The third Global Digital Trade Expo (GDTE) will be held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, from Sept 25 to 29. This expo will gather many cutting-edge digital trade technologies, to promote global digital trade cooperation and facilitate the sharing of digital trade development achievements, according to a press conference held on Sept 18 in Beijing.

The State Council Information Office held a press conference on the Third Global Digital Trade Expo on Sept 18. Photo by Zhong Xinyi

With exhibition area exceeding 150,000 square meters, the expo has attracted over 1,500 companies from 25 countries and regions to participate, according to the conference. A total of 300 international exhibitors will account for over 20 percent of both numbers and the exhibition area. In addition to Kazakhstan and Thailand, which will each establish national pavilions as guest countries of honor, the expo will, for the first time, set up international friendship city pavilions and overseas industry pavilions. Cities like Boston in the US will organize a concentrated presence of enterprises.

Relevant Zhejiang enterprises will sign an agreement with their Kazakhstani counterparts, the guest country of honor, to jointly build a smart port. This will help improve the digital customs clearance capacity at the Kolzhat port.

For the first time, the expo will organize African digital trade day, holding two special exhibitions on "Smart Africa" and "African E-commerce". It will also hold an industry docking event, an offline activity on digital trade and online promotion on African goods.

This year, 6,000 international friends from 62 countries (regions) are expected to attend the Expo, 23 sister cities will participate in the Global Mayors Dialogue and the 9th Hangzhou International Sister City Mayors Conference.

This year's expo will surpass the scale of previous editions, with one comprehensive exhibition pavilion and eight specialized digital industry pavilions, focusing on areas such as Silk-Road E-Commerce, Data and Finance, and Artificial Intelligence. For instance, in the comprehensive exhibition pavilion, the globally popular game Black Myth: Wukong will collaborate with leading hardware manufacturers to once again bring its legendary story to life. In the AI pavilion, more than 60 intelligent robots will compete side by side. Additionally, competitions such as the Debating Championship via Digital Human and the AI Electronic Music Composition Contest will debut, exploring new directions and opening new application scenarios for AI technology.

In addition to continuing to release the Report on China's Development of Digital Trade and the Silk-Road E-Commerce Development Report, the expo will, for the first time, release the Report on China's Digital Commerce Development, showcasing China's achievements and future outlook in digital commerce, and contributing Chinese wisdom to bridging the global digital divide.

Reporter Zhong Xinyi

Editor Cheng Dengyu