Ever since ASEAN and China established dialogue relations in 1991, their relations have grown from dialogue partnership and good-neighborly partnership of mutual trust to strategic partnership with wide common interest. ASEAN and China have witnessed enhanced political mutual trust, deepened economic integration, more frequent people-to-people exchanges, and accelerated ASEAN-China connectivity. The ASEAN-China Free Trade Area was established successfully. China has been the largest trade partner of ASEAN for four consecutive years, while ASEAN has become the third largest trade partner of China. The cooperation between ASEAN and China has flourished and achieved fruitful results.

With the rapid development of ASEAN-China relations, the ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) comes into being. At the Commemorative Summit to Mark the 15th Anniversary of ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations held in October 2006, state leaders of ASEAN and China proposed to establish the ASEAN-China Centre. In 2009, governments of ASEAN and China signed the MOU on Establishing the ASEAN-China Centre. At the Commemorative Summit to Mark the 20th Anniversary of ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations held in Bali, Indonesia, on 18 November 2011, state leaders of ASEAN and China jointly inaugurated the ASEAN-China Centre.

As an inter-governmental organization established by governments of ASEAN Member States and China, ACC has undertaken its responsibility to be a one-stop information and activities centre, and dedicated itself to promoting ASEAN-China functional cooperation as well as the good-neighborliness and mutual trust between the two sides over the past two years. It has also played a unique role in pushing forward ASEAN-China strategic partnership, and provided practical support to the process of ASEAN Community building.

ACC’s executing body is the Secretariat, which is headquartered in Beijing and headed by the Secretary-General. At present, the position is taken on by Mr. Ma Mingqiang (Chinese). There are four divisions under the Secretariat: General Affairs and Coordination Division, Trade and Investment Division, Education, Culture and Tourism Division, and Information and Public Relations Division. Currently, Laos, Indonisia and Thailand have reconded their officials to work at the Secretariat.

Over the past two years, ACC has been visited by more than 10 ministerial-level delegations, including Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Phongthep Thepkanjana, etc.

In order to promote the cooperation between ASEAN and China in trade, investment, culture, education and tourism, ACC has carried out approximately 300 activities.

The ASEAN-China Products Trade Center has been set up in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province. Commodities from 8 ASEAN countries have already shown up in the Center. ACC is actively carrying forward lecture tours to help more enterprises understand the preferential policies of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area, so as to promote two-way investment.

The ASEAN-China Investment Consortium has taken firm steps in promoting Chinese enterprises to invest in ASEAN. With the help of ACC, several Chinese enterprises have entered the ASEAN market.

Positive progress has been made in implementing “Double 100,000 Students Mobility Goal”. ACC organized Chinese vocational colleges to visit Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Viet Nam, and built cooperation networks for vocational colleges of both sides. Over 200 cooperation agreements were signed. Sponsored by ACC, the first and the second Beijing ASEAN Students’ Games have achieved full success. Driven by ACC, the ASEAN-China Language and Culture Centre (ACLCC) was inaugurated at Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) in December 2013.

ACC warmly welcomed the arts and cultural groups from Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia, etc. 2014 is designated as the ASEAN-China Cultural Exchange Year. Organized by ACC, “Colorful China” China Ethnic Art Troupe gave performances in Cambodia and Viet Nam in January 2014. The show presented colorful cultural arts of China’s diverse ethnic groups to local people and enhanced cultural exchange, mutual understanding and friendship between ASEAN countries and China.

Initiated and carried out by ACC, tourism documentary series “Discovery - Southeast Asia” and “Taste - Southeast Asia” have already been filmed in five ASEAN countries. Both programs are shown on CCTV in 2014 and exert positive influences on promoting people exchanges between ASEAN and China.

In addition, ACC has also been very active in carrying out public relations activities. It organized the ASEAN Ambassador Lectures, “My ASEAN and China” Multimedia Art Exhibition, Micro-Blog Interviews on “Touring ASEAN with Diplomats” and Online Photo Competition and so on. These activities bring the peoples of ASEAN and China closer. ACC official website receives about 2,000 daily visits. ACC microblog has 1.4 million followers..

ACC enjoys the full support of the governments of its 11 Members. On 9 October 2013, a Joint Statement on Commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership was issued at the 16th ASEAN-China Summit. “Support ACC’s work for facilitating bilateral trade, investment and tourism facilitation so as to achieve the goal of two-way trade and investment by 2020” and “Support the work of ACC and make it a platform for promoting better understanding, communication and cooperation through cultural exchanges and educational cooperation” are highlighted in the Joint Statement. ACC will actively implement the concensus reached by the leaders of ASEAN Member States and China.

ACC will always bear in mind the great expectations of peoples of ASEAN and China and work harder to provide better and efficient services to strengthen people-to-people friendly exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation between ASEAN and China. It will also make new contributions to promot in-depth development of ASEAN-China strategic partnership and build closer ASEAN-China community of common destiny.