NANNING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday pledged to enhance cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on artificial intelligence (AI).

Chen Wu, chairman of the regional government, said at the First China-ASEAN AI Summit that Guangxi will actively promote technical cooperation, trade, investment and industrial exchange in the AI sector with the ASEAN countries.

Toward this end, the region will speed up the construction of platforms for infrastructure, information sharing and technical cooperation, among others, Chen said.

Guangxi, which boasts both sea and overland links with ASEAN, is building the China-ASEAN Information Harbour to boost digital cooperation with Southeast Asia.

"The summit has sounded the clarion call for the development of AI and big data industry in Guangxi," said Wang Jingjing, Guangxi regional director of the Chinese AI firm iFlytek.

Hailing the region's policy and geographical advantages on ASEAN cooperation, Wang said iFlytek hopes to set up an institute on ASEAN languages in Guangxi to facilitate communication between China and ASEAN countries.