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Photo shows the launching ceremony of the "AI for All: China-ASEAN" competition held in Nanning, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, July 19, 2025. (Photo courtesy of the host)

South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is making big strides toward broader prospects of artificial intelligence (AI) development.

On July 19, the "AI for All: China-ASEAN" competition, dubbed "AI Super League," was kicked off in Nanning, capital of Guangxi, marking a significant step in harnessing AI across various sectors.

Officials confirmed at the launching ceremony of the competition that the region is determined to follow an AI development path featuring a cross-border industrial ecosystem with research and development based in major Chinese cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, integration centered in Guangxi, and application extending across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.

While Guangxi may not yet match China's developed regions in terms of technological innovation, it enjoys a unique geographical advantage as a gateway to ASEAN, with close cultural, trade, and economic ties.

ASEAN has been Guangxi's largest trade partner for 25 consecutive years.

Leveraging platforms such as the China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, Guangxi has facilitated the establishment of China-ASEAN cooperative mechanisms covering over 40 fields, including trade, customs, and finance.

Photo shows vehicles moving in and out at the Youyiguan port in Pingxiang city, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (People's Daily Online/Lei Qijun)

In recent years, Guangxi has signed over 30 digital cooperation agreements with ASEAN countries, and this year, the region held a signing ceremony to establish the first AI cooperation and innovation platform between China and an ASEAN country— the China-Laos AI Innovation Cooperation Center.

As an initiative launched in response to the "China-ASEAN Joint Statement on Facilitating Cooperation in Building a Sustainable and Inclusive Digital Ecosystem," the center set a new benchmark for regional AI technology inclusive development and governance.

Since the beginning of this year, Guangxi has made notable strides in promoting AI cooperation with ASEAN countries.

According to a recently released white paper on the development of the AI industry in Guangxi in 2025, Guangxi has accelerated the establishment of the China-ASEAN AI Innovation Cooperation Center, signing 40 major projects encompassing large language models and key fields involving in-depth integration of AI.

These projects have a combined investment of 8 billion yuan ($1.11 billion). The first batch of 16 enterprises from six ASEAN countries has already signed agreements and joined the center.

Guangxi's AI development drive was set in motion at the first meeting of the Communist Party of China Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional Committee held after the 2025 Spring Festival.

An embodied artificial intelligence robot is displayed at the launching ceremony of the "AI for All: China-ASEAN" competition held in Nanning, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, July 19, 2025. (Photo courtesy of the host)

The region's top leadership declared AI a development priority at the meeting, pledging that Guangxi would not fall behind in the AI era.

Following that, an "early spring action" focused on attracting investment in emerging industries such as "AI plus," smart chips, and data models was launched across the region, resulting in targeted services for prospective projects from major economic regions, including the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone.

Over the following six months, various sectors in Guangxi began exploring the integration of AI with industrial upgrading and transformation, leading to a steady stream of new applications.

In agriculture, AI-powered monitoring systems have been adopted in blueberry farms in Mengshan county, Wuzhou city, Guangxi; in logistics, smart customs clearance has sped up the cross-border flow of ASEAN goods at Youyiguan port in Guangxi's Pingxiang city; in computing, large-scale AI infrastructure has been established in Wuxiang Cloud Valley AI Intelligent Computing Industrial Park in Nanning; in manufacturing, embodied AI robots equipped with large language models have taken on real production tasks at workshop of an automaker headquartered in Guangxi's Liuzhou city.

Such examples of AI transforming various sectors across Guangxi are numerous and still growing.

By launching the "AI Super League", the region aims to build an innovation platform for AI enterprises, researchers, and developers.

Photo shows some members of the jury presidium of the "AI Super League," or the "AI for All: China-ASEAN" competition launched in Nanning, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, July 19, 2025. (Photo courtesy of the host)

The event, focused on fostering deep integration between AI and key industries, is designed to facilitate the gathering of innovation resources and the commercialization of sci-tech achievements, connect capital with projects, nurture emerging AI enterprises targeting ASEAN markets, and create a new ecosystem of AI applications.

"The AI application scenarios in Guangxi and ASEAN countries are similar, so AI companies that adapt to Guangxi will easily expand into ASEAN markets," pointed out Qi Xiangdong, a member of the jury presidium of the "AI Super League" and vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.

"By replicating their success stories in both Guangxi and ASEAN, the winners have the chance to scale from 1 to 10, and eventually achieve widespread commercial success," Qi noted.

Wen Yonggang, another member of the jury presidium of the "AI Super League" and fellow of the Singapore Academy of Engineering, believes that Guangxi can further drive the integration of AI technology by accurately matching the needs of each ASEAN country, establishing long-term cooperation mechanisms, and implementing field-specific solutions.

The efforts will make ASEAN countries key markets for AI technology deployment and boost the integrated development of regional digital economy, according to Wen.

"By working with ASEAN countries to promote the inclusive benefits of AI—AI for All—we are confident that this competition will become a milestone in China-ASEAN AI cooperation," said Ye Zhenzhen, chairman of People's Daily Online and also a member of the jury presidium of the "AI Super League."