On 8 December 2015, ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) Secretary-General H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping met with Ms. Maria Rica C. Bueno, Director of the Office of Tourism Standards and Regulation of the Department of Tourism of the Philippines, and Mr. James A. Sy, Officer-in-charge of the Tourism Promotions Board of the Philippines. Mr. Ivan Frank Olea, Minister of the Embassy of the Philippines to China, also attended the meeting.
Secretary-General Yang said that ASEAN and China were good neighbours and partners and that the cooperation between the two sides had a broad prospect and provided a rare opportunity. The initiatives put forward by the Chinese side, such as the jointly building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, “2+7” Cooperation Framework, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), had been echoed by many countries including ASEAN countries. The 18th ASEAN-China Summit reached important consensus on deepening strategic partnership between the two sides and strengthening cooperation on economic and trade, connectivity, production capacity, and people-to-people exchanges, were the common goals of the two sides. Next year would mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the dialogue relations of ASEAN and China. Chinese Premier Li Kangqiang proposed to hold the first ASEAN-China Agriculture Cooperation Forum and Health Cooperation Forum. She hoped that the two sides could take this opportunity to further strengthen communication and contacts as well as implement these activities. Relevant agencies of the Philippines were welcomed to participate in these activities.
Secretary-General Yang also introduced ACC’s work in the areas of trade, investment, education, culture and tourism since its establishment, which vigorously promoted economic and social development of ASEAN and China, as well as mutual understanding and friendship. ASEAN Community would be fully realized by the end of 2015, while China was formulizing its 13th Five-year Plan to pursue innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared growth. China would match its growth strategy with that of ASEAN countries, so as to improve the overall development and contribute to the regional prosperity and stability.
The officials of the Philippines expressed their appreciation to ACC for co-hosting the two capacity building programmes in Manila and Cebu respectively. The Philippines was actively preparing for the ASEAN Tourism Forum to be held in early 2016. The hosting of the above programmes were at the right time and would provide a solid foundation to promote even more ASEAN-China cooperation in relevant areas. The Chinese tourists to the Philippines had been growing since this year. However, there are still some rooms for improvements in the tourism sector of the Philippines, for example, the tourism professionals need for improved command of Chinese language, understanding the daily habits of Chinese tourists, and the funds needed to develop its tourism market, etc. The Department of Tourism and other relevant agencies of the Philippines were keen to cooperate with relevant parties to improve tourism environment and infrastructure, and they hoped ACC could continue to provide support and assistance to the Philippines, hence to encourage more enterprises to invest in the Philippines and participate in infrastructure building. The Department of Tourism would facilitate activities in this regard.
During the Workshop, Secretary-General Yang also informed the participants of ACC’s work and programs since its establishment.
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