On 7 June 2016, H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) led the ACC delegation to visit ASEAN-Korea Centre (AKC) and met with H.E. Kim Young-sun, Secretary-General of AKC. Directors of the Divisions of AKC and Ms. Huang Ying, Director of General Affairs and Coordination Division of ACC, attended the meeting.
Secretary-General Yang Xiuping expressed her appreciation for AKC’s invitation to attend the opening ceremonies of the ASEAN-Korea Tourism Development Forum and the Korea World Travel Fair in Seoul. She said that the two Secretaries-General of ACC and AKC met with each other for several times since early this year and exchanges and communications between the two Centres became more frequent than ever before. ACC would like to learn experiences from AKC on cooperating with ASEAN in the area of tourism through this visit. She briefed on ACC’s projects in the areas of trade, investment, education, culture, tourism, information and public relations since the beginning of this year. ACC successfully organized ASEAN-China Week with a series of events in late May to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of ASEAN-China dialogue relations. In tourism area, ACC translated and printed ASEAN Tourism Package Guidebook, organized ASEAN-China Tourism Photo Competition and ASEAN-China Tourism Forum, which received positive response. The year of 2016 is also the ASEAN-China Educational Exchange Year. ACC was preparing various exchange activities including the ASEAN-China Youth Camp and the Forum and Seminar on Youth and Humanities. ACC would also take part in the ASEAN-China Educational Cooperation Week to contribute to people-to-people exchanges between the two sides. According to the consensus reached among the Centres in last April, ACC looked forward to working with AKC to implement the projects on youth exchanges.
Secretary-General Kim Young-sun welcomed the visit of Secretary-General Yang Xiuping and ACC’s participation in AKC’s events. He introduced that the ASEAN-Korea Tourism Development Forum, one of AKC’s flagship projects for this year, aimed at promoting ecotourism in ASEAN and tourism cooperation between ASEAN and Korea. AKC also would like to promote the rich and unique tourism resources of ASEAN by setting up the ASEAN Pavilion in the Korea World Travel Fair, one of the largest international travel fairs in Korea. He believed that Secretary-General Yang’s visit would strengthen communication and exchanges between the two Centres, as well as cooperation between ASEAN and the Centres.
Secretary-General Kim also introduced AKC’s recent work and future work plan. AKC just organized Product Development Work in Indonesia and other ASEAN countries. Besides the ASEAN-Korea Tourism Development Forum and the ASEAN Pavilion in the Korea World Travel Fair, AKC would host other projects like youth exchanges and ASEAN food festival. AKC would join hands with ACC to implement the projects of youth camps organized separately by the two Centres. The two Centres should grasp the important opportunity of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of ASEAN in 2017 to draft relevant projects.
Secretary-General Yang also watched AKC’s new promotion video of ASEAN tourism resources, and visited the ASEAN Hall of AKC. In the evening, Secretary-General Yang attended the welcome dinner of the ASEAN-Korea Tourism Development Forum and delivered a toast. She emphasized the important role of tourism cooperation in promoting social and economic development and enhancing mutual understanding and friendship. ASEAN had become one of the most popular travel destinations in the world. She wished the ASEAN-Korea Tourism Development Forum a complete success.