In the golden September, merchants gather by the banks of the Yongjiang River. The 23rd China ASEAN Expo and China ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (referred to as the "East Expo") with the theme of "Sharing 3.0 Opportunities and Creating a Better Life Together" was held in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. During the conference, the China ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade Protocol (referred to as "3.0 version") received widespread attention. In October 2025, the 3.0 version will for the first time include digital economy, green economy, and supply chain connectivity in the institutionalized cooperation framework. Currently, China and ASEAN countries are accelerating the domestic approval process for the 3.0 version.

By 2025, the trade volume between China and ASEAN has reached $1 trillion, with ASEAN becoming China's largest trading partner for seven consecutive years and China becoming ASEAN's largest trading partner for 17 consecutive years. What new opportunities will the 3.0 version of the China ASEAN cooperation report bring?

Rule upgrade——

Certainty dividend makes business expectations more stable

In 2002, China and ASEAN began the process of building a free trade zone. In 2010, the 1.0 version of the Free Trade Zone was fully established, and both sides implemented zero tariffs on over 90% of products; In 2019, version 2.0 came into full effect and implementation, with a focus on expanding openness in the service sector and investment market access; In October 2025, the 3.0 version will be signed, expanding free trade cooperation to digital, green, standard, and supply chain fields.

What changes have been reflected in the rules of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area from version 1.0 to version 3.0?

The 1.0 version solves the tariff reduction issue of 'whether it can come in', the 2.0 version promotes trade and investment liberalization and facilitation expansion, and the 3.0 version responds to the era proposition of digital technology revolution and global green transformation, upgrading the focus of cooperation from goods flow to rule integration, which is a vivid practice of institutional openness at the regional level. Zhou Yamin, Director of the Regional Cooperation Office of the Asia Pacific and Global Strategy Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed that the most core new opportunity brought by the 3.0 version is the 'rule certainty dividend'.

Rules themselves are a type of regional public good: on the one hand, the integration of rules can ensure fair competition, stabilize enterprise expectations, and allow various market entities to share the benefits of openness on the same track; on the other hand, it can protect consumer rights, expand effective demand through enhancing market trust, and form a virtuous cycle of 'consumption investment growth'. Zhou Yamin pointed out that the mutual recognition and docking of rules can significantly reduce the institutional transaction costs of cross-border business operations for enterprises, enabling both sides of the enterprise to deeply embed themselves in the regional value chain under a unified and predictable rule framework, and transform market scale advantages into future oriented industrial competitive advantages.

The China ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 version will expand cooperation between the two sides to increasingly important areas such as digital economy, green economy, and supply chain connectivity. The Free Trade Area and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) complement each other, laying a more solid foundation for ASEAN and China to deepen regional economic integration. ”ASEAN Secretary General Gao Jinhong stated.

During this year's East Expo, the "RCEP Regional Cooperation Outlook 2026 Annual Report" (referred to as the "Report") with the theme of "promoting synergy and efficiency between RCEP and China ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0" was released. The report shows that the interviewed enterprises recognize the positive impact of RCEP on production and operation, especially the trading enterprises who believe that RCEP has expanded the market, improved facilitation, and reduced trade costs; Satisfaction with trade and customs facilitation remains high; The construction of a regional digital customs clearance system has made positive progress, effectively reducing logistics and time costs.

Ge Hongliang, Vice Dean of the ASEAN College at Guangxi University for Nationalities, pointed out that the 3.0 version places mutual recognition of rules within the framework, such as unifying electronic invoice standards in the field of digital trade and establishing a carbon footprint tracing system in green transformation. These are conducive to further close integration between relevant industries in China and ASEAN countries.

Industrial integration——

Deep integration of production and supply chain benefits more categories of enterprise entities

At this year's East Expo, SAIC GM Wuling unveiled its new energy vehicle Air EV. In August 2022, as the first new energy global vehicle of SAIC GM Wuling, the Air EV was officially rolled off the production line at Wuling's Indonesian factory, and one year later, its sales in the Indonesian market exceeded 10000 units.

When we first entered the markets of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, we faced two main challenges: first, to ensure that core components from different countries met RCEP rules of origin, and second, local partners needed to keep up with green standards. ”The person in charge of SAIC GM Wuling's overseas business unit introduced that the company has adopted a "cross sea relocation" strategy, building a factory in Indonesia, driving more than 17 Chinese supply chain partners to go global, linking more than 40 local suppliers, and achieving synergy in the five chains of manufacturing, supply, sales, finance, and talent. Currently, Wuling's market share in the Indonesian new energy vehicle market has exceeded 50%.

Xu Yingming, Director of the International Market Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Commerce, pointed out that the current China ASEAN industrial division of labor and cooperation is becoming increasingly close, and has shifted from simple goods trade to deep integration of upstream and downstream supply chains. With the implementation of version 3.0, rules and regulations such as digital economy, green economy, and supply chain interconnection are gradually coming into effect. Enterprises are increasingly turning to building integrated regional industrial networks, paying more attention to the efficiency of cross-border intermediate goods circulation, optimizing component allocation based on free trade zone rules, promoting production capacity coordination between China and ASEAN, and deepening upstream and downstream division of labor.

