Cross-border e-commerce has emerged as a new engine boosting trade and investment between China and Southeast Asian countries against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts said.

"Continuous cooperation with China, especially on e-commerce, has played a positive role in Southeast Asia's faster pace of recovery from the pandemic," said Zhao Yongsheng, a professor at the Institute of Regional and International Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

According to a recent report issued by the Boao Forum for Asia Academy, Asia-Pacific is the region with the strongest cross-border e-commerce in the world, accounting for more than 50 percent of the global market size, with China and ASEAN playing indispensable roles.