On 8 June 2016, H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) met with H.E. Mr. Yang Houlan, Secretary-General of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS) in Seoul, Korea. Ms. Huang Ying, Director of General Affairs and Coordination Division of ACC attended the meeting.
Secretary-General Yang Houlan welcomed the visit of Secretary-General Yang Xiuping and introduced the latest progress of the cooperation among China, Japan and Korea. The combined GDP of the three countries accounted for 70% of the total GDP of Asian countries. Strengthening the trilateral cooperation was of great significance to the process of regional integration and realization of East Asia Economic Community by 2020. Currently the trilateral cooperation was facing both opportunities and challenges. To further promote the trilateral cooperation, TCS had successfully organized a series of important activities since the beginning of this year, such as forums and seminars for local public servants, disaster management, public diplomacy, tourism cooperation, etc.. In the future, TCS would implement projects on youth exchanges and journalist exchanges. TCS would work closer with ACC to boost ASEAN Plus Three Cooperation and bring benefit to the people of this region.
Secretary-General Yang Xiuping commended the work of TCS in boosting the trilateral cooperation and regional integration. She said that the first meeting between TCS and ACC, the ASEAN-Japan Centre and the ASEAN-Korea Centre in Tokyo last April had a preliminary discussion on future direction of cooperation between TCS and the Centres. She also briefed on ACC’s recent achievements in promoting ASEAN-China cooperation in the areas of trade, investment, education, culture, tourism, information and public affairs, especially the ASEAN-China Week in celebration of the 25th anniversary of ASEAN-China dialogue relations. She said that ACC would strengthen experience sharing with TCS and jointly make new contributions to the economic and social development of the region.