Cross-regional Matchmaking Event to Boost China-ASEAN Business Cooperation at the 23rd China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit
The Matchmaking Conference for Entrepreneurs from China and ASEAN Countries, a brand-new side event of the 23rd China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, will kick off in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on September 19, 2026.
Hosted from September 17 to 19, this year’s summit carries the theme “Seize Opportunities of the 3.0 FTA for a Better Shared Future”. 2026 marks the start of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, the fifth anniversary of the China-ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership, and a pivotal year for rolling out the upgraded China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA 3.0). In the first six months of 2026, China’s trade with ASEAN hit 4.34 trillion yuan, a year-on-year rise of 18.2 percent, keeping ASEAN as China’s largest trading partner.
Centered on “Shared Opportunities, Win-win Matchmaking”, the matchmaking conference will gather around 200 representatives from Beijing, Wuhan, Guangxi, other Chinese provinces and ASEAN economies including Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, etc. With CCPIT Beijing Sub-council and CCPIT Wuhan Sub-council as its key invited partners, the event targets six complementary industrial sectors: AI and next-gen IT, advanced manufacturing, food & agriculture, biomedicine & health-care, new energy & new materials, as well as cross-border supply chain services.
Innovative Event Format Boosts Multi-party Linkage and Resource Sharing
The matchmaking conference adopts an innovative multi-tiered event framework combining the opening plenary, sector-based roundtables and dedicated one-on-one business matching slots. Centered on its core principle of putting enterprises and their practical business demands first, this multi-pronged service system covers high-level exchanges, industry seminars and customized bilateral talks, facilitating the identification of viable cooperation opportunities for all participants.
During the keynote speeches, representatives from China and ASEAN nations will brief participants on opening dividends of CAFTA 3.0, economic gains of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and the Pinglu Canal, as well as approaches to coordinated regional industrial and supply chains. The session will share favorable policies for bilateral trade and investment and consolidate consensus among business communities.
The parallel matching segment features three themed roundtables focusing on green agriculture, advanced manufacturing & AI, and health-care & bio-medicine respectively. Pre-event AI-powered matching of corporate supply and demand will facilitate in-depth business talks via dedicated one-on-one matching slots. A special zone for Pinglu Canal cooperation is also set up as a highlight tied to the canal’s navigation launch. It showcases cooperation prospects in shipping and logistics, smart water transport technologies, port industrial parks and cross-border bulk commodity trade. The zone is expected to pool industrial strengths to boost development of the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt and advance the dual circulation of industries along the waterway.
AI-powered Services Boost Cross-border Cooperation
Artificial intelligence acts as a core enabler across the entire event cycle. Prior to the conference, an AI-powered matching tool will conduct pre-matching for enterprises in light of their business intentions to realize refined targeted pairing. During the event, participants will have access to multilingual support, smart tariff queries, overseas investment risk alerts and real-time AI interpretation, with all potential cooperation leads recorded in a live digital database. After the conference, corporate demand profiles will be retained on the digital system, providing year-round matching services.
A Nationwide Platform Empowering Firms to Tap ASEAN Markets
As a vivid practice of the summit’s open cooperation framework featuring “Guangxi as the platform for nationwide shared resources”, the matchmaking conference draws on the summit’s long-term mechanism. Since the innovative launch of the invited CCPIT partner mechanism at the summit in 2024, participants including CCPIT Guizhou, Beijing, and Zhejiang sub-councils have been engaged. The initiative brings high-quality domestic business resources to Nanning to enable targeted access to ASEAN markets via the Nanning Channel.
This year’s conference has invited the CCPIT Beijing Sub-council and Wuhan Sub-council as special partners. They will organize enterprise delegations comprising high-tech firms, trade and investment enterprises and industrial park operators to conduct exchanges and matchmaking with the ASEAN business community.
Against the backdrop of CAFTA 3.0 unlocking new growth opportunities in the digital economy, green industrial chains and regional connectivity, the matchmaking conference will facilitate tangible cross-border deals, deepen regional industrial and supply chain integration, and foster a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.
