Secretary-General Ma Mingqiang Visited Lao Government

Source:ASEAN-China Centre

On 21 January 2013, Mr. Ma Mingqiang, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre paid a visit to the relevant governmental agencies of Laos. Mr. Ma held talks respectively with Dr. Kien (Director General of ASEAN Affairs Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Laos), Mr. Chanthaneth Simahano (Deputy Director General of the Department of Planning and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry), Ms. Khemmani Pholsena (Vice Minister of Industry and Commerce, Vice President of Lao-China Joint Cooperation Commission) and Dr. Sananh Chounlamany (Vice-President of Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry). Mr. Ma briefed them on ACC's role and goal and its work in relevant fields. He said that ACC would exert its best to boost the cooperation between China and ASEAN countries including Laos in the fields of trade, investment, education culture and tourism, to increase Lao export to China, to encourage more Chinese enterprises to invest in ASEAN and to attract more Chinese tourists to ASEAN.

Lao officials welcomed the visit of Secretary-General Ma Mingqiang and fully acknowledged the activities carried out by ACC in the past year to promote the cooperation between ASEAN and China in all-round fields. They said that they would take full advantage of the ACC platform and its resources to fulfill the goals mentioned above by Secretary-General Ma. Then Mr. Ma made detailed introduction on the projects of ASEAN Products EXPO CENTRE in Yiwu, Chinese Enterprises Investment Consortium in ASEAN and TV Promotion on Laos Tourism Resources, etc. Two sides also exchanged views on further cooperation.

Mr. Ma expressed welcome to the upcoming assignment of a Lao official from Ministry of Commerce to work at ACC. Mr. Ma believed that after taking office, he/she would facilitate the communication between ACC and ASEAN nations and benefit ACC's work in many fields.