SHANGHAI, July 25, 2026 — On July 22, 2026, the 2026 International Low-Altitude Economy Expo kicked off at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai). The expo’s opening forum was held concurrently with the APEC funded project Asia-Pacific Symposium for Strategic Innovation in Sustainable Technology (ASSIST). During the event, the cases of the 2026 Asia-Pacific Low-Altitude Economy Innovation Pioneers — awarded at the 2026 International Advanced Air Mobility Expo — were unveiled, and the themed exhibition zone “Soaring Across Asia-Pacific: A New Era of Low-Altitude Economy” opened to the public.
In 2026, China serves as the APEC Host Economy. Upholding the core philosophy of “Openness, Innovation and Cooperation”, China continues to deepen industrial coordination and innovative joint development across the Asia-Pacific region. Making full use of its role as a bridge for international trade and investment, the Council for the Promotion of International Trade Shanghai successfully secured the hosting of the ASSIST project in Shanghai, China. Co-located with the 2026 International Low-Altitude Economy Expo, this grand event delivers mutual empowerment to advance high-quality coordinated development of the Asia-Pacific low-altitude industry.
Government, industry, university and research representatives from APEC economies including China, the United States, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Peru gathered in Shanghai. They engaged in in-depth exchanges on topics such as policy coordination, technological breakthroughs, application scenario implementation and industrial ecosystem co-construction, built consensus on industrial growth, and pushed forward deeper and more substantive pragmatic cooperation on the low-altitude economy in the Asia-Pacific.
Academician Xiang Jinwu of the Chinese Academy of Engineering formally read out the initiative at the conference. The initiative sincerely calls on all APEC economies to jointly advance five key action priorities: build a professional case-based think tank to institutionalize practical development achievements; advance integrated and coordinated development to bridge regional development gaps; deepen cross-border interactive collaboration to break through connectivity and interoperability barriers; optimize and improve the industrial ecological system to expand multi-dimensional cooperation boundaries; and prioritize green technological innovation to bolster the low-carbon transformation of regional industries.
As a major symposium outcome, the shortlist for the 2026 Asia-Pacific Low-Altitude Economy Innovation Pioneer Cases was officially released, providing actionable practical references for the sector.
Applicant enterprises underwent offline defense and multiple rounds of comprehensive review, with 20 outstanding cases selected in the end. The selected cases span hard-tech products, livelihood and industrial scenario applications, and ecosystem supporting services, fully illustrating the innovation vitality along the whole industrial chain of the Asia-Pacific low-altitude economy.
Held under the APEC cooperation framework, this initiative facilitates policy dialogue, technical exchange and industrial connection across economies. The low-altitude economy is still in the early stage of scaled development, confronting common challenges in airspace governance, airworthiness standards, safety supervision and other fields. Asia-Pacific economies feature complementary resource endowments and diverse application scenarios. Deepening collaborative cooperation represents not only the inherent logic of industrial growth, but also shared opportunities for innovative regional economic expansion. Taking this event as a bond, all participants will actively advance rule alignment, mutual recognition of standards and scenario sharing, and jointly build an Asia-Pacific community for innovative low-altitude economy development, contributing Asia-Pacific solutions to global low-altitude economy governance and industrial advancement.
CONTACT: Jessie Hu, [email protected]
SOURCE 2026 International Advanced Air Mobility Expo
