CIIE 2025 · International Year of Cooperatives Events

ICA Cooperative Trade and Development Forum

Afternoon of 7 November 2025 · Shanghai

Organiser：International Cooperative Alliance

Forum theme：Cooperatives for sustainable trade and sustainable supply chains

Held after the opening ceremony of the International Year of Cooperatives celebrations; its outcome document is the Shanghai Initiative.

• The materials state that the opening ceremony of the International Year of Cooperatives celebrations was held that morning, with the forum following in the afternoon.
• The forum's outcome document is the Shanghai Initiative, described in the materials as a shared guide to action, looking ahead to artificial intelligence, climate change and the post-2030 global development agenda.
• The materials' central argument: for cooperatives, international trade is far more than commercial exchange — it is economic activity rooted in the core values of putting people first, democratic management and shared benefit.
• Three propositions are advanced: moving cooperatives from being a 'channel' to being a 'platform'; building resilient supply chains through complementary strengths; and deepening exchange and sharing development solutions.
• The forum was followed by the 'Bund Dialogue' trade and investment matchmaking reception.

The forum's own materials never mention CIIE or the China International Import Expo; their framing is entirely the ICA and the International Year of Cooperatives. The connection to CIIE rests on the concurrent timing and on the other materials, not on this document itself.

China–Central Asia Trade and Investment Promotion Meeting

14:00–17:00, 7 November 2025 · Shanghai

Organiser：Jointly organised by ACFSMC and the National Union of Cooperatives of Kazakhstan

A trade promotion event built around three deliverables and a B2B matchmaking session, following on from the comprehensive MOU signed by the Chinese and Kazakh cooperative bodies in September 2024.

• The materials state that in September 2024, ACFSMC and the National Union of Cooperatives and Other Economic Organisations of Kazakhstan signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding in Beijing.
• The materials describe the Central Asian side as bringing high-quality honey, organic food, grain, textiles and speciality agricultural produce, seeking partners in the Chinese market.
• The event included a B2B matchmaking session, with 27 sets of negotiation tables and chairs arranged at the front and sides of the venue, running for 30 minutes.
• Participating institutions on the Kazakh side included the National Union of Cooperatives of Kazakhstan and the Ministry of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan.

China–Central Asia Agricultural Cooperation Project Acceleration Programme

The materials state that the launch marks a new, institutionalised and regularised stage in agricultural cooperation between China and Central Asia.

This programme appears only in the promotion meeting's address and run-of-show script; the opening ceremony material does not mention it at all, despite it being the weightiest deliverable in the other two.

Central Asian Organic Food Counter project

The materials state that the signing means high-quality organic food from Central Asia will reach Chinese consumers' tables faster.

China Co-op Trade Group and the Kazakh signatory

The same project is called the 'Central Asian Premium Counter' in the opening ceremony material, inconsistent with the 'Central Asian Organic Food Counter' used in the promotion meeting materials. See the editorial notes.

China–Central Asia–ASEAN International Trade and Supporting Financial Services Platform Cooperation Framework Agreement

The materials state that the agreement aims to explore how to lower payment and settlement barriers in trade, building an efficient and secure 'digital trade corridor' in service of the mission to 'make foreign trade easier'.

Ningbo Haitian Group and the Kazakh signatory

The agreement is given three different names across three materials; see the editorial notes.

What this column covers

All four available source materials are speech drafts by Chinese officials: a forum keynote (which also contains a closing address in two venue-specific versions), an address to the Central Asia promotion meeting, a host's run-of-show script, and an opening ceremony address. About a third of the script consists of stage directions and timing cues, and was never publishable text.

→ In line with this site's editorial policy, the names, titles and speech texts of Chinese officials are not carried. This column takes only the institutional facts — events, themes, outcomes, participating institutions — attributed to the unnamed 'materials'. The closing address is procedural and its venue was undecided (the material exists in a Bund and a non-Bund version), so it is not included.

Why this column carries no trade figures

Readers may expect a CIIE column to carry procurement values, contract values or trade figures. There are none in the four source materials — no trade values, no country counts, no delegation sizes. The complete inventory of quantitative claims is: 'a membership base of over 100 million', '70-odd years', 'the eighth edition', '27 sets of negotiation tables and chairs', 'three important outcomes', 'September 2024', and the clock times and durations in the run-of-show script.

→ No trade data section is provided. These materials are speech drafts, not data documents, and no such figure could be attributed to them. Should trade figures be needed later, they must come from another source and be attributed separately.

Name of the Central Asian counter project

The promotion meeting address and the run-of-show script both call it the 'Central Asian Organic Food Counter'; the opening ceremony address calls it the 'Central Asian Premium Counter' and frames it as one of a series of projects rather than a single one.

→ The promotion meeting's 'Central Asian Organic Food Counter' is used as primary, since the signing itself is documented in those two materials and their wording is more specific. The opening ceremony's variant is recorded alongside.

Name of the framework agreement

Three materials give three names: 'China–Central Asia–ASEAN International Trade and Supporting Financial Services Platform Cooperation Framework Agreement' (promotion meeting address, with a stray space); 'trade platform and trade-related financial services framework agreement' (run-of-show script, no title marks, no prefix); and 'China–Central Asia–ASEAN Foreign Trade and Related Financial Services Platform Cooperation Framework Agreement' (opening ceremony address).

→ The promotion meeting address's name is used as primary; the other two are recorded here. All three plainly describe the same agreement, but the formal name must follow the signed text, which this column does not adjudicate.

Name of the Kazakh cooperative body

The promotion meeting address is inconsistent with itself: its organiser list says 'National Union of Cooperatives of Kazakhstan', while its sentence on the 2024 MOU says 'National Union of Cooperatives and Other Economic Organisations of Kazakhstan'. The run-of-show script uses the shorter name throughout.

→ The shorter, more common name is used in running text; where the 2024 MOU signatory is concerned, the source's full name is retained so as not to alter the legal name of a signing party.

Name of the promotion meeting

The promotion meeting address's body text and the run-of-show script use 'China–Central Asia Trade Investment Promotion Meeting'; the opening ceremony address inserts an extra conjunction. The promotion meeting address's own title drops the dash entirely.

→ 'China–Central Asia Trade and Investment Promotion Meeting' is used, following the form consistent across two materials and used in the run-of-show script's opening and closing announcements.

Wording of the International Year of Cooperatives theme

The run-of-show script and the opening ceremony address render the theme as 'Cooperatives Build a Better World'; the promotion meeting address uses a variant rendering.

→ The two-material form is used. The divergence is one of Chinese rendering; the English original, 'Cooperatives Build a Better World', is unambiguous.

The relationship between the two events

Both events fall on the afternoon of 7 November 2025 in Shanghai, share organisers, and both close with a matchmaking session; the materials themselves do not explain their relationship. The forum material also exists in a Bund and a non-Bund venue version, indicating the venue was still undecided when it was drafted.

→ Confirmed with the source holder as two separate, parallel events, and presented as such. Venue is not asserted, since the materials themselves leave it open.