ACC Secretary-General Met with Minister of Tourism of Cambodia

On 29 June 2016, H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), met with H.E. Mr. Dr. Thong Khon, Minister of Tourism of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, and exchanged views on Cambodia-China and ASEAN-China tourism cooperation. H.E. Mr. Tith Chantha, Secretary of State of Tourism of Cambodia, and H.E. Mr. So Visothy, Under Secretary of Tourism of Cambodia, attended the meeting.

Secretary-General Yang Xiuping extended her gratitude to the Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia for its continuous support to ACC and briefed on its work in promoting tourism cooperation. She said that tourism was an important component of national economy and tourism cooperation was significant to strengthen relations between countries and friendship among peoples. Possessing profound cultural heritages, rich tourism resources and enjoying frequent people-to-people contact, ASEAN countries and China had a solid foundation and great potential to expand tourism cooperation. ACC regards tourism as a priority area and had held a series of activities, including forums, vocational training, media reporting, tourism guidebook compilation, photo competitions and exhibitions, which were well received by the public. In 2016, ACC would conduct 19 flagship projects approved by the Joint Council, of which two projects were related to tourism, namely, “Innovation of ASEAN and China Tourism Promotion” and “Chinese Traveler’s Service Matching”. In September, ACC would support Chinese media to make a series of tourism documentaries in ASEAN countries. ACC was ready to work closely with the Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia to deepen tourism cooperation with a view to enriching Cambodia-China and ASEAN-China cooperation and bringing more benefit to the peoples of all the countries.

Minister Thong Khon introduced the developments of Cambodia tourism and Cambodia-China tourism cooperation. He thanked Secretary-General Yang Xiuping for exchanging views on tourism with him. He noted that Chinese market was the top priority for Cambodia tourism. The Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia released the Strategy for Attracting Chinese Tourist 2016-2020 and the white paper titled "China Ready for Cambodia Tourism", with the aim of drawing and catering to 2 million Chinese tourists per year by 2020. To this end, the Cambodian side would provide more Chinese signage in tourism sites, encourage local use of RMB currency, improve the quality of Cambodia’s tourism products, launch tourism promotional website and mobile phone applications in Chinese, work with the Chinese side on new trans-border tourism route, formulate standards for receiving Chinese tourists, and would also actively participate in the tourism exhibitions and promotion activities held in China. The Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia would unremittingly support and take part in the tourism activities and projects organized by ACC. It was hoped that with the joint efforts and continuous support of ACC, Cambodia-China tourism cooperation could achieve greater fruitful results in the days to come.