On 23 April 2016, 2016 Nanyang Forum, themed "New Maritime Silk Road Construction and ASEAN Integration" was one of the main activities of the 5th Nanyang Culture Festival held at the Xiamen University. H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre attended the forum and delivered the keynote speech. Prof. Zhu Chongshi, President of Xiamen University, Mme. Ni Chao, Vice Mayor of Xiamen Municipal People’s Government, Mr. Sun Guoxiang, Special Envoy for Asian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Mr. Chamroen Tipayapongtada, Governor of Phuket Province of Thailand, Mr. Srey Suon, Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts of Cambodia, H.E. Mme. Magdalene Teo, Ambassador of Brunei Darussalam to China, H.E. Mr.Thit Linn Ohn, Ambassador of Myanmar to China, Consul-Generals of ASEAN countries in Xiamen and Guangzhou, officials and experts of both China and ASEAN of around 100 people attended the forum.
In his welcoming remarks, Prof. Zhu Chongshi said that with the development priority of facing Southeast Asia, facing overseas Chinese and facing the Sea, Xiamen University had been dedicated to enhancing educational cooperation between China and ASEAN since its inception. Xiamen University Malaysia campus was founded and began enrollment this year. It was hoped that Xianmen University would continue to promote Chinese-ASEAN educational exchange and cooperation, cultivating talents for economic and social development of both sides.
Mme. Ni Chao said in her welcoming speech, the connections between ASEAN and Xiamen could be traced back to ancient times. The bilateral economic, trade and cultural connections had grown considerably. Nanyang Forum had provided the university with a platform to contribute to the ASEAN-China Community of Common Destiny, and ASEAN-Xiamen all-round partnership.
Special Envoy Sun Guoxiang, Governor Chamroen, Under Secretary Srey Suon and Secretary-General Yang Xiuping also delivered their remarks respectively. Special Envoy Sun said, Southeast Asia was an inevitable and important hub of the ancient Maritime Silk Road. China and ASEAN were important partners and had formed a virtual community of destiny. China actively pursued a foreign policy of good-neighborliness and friendship, therefore China and ASEAN had great potential to cooperate on jointly building the 21th Century Maritime Silk Road and regional integrated construction. This year marked the 25th anniversary ASEAN-China dialogue relations. The two sides should actively implement the "2+7 Cooperation Framework" to further strengthen ASEAN-China exchanges and mutual learning, deepen pragmatic cooperation so as to enhance public mutual trust and promote bilateral relations to a new level.
Governor Chamroen said, Phuket was the Peal of the Andaman Sea and had good relationship with Xiamen. Every year, around 12 million visitors traveled from every corner of the world to Phuket and Chinese tourists ranked the first in Phuket. In the year of 2020, Phuket would develop to become “Phuket Smart City” with mainly two characters, Smart Economy and Smart living community, which would welcome and attract more tourists to the city.
Under-Secretary Srey Suon said that, the Kingdom of Cambodia begun its history since thousands of years ago. The remains of Cambodia’s historical events and civilization had reflected through many different forms of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. ASEAN Integration and the Belt and Road Initiative had introduced new opportunities for ASEAN-China cooperation. The Cambodia Government had been working on the preservation and conservation of traditional culture and cultural heritage, and would like to enhance multilateral cooperation and experience exchanges to promote a sustainable cultural development.
ACC Secretary-General said, since China’s implementation of reform and opening-up policy, economic and trade cooperation and cultural exchanges between Xiamen and Southeast Asia had made considerable progress. 2016 was the 25th anniversary of ASEAN-China dialogue relations and year of ASEAN-China Educational Exchanges. ASEAN enjoyed advantageous geographical location and blessed with rich natural resources, and enormous demographic dividend. The ASEAN Economic Community would greatly boost its economic growth. Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" initiative, which received positive responses from many ASEAN countries. In recent years, the level of ASEAN-China cooperation in all areas had steadily grown. Win-win cooperation, development and prosperity were the common needs and goals of ASEAN and China. The ASEAN Community was fully realized and ASEAN Community Vision 2025 had been set forth. China had put forward the 13th Five Year Plan, reflecting the concepts of development of "innovation, coordination, green, open, and sharing". In the new historical era, ASEAN and China should further strengthen policy communication, accurately grasp respective development goals, find more converging points of interests, and deepen the building of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. In view of this, she proposed the following suggestions: First, further promoting infrastructure connectivity. Second, expanding areas of financial cooperation and effectively utilizing Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Silk Road Fund and other resources. Third, maximizing the complementary advantages, and promoting production capacity cooperation. Fourth, strengthening cultural exchanges to promote heart to heart communication of the people, particularly further strengthening exchanges and communication in education and among the youth, so as to maintain the steady, solid and deepening development of ASEAN-China cooperation for the benefit of the people.
At the roundtable dialogue stage, Scholars had frank and in-depth communication on ASEAN-China education exchanges and mutual trust, infrastructure construction and interconnection, and strengthening youth exchanges and cooperation and reached broad consensus.
During the Nanyang Cultural Festival, Secretary-General Yang Xiuping exchanged views with the guests from both China and ASEAN and briefed ASEAN-China Centre’s mandate and works in recent years and accepted interviews by Xiamen Star.
