qinzhou and Chongzuo; officials from Guangxi's Department of Commerce and Department of Culture and Tourism; as well as representatives from the China Chamber of Commerce of Import & Export of Foodstuffs, Native Produce and Animal By-products (CFNA), leading e-commerce platforms in China, and enterprises engaged in cross-border e-commerce, also delivered presentations to promote products from ASEAN and RCEP countries.
Dong Yuhui, a prominent livestreaming influencer in China and head of Time with Yuhui (Beijing) Technology Ltd., shared his insights at the event and was appointed as the campaign's livestreaming e-commerce partner.
Meanwhile, Ye Zhenzhen, chairman of People's Daily Online and head of the national key laboratory of communication content cognition, unveiled the "China (Guangxi)-ASEAN fruit large model" at the event.
The event also saw the signing of a series of cooperation agreements, including ASEAN fruit procurement projects, RCEP product processing projects in China, and nationwide sales projects for ASEAN fruits.
In addition, an initiative to jointly build a China-ASEAN AI cooperation ecosystem was launched at the event.
On the sidelines of the launch event, Chen met with domestic and international guests and business leaders, and joined them for a tour of the exhibition venue.
(Source: People's Daily Online)