China Mobile and the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry Jointly Held 2026 Southeast Asia Cooperation Conference Held in Singapore

China Mobile and the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCCI) jointly held the 2026 Southeast Asia Cooperation Conference in Singapore. Under the theme “Boundless Intelligence, Igniting a New Era Together”, the conference brought together government officials and regional ecosystem partners from across Southeast Asia to jointly build an AI+ ecosystem and explore new opportunities in the AI+driven intelligent digital economy. H.E. Cao Zhongming, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of Singapore; Ms Jasmin Lau, Minister of State, Ministry of Digital Development and Information & Ministry of Education of Singapore; YB Teo Nie Ching, Deputy Minister of Communications of Malaysia (via video); Li Huidi, Executive Vice President of China Mobile; and Kho Choon Keng, President of Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry attended the conference and delivered remarks. The conference was attended in person by approximately 300 guests, including representatives from Southeast Asian governments, intergovernmental organizations, leading carriers and AI partners, renowned experts and scholars, and major media outlets.

Li Huidi stated that the intelligent economy is profoundly reshaping the global industrial landscape, as Southeast Asia accelerates into a new phase of smart development and China–ASEAN digital-intelligent cooperation enters a broader stage of opportunity. He highlighted that the region has built a solid foundation for intelligent growth, with AI-related attention in Southeast Asia reaching three times the global average, significant room for data center expansion. He also pointed to increasingly clear policy direction, including the 6th ASEAN Digital Ministers’ Meeting, which identified AI as a key driver of the region’s next stage of digital transformation. The formal signing of the China–ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade Protocol has, for the first time, incorporated the digital economy into the cooperation framework, strengthening institutional support for collaboration in digital infrastructure, AI and cross-border data flows. As a regional innovation hub, Singapore has attracted 80% of the world’s top technology companies, with a highly concentrated pool of innovation resources and a vibrant industrial ecosystem.

Li Huidi stated that, amid the global wave of intelligent economic transformation, China Mobile is accelerating its upgrade from a telecommunications operator to a sci-tech service enterprise, while actively supporting Southeast Asia’s digital-intelligent transformation through its three core pillars of communications services, computing services and AI services. Firstly, China Mobile is strengthening digital connectivity across the region. The company has built the world’s largest commercial 5G-A network and deployed large-scale Level-4 autonomous networks, enabling capabilities such as second-level fault self-healing and intelligent energy optimization. Leveraging Singapore’s position as a regional network hub, 12 international submarine cables, including SJC, APG, and SJC2, have been successively put into operation. With the official lighting-up of the SEA-H2X submarine cable, cross-border network latency between China and Singapore will be reduced to below 33ms, ensuring high-quality and intelligent integrated digital transmission. Secondly, China Mobile continues to strengthen intelligent computing capabilities. Continue increasing investment in AIDC, leveraging a domestic intelligent computing foundation exceeding 107 EFLOPS, while coordinating computing power nodes across Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Malaysia, and other locations to build a full-stack AI capability and service ecosystem ranging from FLOPS and tokens to intelligent agents. Leveraging the AI Hub platform to aggregate globally leading large models, the company enables unified access to multiple models, customized model services, and intelligent management and control. By fully utilizing China’s cost advantages in computing power and electricity in Shantou, China, and leveraging cost-effective domestic model inference services, the company facilitates the export of tokens to Southeast Asia, empowering the intelligent transformation of toy manufacturing enterprises. Thirdly, China Mobile is deepening AI-enabled industrial transformation. Leveraging its self-developed industrial internet platform, the company has launched more than 50 industry-specific large models and implemented over 18,500 “5G+” projects, including more than 3,000 “AI+” projects, driving the empowerment of industries through 5G and AI technologies. In Singapore, we provide AI intelligent manufacturing solutions for semiconductor wafer fabs to improve precision manufacturing efficiency; in Thailand, we support new energy vehicle companies with cross-border vehicle connectivity and in-car content services; in Malaysia, we provide smart security solutions for the East Coast Rail Link project to enhance rail transit safety management; In the Philippines, an intelligent energy management platform has been developed for photovoltaic power stations, enabling panoramic visualization and coordinated management of power generation efficiency, carbon emissions, and equipment operating status. Meanwhile, 5G smart factories and smart parks have been deployed across multiple locations in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and other countries.

Looking ahead, Li Huidi proposed three key areas for future collaboration: first, jointly strengthening regional intelligent computing infrastructure and cross-border network connectivity; second, co-creating intelligent application scenarios across industries such as transportation, manufacturing finance and healthcare, collaborating with local partners to refine industry solutions and implement demonstration projects, expanding diversified applications in digital and intelligent production, daily life, and governance, while promoting the large-scale replication and adoption of intelligent services.; third, fostering an open and collaborative intelligent ecosystem through deeper technology cooperation, shared standards and enhanced digital governance mechanisms, Building a new digital and intelligent industrial ecosystem in Southeast Asia characterized by mutual benefit, symbiosis, sustainability, and long-term prosperity.

Kho Choon Keng said, “Trusted digital connectivity and cross-border collaboration will be critical to unlocking the next phase of sustainable growth and innovation in Southeast Asia. AI is rapidly reshaping industries, transforming business models and redefining the global economy at an unprecedented pace. To remain competitive, enterprises must not only embrace AI but also strengthen their digital capabilities and cyber resilience.

SCCCI has been actively supporting businesses on this transformation journey. Earlier this year, we organised our inaugural Tech Symposium to help enterprises better leverage digital technologies and AI for business transformation. At the same time, we continue to deepen regional business linkages and industrial cooperation through our international platforms and five representative offices in China.

The collaboration with China Mobile marks another key step in that journey. By combining China Mobile’s technological capabilities with SCCCI’s extensive business network in Southeast Asia, we aim to help enterprises accelerate digital transformation and AI adoption and seize new growth opportunities in the digital economy. Looking ahead, SCCCI remains committed to contributing to a more connected and digitally-enabled business ecosystem across Singapore and Southeast Asia.”

H.E. Cao Zhongming, YB Teo Nie Ching and other main guests highly commended the convening of the 2026 Southeast Asia Cooperation Conference, and expressed their expectation that China Mobile, together with regional ecosystem partners, will leverage AI as a core driving force to jointly shape a new digital-intelligent future for Southeast Asia.

During the conference, China Mobile, together with partners from various countries including Singapore, jointly launched the China Mobile Southeast Asia AI+ Full-Stack Capability Upgrade & Ecosystem Cooperation Initiative, and held the SEA-H2X submarine cable lighting up ceremony with partners.

In addition, China Mobile International signed a Memorandum of Understanding on AI project collaboration with Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the fields of AI and IoT with Singtel, establishing the new strategic partnerships featuring mutual benefit, win-win collaboration and shared development.

Separately, China Mobile International and Axiata Group Berhad signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore collaboration on Autonomous Networks, joint B2B & B2C Go-To-Market and AI Smart Home.

During the panel discussion, the senior representatives from The Telecommunications Association of Thailand under The Royal Patronage, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International, InfiX.ai, as well as experts and scholars from Deloitte China and Nanyang Technological University, to exchange insights and build consensus on the opportunities and challenges of the AI era.

During the conference, China Mobile set up a dedicated exhibition area to showcase the leading products and capabilities, including Global Computing Power New Infrastructure, CMI AI Full-Stack Capability System Solution, Global Intelli SIM (including Token API Key), AI VoiceLink, Smart Customer Service, AI+ One-stop Integrated Package and AI+ Industry Solutions. The exhibition comprehensively demonstrated China Mobile’s core strengths in communications infrastructure, compute capabilities and intelligent applications.