On 21 June 2016, the closing ceremony of the “1st ASEAN-China Youth Summer Camp” was held in Tianjin International Chinese College (TICC). H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), H.E. Mr. Thit Linn Ohn, Ambassador of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, and Mr. Liu Xin, Vice Director-General of the Education Commission of Tianjin Municipal People’s Government attended the ceremony and made remarks. Around 60 guests including Mr. Zhao Hongtao, President of TICC, Mme. Shen Xuesong, Deputy Secretary-General of China Education Association of International Exchange (CEAIE), Dr. Mohd Rozi bin Ismail, Education Counsellor of Embassy of Malaysia, Embassy Officials of Lao PDR, the Philippines and Viet Nam, and the students from China, ASEAN countries, Japan and the Republic of Korea were present at the event.
Mme. Yang Xiuping congratulated on the success of the 1st ASEAN-China Youth Summer Camp and expressed appreciation to TICC, Embassies of ASEAN countries in China, CEAIE and Tianjin Municipal Education Commission for their strong support. She stressed that the youth were the hope for the future and the important impetus to promote sustained and in-depth development of ASEAN-China relations. Expanding youth exchange was the solid social foundation for China-ASEAN relations. She hoped that the participants in the 1st ASEAN-China Youth Summer Camp could take this opportunity to learn more about ASEAN-China relations and regional cooperation, so as to make new contributions to further developing ASEAN-China relations. She mentioned that a priority of ACC was to support ASEAN-China youth exchange. 2016 was Year of ASEAN-China Educational Exchange, for which ACC had held various events such as Beijing ASEAN Students Games, China-ASEAN Forum of Youth and Humanities, and ASEAN-China Youth Leadership Summit. Meanwhile, ACC would co-sponsor the 9th China-ASEAN Education Cooperation Week (CAECW) in August. She emphasized that ACC would continuously work with all sectors of the society to promote sustained and in-depth development of educational exchange and relations between ASEAN and China.
Ambassador Thit Linn Ohn praised ACC for sponsoring the 1st ASEAN-China Youth Summer Camp, an event with great importance for youth communication and exchanges. He said that 2016 was a significant year that marked the 25th anniversary of ASEAN-China dialogue relations. ACC had organized many important activities in promoting friendship and understanding between ASEAN and China. He hoped that the friendship starting from this Youth Summer Camp could give influence on all students and youths from ASEAN countries, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
Mr. Liu Xin expressed his gratitude for ACC’s support to Tianjin in promoting international cooperation in education. He pointed out that under ACC’s assistance, ASEAN-China Chinese Language and Culture Education Base was established in TICC in 2015, which had served as a platform for the opening up of Tianjin education. The base had trained over 100 ASEAN youths, which made a great contribution to promote Chinese language and culture as well as strengthen bilateral mutual understanding. Tianjin was willing to further cooperation with ACC in promoting talent cultivation, scholarship programmes for ASEAN students studying in China and construction of Luban Workshop in ASEAN countries.
Malaysian student Muhammad Afiq bin Che Lah made a speech on behalf of all the campers. He thanked ACC for organizing the summer camp, which provided him with a precious opportunity to communicate and make friends with students from ASEAN, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea. By joining the summer camp, they obtained more knowledge about Chinese history and culture, political and economic development and opening-up policy as well as Chinese traditions such as Chinese language, kungfu, Chinese painting, calligraphy and bronze ware making. He compared their gathering to the building of friendship bridges between their countries. All the students were looking forward to more opportunities of communication among the youth without boundary in the future.
Mme. Yang Xiuping and other distinguished guests presented certificates of the summer camp and HKC to all participants. The students demonstrated traditional Chinese Kungfu, facial makeup in Beijing opera and calligraphy to the guests. Hosted and sponsored by ACC, and co-organized by CEAIE and TICC, the 1st ASEAN-China Youth Summer Camp was successfully concluded with the beautiful song “Auld Lang Syne” sung by the students.