The report shows that over half of the surveyed enterprises have integrated into the RCEP regional supply chain network, with higher participation from large enterprises, and ASEAN members such as Vietnam and Thailand have become the focus of layout; The anchor position of China's production and supply chain is still stable. Among the surveyed enterprises planning to adjust their production and supply chain layout, 73.3% of them will stabilize or expand their investment in China, and the proportion of foreign-funded enterprises choosing this option is as high as 79.8%.

The nested industry of 'you in me, I in you' is the real soil for the integration of supply chain interconnection into the institutionalized framework of free trade zones. And this kind of positive interaction is not exclusive to large enterprises, as small and medium-sized enterprises also jointly build and share between China and ASEAN.

Vietnamese cross-border e-commerce representative Ruan Xianliang shared his story of realizing his e-commerce dream. Two years ago, full of aspirations for China's e-commerce and digital economy, Ruan Xianliang entered Guangxi International Business Vocational and Technical College and embarked on a one-year "Chinese+E-commerce" training system learning journey. I used to think that cross-border e-commerce was only suitable for large enterprises, but after coming to China to study, I realized that small and micro enterprises also have many opportunities in the ASEAN market. "Ruan Xianliang said that RCEP and the relevant rules of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area have developed in synergy, better serving small and micro enterprises. One of her main products, Vietnamese durian, can achieve an average daily sales volume of about 10000 on a single cross-border e-commerce platform.

Small and medium-sized enterprises account for more than 90% of the total number of ASEAN enterprises, absorbing the vast majority of employment, reducing compliance costs, providing support for performance capabilities, and facilitating the direct delivery of growth results to grassroots people's livelihoods. "Zhou Yamin said that the various cooperation mechanisms between China and ASEAN, represented by version 3.0, reflect institutional care for small and medium-sized enterprises and underdeveloped members. This rule design that balances efficiency and fairness will transform regional economic growth from abstract GDP figures into tangible gains for businesses and people, laying a solid foundation for building a closer China ASEAN community with a shared future.

Track renewal——

Expand growth space in areas such as digital economy and green transformation

At the East Expo site, the green and low-carbon exhibition area was crowded with people, and an abandoned old steel rail was transformed into agricultural tools and building materials. Many merchants scanned the QR code to learn about the process of turning waste into treasure; In the digital economy exhibition area, lightweight quadruped robots performed on stage, attracting the audience's admiration; Not far away, there is a long queue of aircraft exhibits in the Future Space and Science and Technology Innovation Enterprise Growth Empowerment Exhibition Area... At this year's East Expo, activities and exhibition booths around the newly added fields of version 3.0 outline new growth points for cooperation between China and ASEAN.

The report shows that there is enormous potential for digital, service trade, and investment cooperation, with 37.6% of surveyed companies already conducting cross-border e-commerce or digital economy business in the RCEP region, an increase of 13.2% from 2025. The 3.0 version supplements cooperation in emerging fields, emphasizes smooth regional industrial and supply chains, and optimizes the business environment. It not only provides institutional support for leading enterprises to deeply cultivate the Chinese and ASEAN markets and layout digital green new industries, but also significantly reduces cross-border operating costs for small and medium-sized enterprises, promoting China ASEAN economic and trade cooperation into a new stage of innovation driven and mutually beneficial development, "said Xu Yingming.

How should companies lay out their current opportunities? The 3.0 version further expands from traditional goods trade to service trade in the trade field, and from traditional industries to emerging economic fields such as digital economy and green low-carbon in the industrial field. This will be conducive to the continuous deepening of cooperation between Chinese and ASEAN countries' enterprises in the new highland. Ge Hongliang pointed out that as the landing party of two-way cooperation, enterprises are one of the key entities for China ASEAN to achieve soft connectivity. To make good use of institutional dividends, enterprises need to transform relevant systems into tangible projects.

Xu Yingming pointed out that there are significant differences in the current level of digital infrastructure, green transformation stage, and market demand structure among ASEAN countries. "Enterprises should choose differentiated paths based on the development stage of each country: for example, mature markets such as Singapore and Malaysia, opportunities are concentrated in digital rule docking and green standard coordination; markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam have potential, and should focus more on digital industry transformation, seize opportunities for infrastructure empowerment and inclusive digital application promotion

Enterprises that are currently expanding into the ASEAN market should make good use of the new institutional arrangements in version 3.0, expand new formats such as digital trade and green economy, link the rules of origin with the opening up of emerging fields, and optimize the management of the entire process of procurement, production, and trade. For enterprises that have not yet gone global and are still observing, they should first conduct rule analysis. Enterprises with conditions can carry out trial cooperation on a small scale, identify their comparative advantages, and seize the key period of rule dividends release, "said Xu Yingming.