HANGZHOU, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The fifth Global Digital Trade Expo was held in Hangzhou from Sept. 23 to 27. China's only national-level, international and professional expo dedicated to digital trade, this year's edition was themed "Meet the AI Future at the Digital Trade Expo."
Representatives from more than 160 countries and regions and about 40 international organizations gathered by the Qiantang River to explore a fairer, more inclusive path for global digital trade.
The Global Digital Trade Development Report 2026, released at the expo, showed that global digital trade exports reached 7.75 trillion U.S. dollars in 2025, up 7.1 percent year on year and accounting for 22.2 percent of total global goods and services exports, 2.6 percentage points higher than in 2021.
Digital trade has outpaced overall global trade growth for several years, demonstrating resilience amid multiple external pressures.
"The digital transformation of the global economy is entering a new phase, digitally deliverable services are among the fastest-growing segments of international trade, and artificial intelligence is adding powerful new momentum," said Zhang Xiangchen, deputy director-general of the WTO, in a video address.
Citing the WTO's World Trade Report 2025, he said that if AI is widely adopted and implemented, global trade could grow by 34 to 37 percent by 2040, with global GDP rising 12 to 13 percent.
Kyrgyz Prime Minister Adylbek Kasymaliev said the expo's theme accurately reflects the changes underway, with digital trade becoming new infrastructure for the world economy. "The digital economy has special significance for Kyrgyzstan. In the digital world, distance is no longer an insurmountable obstacle," he said.
But the boom also brings challenges: new development divides, trade barriers and missing rules. "The benefits of AI will not arrive automatically, nor are they yet shared fairly," said Isabelle Durant, acting secretary-general of UNCTAD, warning that without infrastructure, skills and financing, new technologies could widen the development gap.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whose country is a guest of honor alongside Hungary, used a Chinese saying -- "one flower does not make spring; a hundred flowers in bloom bring spring to the garden" -- to express the vision of shared development, noting that AI is growing exponentially but problems remain.
Asif Cheema, the Asian Development Bank's country director for China, said Asia-Pacific economies face common challenges in connectivity, cybersecurity and regulatory coordination that require regional cooperation.
