Secretary-General Ma Mingqiang Met with Director General of INBAR

On 13 March 2014, Secretary-General Ma Mingqiang met with Dr. Hans Friederich who just assumed the post of Director General of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) at ASEAN-China Centre (ACC). Secretary-General Ma briefly introduced the activities carried out by the ACC since its establishment to promote ASEAN-China functional cooperation in trade, investment, education, culture and tourism. Mr. Ma expressed appreciation for the remarkable achievements in international trade of bamboo and rattan along with environmental preservation made by INBAR. He said ACC would be ready to work closely with INBAR in further strengthening ASEAN-China cooperation in the area of bamboo and rattan.

Dr. Friederich said INBAR was an inter-governmental organization which was founded in November 1997. At present it had 39 member countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar and Viet Nam and was eager to admit more ASEAN Member States into INBAR. It did a lot in the fields of poverty alleviation, industrial promotion, environmental protection and sustainable development and had become a cooperation platform between the bamboo/rattan producers and consumers.

Mr. Tri Purnajaya, Director of Education, Culture and Tourism Division and officers of the General Affairs and Coordination Division of ACC joined the meeting.