The 5th Meeting of the Joint Council Held in Kunming

On 2 December 2015, the 5th Meeting of the Joint Council (JC) of the ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) was held at Kai Wah Plaza International Hotel in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China.

The Meeting was co-chaired by H.E. Mrs. Astanah Banu Binti Shri Abdul Aziz, Deputy Director-General of the ASEAN-Malaysia National Secretariat, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia, and H.E. Mr. Xu Bu, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to ASEAN. Members of the JC of ACC and representatives of the ASEAN Secretariat attended the Meeting.

After a retrospection of the achievements of the ASEAN-China relations and functional cooperation, Ambassador Xu Bu congratulated ACC on its fruitful achievements in 2015 in promoting ASEAN-China cooperation in the areas of trade, investment, education, culture, tourism, information and public relations, with concrete outcomes. He expressed that ACC’s work had been supporting the implementation of the major initiatives of ASEAN-China cooperation, substantially promoted functional and pragmatic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges between ASEAN and China, and was fully recognized by both sides. He reaffirmed that China has attached great importance to ACC, expecting ACC could make even more contribution against the backdrop of current development of ASEAN-China relations.

Deputy Director-General Astanah Banu Binti Shri Abdul Aziz and other participants from ASEAN applauded H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, ACC Secretary-General, and her team members from ASEAN and China for their hard work and dedication towards fulfilling the mandates of ACC as a one-stop information and activities centre to enhance friendship, cooperation and connectivity between ASEAN and China. 

Secretary-General Yang Xiuping briefed on ACC’s work in 2015, and reflected on the future work in 2016. She expressed her heartfelt appreciation to all 11 member countries for their strong support to the ACC Secretariat and reaffirmed ACC’s commitment to further facilitating ASEAN-China cooperation in the relevant areas, and serving as a bridge to link the peoples of ASEAN and China for better understanding, mutual trust and cordial friendship.

The JC Meeting exchanged views on ACC’s work, the summary report of the 5th Meeting of the Joint Executive Board (JEB) of ACC. Among many interesting matters, the Meeting also had a productive discussion on the revision of the MoU on Establishing the ASEAN-China Centre between the Governments of the ASEAN Member States and China to chart the future course of ACC.  

The Meeting discussed the ACC Annual Report of 2015, adopted the Comprehensive Report of ASEAN-China Centre for ACC Mid-term Review (2012-2014), and requested ACC to draw up a follow-up plan for the implementation of the said review.