By Sharon Hu, 21st Century Business Herald, SFC

In Petaling District, Selangor of Malaysia, stands a pivotal platform for China-ASEAN AI cooperation – the ASEAN-China AI Laboratory. Jointly established by Guangxi Beitou Information Technology & Innovation Investment Group (Beitou IT&I) and Malaysia’s MYEG Services Berhad, it is currently the only government-certified artificial intelligence laboratory in Malaysia. The AI Laboratory drives regional technological cooperation by leveraging the Zetrix blockchain platform, a blockchain solution under MYEG Group, a listed company in Malaysia.

"Cooperating with China to build the ASEAN-China Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is the optimal way to introduce advanced science and technology into ASEAN," said Dato' Fadzli Shah, Malaysia Director of the ASEAN-China Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Co-Founder of Zetrix, in an exclusive interview with 21st Century Business Herald in Selangor of Malaysia.

It is understood that the establishment of the ASEAN-China Artificial Intelligence Laboratory stems from the shared vision for cooperation between China and Malaysia in the field of artificial intelligence. Fadzli stated that he was deeply inspired when witnessing the real-world application of AI technologies during his visits to China, and truly saw the broad prospects for promoting such technologies across the ASEAN region.

At present, China and ASEAN are rapidly evolving from "trade partners" focused primarily on goods trade to an integrated industrial chain community with deeply interwoven value chains that enable mutual success. Notably, since the entry into force of the Upgrade Protocol to the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) Version 3.0, emerging sectors including the digital economy, green economy and artificial intelligence have gradually become new pillars for the deepening cooperation between China and ASEAN.

At this AI Laboratory, we saw Shenzhen-developed robots capable of speaking English, Malay and Mandarin, and witnessed how advanced technologies enable the digital authentication of Chinese driving licenses in Malaysia, as well as the cross-border identity mutual recognition function for financial services that China and Malaysia are jointly developing. According to available information, in December this year, Guangxi has signed AI-related cooperation agreements with 8 ASEAN countries, with a number of AI industrial projects launched in ASEAN nations. A cross-border industrial ecosystem featuring "R&D in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou + Integration in Guangxi + Application in ASEAN" is taking shape.

Fadzli that this model boasts strong feasibility. Under this framework, China is not unilaterally injecting resources into Guangxi for subsequent radiation across ASEAN; instead, China leverages Guangxi’s coordination to accurately match various innovation resources with the market demands of different ASEAN countries. Looking ahead, he believes China and Malaysia, and even all ASEAN countries, can further explore the coordinated development of AI-related infrastructure construction and application scenarios.