ACC Secretary-General H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping Met with Deputy Director-General of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education and Deputy Mayor of Suzhou

During the China-ASEAN Vocational Education Principal Summit on 31 July - 1 August 2015 in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), met respectively with Mr. Ding Xiaochang, Deputy Director-General of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education and Mr. Xu Ming, Deputy Mayor of Suzhou.

Secretary-General Yang highly appreciated the efforts of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education and Suzhou Municipal Government in facilitating the Summit. She expressed that Jiangsu had made continued efforts in promoting education development and its education development ranked top in China. In recent years, Jiangsu had actively cooperated with ACC on strengthening ASEAN-China vocational education cooperation. ACC would maintain close communication with Jiangsu in bridging vocational colleges of both sides, helping improve the quality of vocational education in ASEAN and raising the profile of Jiangsu's vocational education internationally.

Mr. Ding Xiaochang expressed that the collaboration between Jiangsu and ASEAN achieved obvious progress thanks to the huge support of ACC. There were currently around 3,700 ASEAN students in Jiangsu. Jiangsu would adopt new measures such as setting up more scholarships to attract more ASEAN students to study in Jiangsu. He hoped that Jiangsu would become an important base for ASEAN students' learning in China with the support and assistance of ACC. 

Mr. Xu Ming briefed on the situation of Suzhou's economy and education development and expressed that vocational education played an important role in boosting Suzhou's overall economy and the development of Suzhou's enterprises overseas. He appreciated ACC's efforts in facilitating Suzhou's international cooperation in vocational education and expressed the willingness to further increase the investment and integration of resources so as to contribute to ASEAN-China cooperation in education and other areas. Secretary-General Yang commended that Suzhou, while developing its economy vigorously, had attached great importance to education, especially vocational education exchanges with ASEAN. ACC would continue to support Suzhou's vocational education to bring tangible benefits to the peoples of ASEAN and China.