BEIJING: The 18th China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) will take place both online and offline in Nanning, the capital of south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, from September 10-13. Pakistan, like previous year, will be the special partner country at the CAEXPO, which is a high-level dialogue platform of concerted efforts, successfully convened for 17 consecutive years. In response to the COVID-19, this year’s CAEXPO will go cloud and hold both physical and online exhibitions. To be specific, the organizers will hold a physical exhibition mainly participated by domestic participants and exhibitors and, in parallel, ‘Cloud CAEXPO’ mainly joined by overseas participants and exhibitors. Wang Lei, Secretary-General of the China-ASEAN Expo Secretariat, said that by exploring the potential of cross-border e-commerce cooperation, online CAEXPO will promote the formation of new growth points for China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation. The mixed model of “physical exhibition + online CAEXPO” adopted for the first time in the 17th China-ASEAN Expo provided Chinese and foreign enterprises with free services such as online exhibition, online negotiation and conference, live broadcast, and cross-border e-commerce. The online CAEXPO is divided into China Pavilion, ASEAN Pavilion, Pavilion for Special Partner Country, and “Belt and Road” International Pavilion, and provides link services to well-known e-commerce platforms at home and abroad. In the meantime, trade and investment promotion activities such as online cross-border procurement matchmaking, sales by online celebrities on live streaming, and ASEAN products promotion conferences will be held online. The online CAEXPO, which debuted last year, created a multi-linkage exhibition platform, showcasing more than 4,800 items. A total of 1,956 enterprises in the 17th China-ASEAN Expo participated in online CAEXPO, 135 online conferences were held, 3,000 pairs of accurate matching were made, the entire network exposure reached 1 billion, and the site visits were 20.17 million, providing a new experience of the mixed model for participating businesses. Online CAEXPO has achieved substantial results. According to statistics, the past 17th CAEXPO’s have attracted 926,000 Chinese and ASEAN participants and made a series of important achievements in goods trade, investment cooperation, and international production capacity cooperation, which have effectively promoted the upgrading and development of China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation. This year’s CAEXPO will continue to promote cooperation between the two sides. The exhibition’s contents will be optimized, with economic and trade activities covering production capacity, digital economy, science and technology, and environmental protection. The delegations from 31 provinces, regions, and cities in China have confirmed participation. ASEAN countries will use an exhibition area of 12,600 square meters, with the presence of many leading corporations. The normalized operation of online CAEXPO throughout the year will greatly enhance the effectiveness of economic and trade cooperation.