(Kempinski Hotel, Beijing, 7 November 2017)
Your Excellency Mr. Kong Xuanyou, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China,
Your Excellency Mr. Jose Santiago Romana, Ambassador of the Republic of the Philippines to China,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good Evening!
I wish to extend a warm welcome to all of you to the Reception Celebrating the 6th Anniversary of ASEAN-China Centre. Thank you, Assistant Minister Kong Xuanyou and Ambassador Romana for your warm remarks.
ACC’s development over the past six years has carried the expectations of ASEAN countries and China and received strong support and assistance from various sectors. On behalf of all my ACC colleagues, I wish to say a big thank you to all those who have cared and supported the work of ACC.
Dear Friends,
The year 2017 is of special significance to both ASEAN and China, as it marks the 50th anniversary of ASEAN. It witnessed the successful convening of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which ushered in a new era for China’s development. It is also the ASEAN-China Year of Tourism Cooperation and the 10th anniversary of China-ASEAN Education Cooperation Week. In this important year, the ever-closer cooperation in pursuit of the Belt and Road Initiative has injected fresh and strong impetus to the development of ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership.
Since the beginning of 2017, ACC has worked actively to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of both sides, seized opportunities and forged ahead with an innovative spirit. We are working on 19 flagship projects, and organized or participated in more than 100 activities, making new contributions to the practical cooperation between ASEAN and China and to the Belt and Road Initiative.
First, ACC carried out a series of activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ASEAN, for example, New Beginning, New Opportunity - International Symposium on Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of ASEAN,
“ASEAN-China Day” Fair, ASEAN-China Tourism Festival, to name a few. In addition, ACC actively participated in and supported commemorative events held by ASEAN countries and ASEAN Beijing Committee.
Second, ACC pushed forward tourism cooperation between both sides to mark the ASEAN-China Year of Tourism Cooperation. ACC echoed the Visit ASEAN@50 Campaign, launched the Tourism Documentary Shooting Project “Hi! ASEAN” covering 10 ASEAN countries in collaboration with Beijing TV, and translated the 50 Golden Trails of ASEAN and published its Chinese version.
ACC took an active part in various tourism events, set up booths and organized tourism photo exhibitions to promote tourism resources of both sides. In Cambodia and Viet Nam, ACC organized Tourism Seminars on China-Ready to help ASEAN countries learn more about Chinese tourism market and the preference of Chinese tourists.
To promote sustainable development of tourism, ACC successfully held the ASEAN-China Quality and Sustainable Tourism Development Conference. This month, ACC is going to hold ASEAN-China Eco-Tourism Development Seminar, and Forum on Cultural Heritage
Preservation for a Sustainable Tourism Development. I believe all these events will play a positive role in deepening tourism cooperation between ASEAN and China.
Third, ACC tapped the potentials of trade and investment in an innovative and result-oriented manner. ACC continued to promote policies related to the upgraded ASEAN-China FTA and the achievements of ASEAN Economic Community, and help enterprises of both sides, Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in particular, to strengthen contacts and explore business opportunities.
ACC held several Forums on Business and Investment Opportunities of ASEAN in Chinese cities and provinces, co-hosted South & Southeast Asia Commodity Expo and Investment Fair, and the first China-Southeast Asia Business Forum, and organized trade and investment missions of Chinese businessmen to ASEAN countries. ACC continued to push forward business matching, actively engaged in China-ASEAN Expo, and promoted cooperation in production capacity, connectivity and e-commerce.
In addition, ACC strengthened its contacts with
mechanisms such as Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asian Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), and Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism (LMC), and successfully held the Seminar on Strengthening BIMP-EAGA-China Trade & Investment Cooperation and other events, which further enriched ASEAN-China cooperation.
Fourth, ACC took a long-term view to build new platforms for education and culture cooperation. ACC actively pooled resources of various sides and facilitated the establishment of new cooperation mechanisms such as the China-ASEAN Tourism Education Alliance, ASEAN-China Consortium for TVET Cooperation, and ASEAN-China Arts Colleges Alliance. By doing so, we hope that exchanges and cooperation in education, culture and tourism will reinforce each other and move forward in a coordinated way.
As a co-organizer, ACC was awarded Outstanding Contributor to the 10th China-ASEAN Education Cooperation Week. To promote people-to-people connectivity, ACC co-organized the Beijing ASEAN Cultural Tour, “Soong Ching Ling Cup” ASEAN-China Youth Football Friendly Matches, ASEAN Gourmet Festival and other activities, and launched the first Chinese Language Competition for ASEAN Students in
Beijing-Hebei-Tianjin Region with a view to creating brand programmes for educational and cultural exchanges.
The 2017 ASEAN-China Film Festival, initiated by ACC, will open in early December. I hope it will serve as a new platform for people-to-people and cultural exchanges between ASEAN and China.
Fifth, ACC actively strengthened media exchanges to gain more popular support for ASEAN-China cooperation. The Lecture Series by ASEAN and Chinese Ambassadors held by ACC have been warmly welcomed by university students. This year, we invited Chinese mainstream media to the Philippines and Indonesia, and took ASEAN journalists to Hunan and Jiangxi provinces. The wide media coverage during and after the reporting trips has brought greater attention to and deepened understanding of the 50 years’ development of ASEAN and the fruitful achievements of ASEAN-China cooperation.
Dear Friends,
ACC is standing at a new starting point. On 6 August this year, the foreign ministers of ASEAN Member States and China signed the revised edition of Memorandum of Understanding on Establishing the ASEAN-China Centre at the ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in
Manila, where they commended ACC’s work, and looked forward to an even bigger role of ACC in deepening friendly exchanges and cooperation between the two sides.
Next year will be the 15th anniversary of ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership and the ASEAN-China Year of Innovation, which will open up broad prospects for ASEAN-China relations. ACC is ready to redouble its efforts and join hands with friends from all walks of life to forge ahead and make greater contributions to the bright future of ASEAN-China relations.
Thank you.