The symposium opened on October 9. Prof. Yang Yu, Head of the Department of Economics at ACEM, moderated the opening session, briefing participants on the recent progress of Antai College in disciplinary development, internationalization and industry research, as well as the College's philosophy of "cross-disciplinary integration" and "unity of knowledge and practice."

Prof. Qi Zhang, Vice Dean of ACEM, delivered the welcome address. On behalf of the College, he welcomed the visiting scholars and highlighted the strengths of Antai's economics and finance disciplines and their close links with related fields. He also introduced the Xuhui campus, rich in history and scenic beauty, and invited participants to explore it during the symposium.

Prof. Yi Wen then delivered a keynote speech titled "Science, Technology, and Transnational Shifts of Innovation Centers." He argued that the history of science and technology and the history of the Industrial Revolution reveal a narrative inverted in mainstream economics: technological progress often precedes scientific discovery, manufacturing centers tend to determine centers of science and technology, and state capacity underpins the accelerating "commerce–technology–science" cycle. As global innovation centers shift eastward along with manufacturing, he noted, China is turning the West's "0-to-1" breakthroughs into "1-to-100" applications while nurturing original innovations of its own.

Three parallel sessions followed, covering "Macroeconomics, International Trade and Finance," "Experimental and Behavioral Economics and Microeconomic Theory," and "Applied Microeconomics and Econometric and Computational Methods." Scholars reported cutting-edge research spanning government spending and productivity, tariff responses in trade disputes, valuation of U.S.-listed foreign firms, earnings-based borrowing in an intangible economy, and scalable reinforcement-learning algorithms, among other topics.

A closing session, moderated by Prof. Yu Yang, brought the symposium to an end. He thanked all participants and invited them to join the graduate symposium held the following day. On October 10, a closed-door doctoral session was held online, organized into three units — "International Trade, Macroeconomics and International Finance," "Labor, Development and Environmental Economics," and "Corporate Finance, Industrial Organization and Information Economics." Doctoral students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Kobe University, Hanyang University, Lingnan University and Nanyang Technological University presented their research, receiving constructive feedback from participating scholars.

By convening leading scholars across the Asia-Pacific region, the symposium showcased the latest advances in macroeconomics, trade, finance, behavioral economics, microeconomic theory and econometrics, further strengthening academic exchange and collaboration in the region. ACEM will continue to expand its international academic exchange network, contributing to the development of economics and finance in the Asia-Pacific region.