On 6 July 2016, H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), received a joint interview by mainstream Chinese media. The interview was organized by the China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) Secretariat to commemorate the 25th anniversary of ASEAN-China dialogue relations. Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, China News Service, China Daily, Guangxi Daily, Guangxi TV Station, China-ASEAN Panorama and China Report conducted the interview.
On ASEAN-China relations, Secretary-General Yang said that 2016 marked the 25th anniversary of ASEAN-China dialogue relations and ASEAN-China Year of Educational Exchange. It was also the first year after the establishment of ASEAN Community and the opening year of China’s 13th Five-Year Plan. Over the past 25 years, ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership had formed an all-dimensional, multi-tiered and wide-ranging cooperation pattern. The interests of both sides were closer together. ASEAN-China relations had been the most active and fruitful one among all the relations between ASEAN and its dialogue partners. ASEAN-China relations had not only strongly promoted social-economic development of both sides, but also made important contributions to peace, stability and development in the region.
Secretary-General Yang said that against the backdrop of fragile global economic recovery and the pressure of economic downturn for the countries in the region, ASEAN and China should form synergy to create a closer-knit community of common destiny. First, both sides should further strengthen strategic docking, that is to say, to align China’s 13th Five-Year Plan with the 2025 Vision of the ASEAN Community, and to find more common needs and convergence of interests. Second, both sides should take the opportunity of upgraded version of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) to promote bilateral trade in goods and services and cement economic and technological cooperation for improved and more efficient economic and trade cooperation. Third, both sides should promote the Belt and Road initiative, boost connectivity and cooperation in production capacity, make good use of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Silk Road Fund, expand financial cooperation, and initiate more pilot projects for more substantive progress. Fourth, the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation should be strengthened to promote common development of the subregion to facilitate the ASEAN Community building. Fifth, we should deepen and expand people-to-people exchange and exchange in culture, tourism, youth and women and carry out activities of the ASEAN-China Year of Educational Exchange to enhance mutual trust and friendship.
On the upgraded version of ACFTA, Secretary-General Yang said that the ACFTA Upgrade Protocol covered trade in goods, services, investment, economic and technical cooperation and other fields. It enriched, improved, complemented and upgraded the existing agreements. On trade in goods, the rules of origin in China and ASEAN had been optimized and improved to further simplify customs clearance procedures. On trade in services, the third batch of concrete concessions on trade in services negotiations had been completed. Higher level of liberalization commitments had been made in nearly 70 sub-sectors, including construction, tourism, financial services and communication, etc. On investment, both sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in investment promotion and facilitation to create a stable and transparent investment environment. On economic and technical cooperation, both sides agreed to deepen cooperation in more than 10 fields, such as agriculture, information and communication, etc. Cross-border e-commerce, a new form of business, was accepted into the scope of cooperation. The upgraded version of ACFTA would drive the economic development for both sides, contributing to the goals of bringing bilateral trade to a trillion dollars in 2020 and thus facilitating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations and the construction of Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). On the cooperation between ACC and CAEXPO, Secretary-General Yang outlined ACC’s mandate and work. She said that ACC had served China and 10 ASEAN Member States with nearly two billion of population. Since its inception, ACC had been committed to implementing the consensus reached by the leaders of ASEAN and China and promoting cooperation in trade, investment, education, culture, tourism and media. ACC had completed over 90 projects and co-hosted or attended nearly 500 activities. ACC was implementing the approved flagship projects and had launched “ASEAN-China Week” and a series of 25th anniversary commemorations.
Secretary-General Yang said that CAEXPO had successfully held 12 sessions. In the spirit of mutual benefit, CAEXPO promoted the ASEAN-China all-round cooperation including economy, trade, culture, tourism and education. CAEXPO had accumulated experience, made great achievements and built extensive brand recognition. It had played an important role in enhancing friendship and mutual trust and deepening mutually beneficial cooperation between ASEAN and China. ACC and CAEXPO undertook similar missions in promoting ASEAN-China practical cooperation. ACC would continue to support and participate in CAEXPO. Focusing on the ASEAN-China cooperation priorities, the two sides would carefully design and carry out more influential and demonstrative activities by leveraging their unique advantages so as to promote ASEAN-China economic and social development and to bring more benefits to the people.
Secretary-General Yang said that we took media as an important bridge to help the people enhance mutual understanding and friendship. The media played an irreplaceable role in consolidating the public support for ASEAN-China relations. She hoped that the media could understand ASEAN-China relations in an all-round and thorough way and conduct more objective and fair coverage of ASEAN-China relations, and highlight the melody of cooperation and pool positive energy for the development of bilateral relations.
The journalists expressed their appreciation of ACC’s effort to promote ASEAN-China functional cooperation in all fields and the fruitful results achieved in bilateral relations. They thought that ACC had played an important role in promoting peace and prosperity in Asia. They would continue to promote sustainable and sound development of ASEAN-China relations.
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