ACC Secretary-General Met with Minister at the Prime Minister's Office and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade II of Brunei Darussalam

On 26 January 2016, ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) Secretary-General H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping met with The Honorable Pehin Dato Lim Jock Seng, Minister at the Prime Minister's Office and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade II of Brunei Darussalam in Bandar Seri Begawan. Ms. Kamilah Hanifah, Senior Special Duties Officer, Department of Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Brunei Darussalam, and Mr. Fu Fengshan, Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Brunei attended the meeting.

Secretary-General Yang thanked the Brunei side for making considerate preparation and arrangements for the visit, and highly appreciated the positive contributions made by Minister Lim to developing Brunei-China and ASEAN-China relations. She noted that Brunei-China and ASEAN-China relations enjoyed smooth development and functional cooperation in various areas had borne rich fruits. This year marked the 25th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Brunei and China as well as 25th anniversary of ASEAN-China dialogue relations. ASEAN had realized its Community and was striving to implement the ASEAN Community Vision 2025. China was developing the 13th Five-Year Plan. ASEAN-China cooperation enjoyed broad prospects and huge potential.

While briefing on ACC’s work, Secretary-General Yang said that since its inception over 4 years ago, ACC had actively implemented the important consensus reached by the leaders of ASEAN and China and promoted functional cooperation in trade, investment, education, culture, tourism, information and public relations. ACC had implemented about 90 flagship projects, and hosted or participated in over 400 activities. ACC’s efforts were appreciated by the leaders of both sides. In 2015, ASEAN-China two-way trade exceeded 472 billion USD. From January to October 2015, the aggregated mutual investment reached over 150 billion USD. There were over 1,000 weekly flights connecting China and ASEAN countries. The number of bilateral visits between ASEAN and China reached over 21.5 million, and students exchange exceeded 180,000. ACC, by making innovative efforts, organized Chinese trade and investment missions to visit ASEAN, hosted capacity building seminars for ASEAN tourism professionals, which were well received by the local governments, enterprises and people. ACC would continue to enhance exchange and cooperation with ASEAN countries including Brunei, and make new contributions to deepening Brunei-China and ASEAN-China relations.

Minister Lim Jock Seng welcomed Secretary-General Yang to Brunei. He said that ACC’s contributions to boosting functional cooperation and promoting ASEAN-China relations were well recognized by ASEAN. The capacity building seminars for tourism professionals and youth exchange programmes would lay a more solid foundation for people-to-people exchanges and friendship between ASEAN and China. At present, the economy of Brunei was affected by the lowering of international oil price. Brunei was taking proactive measures to adjust the economic structure and develop emerging industries so as to realize the diversified and sustainable development. Brunei hoped that ACC would organize more Chinese enterprises to visit Brunei, promote investment and seek cooperation opportunities for win-win outcome. Brunei stood ready to maintain close communication with ACC and would whole-heartedly support ACC’s work for the benefits of the people of both sides.