On 26 November 2018, the 8th Joint Council Meeting of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) was held in Chongqing. The meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Tan Hung Seng, Permanent Representative of Singapore to ASEAN, and Mr. Huang Xilian, Ambassador of China to ASEAN. Representatives of ASEAN Member States, ACC Secretariat and ASEAN Secretariat attended the meeting.
Ambassador Tan Hung Seng highly commended the fruitful achievements made in the development of ASEAN-China relations. He noted that the bilateral economic and trade cooperation has been maintaining strong momentum of growth in recent years, which is evidenced by the fact that China has been ASEAN’s largest trading partner for years. He pointed out that the China-ASEAN Strategic Partnership Vision 2030 (Vision 2030) which was adopted at the 21st China-ASEAN Summit charts the course for the development of future ASEAN-China relations. The two sides also issued a joint statement on strengthening cooperation in scientific and technological innovation, and designated the year 2019 as ASEAN-China Year of Media Exchange. The Summit also acknowledged the important role and contributions of ACC in promoting ASEAN-China cooperation in trade, investment, education, culture, tourism, information and media. It’s believed that with the joint efforts of all members of the Joint Council, ACC would achieve greater development in pushing forward the practical cooperation between ASEAN and China.
Ambassador Huang Xilian said that ASEAN-China relations have entered a period of maturity, in which we pursue growth of high quality at higher levels. The “Vision 2030” adopted at the 21st China-ASEAN Summit reflects the expectation of both sides for the future development of our relations. As an organization mandated to promote practical cooperation between ASEAN and China in various areas, ACC has maintained steady growth since its establishment 7 years ago, which serves as a strong evidence of the ever deepening cooperation and closer relations between ASEAN and China. Guided by the consensus reached by leaders of the two sides, ACC has carried out a range of fruitful activities that echo the themes and priority areas of ASEAN-China relations, making active contributions to promoting the in-depth development of ASEAN-China relations. He hoped that ACC would continue to make full use of its unique advantages to make new contributions to uplifting the level of ASEAN-China strategic partnership.
Members of the Joint Council highly commended ACC’s tremendous efforts and fruitful achievements in prompting friendly exchanges and cooperation in economic, social, cultural and other related areas in the context of the 15th anniversary of ASEAN-China strategic partnership and ASEAN-China Year of Innovation. It’s hoped that ACC would continue to focus on priority areas of ASEAN-China cooperation, strengthen institutional building and increase communication and coordination between China and ASEAN countries in planning and conducting cooperative projects in such areas as trade, investment,
education, culture, tourism and media. ACC is also expected to organize more media exchange and cooperation projects as well as youth training and exchange activities, strengthen its one-stop information function and mobilize resources to raise the influence of ACC, so as to push forward the ASEAN-China cooperation to a new stage.
Secretary-General Chen Dehai thanked members of the Joint Council for their long-term and strong support to ACC and himself. He said that ACC would follow the guidance of “Vision 2030” and seize the opportunity of ASEAN-China Year of Media Exchange to actively implement important consensus reached by leaders of both sides, further review the valuable opinions and suggestions raised by the members of the Joint Council, fully tap the resources and potentials of ACC, strengthen information research and network building, increase coordination of cooperation projects between the two sides, expand cooperation areas and channels, and substantively push forward friendly exchanges and practical cooperation between both sides in various areas.
The JC members listened to the report of the 9th Joint Executive Board of ACC, deliberated on and adopted the Summary Record of the 7th Joint Council Meeting, the Annual Report of 2018, the Work Programme and Budget of Operational Expenditure of 2019. The arrangements of the 9th Joint Council Meeting and other related matters were also discussed.
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