ACC Secretary-General Met with Assistant Chief Executive of Singapore Tourism Board

On 14 May 2018, ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) Secretary-General H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping met with Mr. Chang Chee Pey, Assistant Chief Executive of Singapore Tourism Board (STB), to exchange views on further strengthening cooperation between the two sides. Mr. John Gregory Conceicao, Executive Director (International Relations, Market Planning & Oceania), Mr. Que Xiaohua, Cultural Counsellor of Chinese Embassy in Singapore, Ms. Zhou Hui, Deputy Director of ECTD of ACC and Mr. Zhang Xuehai, Deputy Director of IPRD of ACC were present. 

Mr. Chang Chee Pey expressed a warm welcome to Secretary-General Yang’s presence in Singapore, thanked ACC for co-organizing the Tourism Seminar on “China-Ready” in Singapore, and highly evaluated the work and achievements made by ACC to promote the practical cooperation in the areas of Singapore-China and ASEAN-China tourism and other relevant fields. He said that with the development of world tourism industry and the Chinese outbound tourism markets in recent years, China has surpassed Indonesia as Singapore's largest inbound tourist market. The number of Chinese tourists visiting Singapore has been growing rapidly and the exchanges and cooperation between the two sides have been gradually deepened and expanded. Singapore would continue to enhance its hospitality to provide better services for Chinese tourists, by which it could attract more Chinese tourists. ACC was an important platform to promote friendly exchanges between ASEAN Member States and China. He hoped to continue to maintain close ties with ACC and jointly explore new initiatives and measures to promote bilateral tourism cooperation, so as to push bilateral cooperation to a new level.

Secretary-General Yang briefly introduced the work and achievements made by ACC to promote practical cooperation between ASEAN and China. She said that tourism is one of ACC’s key working areas. ACC actively sets up a communication platform for both tourism organizations and practitioners, and promotes high-quality tourism resources through various channels. 

Centering on the 50th Anniversary of ASEAN and the ASEAN-China Year of Tourism Cooperation in 2017, ACC worked with Beijing Television Station on the Tourism Documentary Shooting Project “Hi! ASEAN” in 10 ASEAN countries, and received strong support from STB during the trip in Singapore. The Launching Ceremony of the documentary was successfully held in Beijing in April and will meet with Chinese audience in the middle of this year. This year marks the 15th anniversary of ASEAN-China strategic partnership and ASEAN-China Year of Innovation. ACC has designed 21 flagship projects and will carry out a series of activities in the field of tourism. ACC is willing to work with STB to continue to strengthen communications, tap the potential of tourism cooperation, expand personnel exchanges, and make new and greater contributions to promoting mutual understanding and friendship between both sides.