4th Global Digital Trade Expo

[Video message]

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

Trade is as old as humanity itself.

From the Silk Road to today’s shipping lanes, it’s always been about one simple idea: connection.

Connection between people, between markets, between cultures. Digital trade is the newest chapter in this ancient story – faster, broader and perhaps also more transformative than anything that came before.

And so it is a great honor to join you – even through this recording – at the 4th Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou.

This year’s theme, “Deep Integration of Digital Trade and Artificial Intelligence”, captures the very frontier of our time: how a revolution in technology can reshape the patterns of commerce and, with them, the prospects of development.

The opportunities are vast.

AI is not only powering new products and services; it is already transforming logistics, finance, trade and more.

According to our latest research, the global AI market is projected to reach nearly $5 trillion by 2033.

Combined with digital trade, with global digital exports reaching $4.5 trillion last year, the potential for growth is extraordinary.

But integration must mean inclusion.

Today, fewer than one-third of developing countries have AI strategies, while 2.6 billion people remain offline. Developing countries digital exports amount to $1 trillion, in a global market five times that size.

A few corporations control high-performance compute and global R&D, leaving others dependent on technology they don’t control. Without deliberate action, the integration of AI and trade could deepen divides rather than close them.

In this context, some open-source AI models emerging from China – including from Hangzhou itself – show how tech can be shared for the benefit of all.

What is needed is more shared efforts: investment in digital infrastructure so that every economy can connect; access to diverse, trusted data so that innovation is not biased or limited; and above all, skills – skills to use, to adapt, to create with AI.

Dear friends,

For centuries Hangzhou has inspired poets and travelers; now it inspires the world with technology and ideas.

Let us turn that inspiration into action, ensuring that digital trade and artificial intelligence expand horizons, connect communities and help shape a more inclusive global economy.

I thank you.