On 29 July 2017, the Inauguration Ceremony of ASEAN-China Consortium for TVET Cooperation & Forum on Integration of Industry and Education was held in Guiyang, which was one of activities ACC hosted during the 10th China-ASEAN Education Cooperation Week (CAECW). Mr. Chen Mingming, Vice Governor of Guizhou Province of China, Dr. Liu Limin, President of China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE), Dr. Gatot Hari Priowirjanto, Director of Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Secretariat, H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), Mr. Zhao Lingshan, Deputy Director-General of the Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges of the Ministry of Education of China participated in the opening ceremony and delivered remarks. The event was also attended by more than 350 participants including representatives from SEAMEO Regional Centre for Vocational and Technical Education and Training (VOCTECH), Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education, vocational colleges of ASEAN and China, Zhejiang Yalong Educational Equipment Joint-Stock Co., Ltd, as well as governments and enterprises.
Secretary-General Yang Xiuping mentioned that ACC is committed to promoting practical cooperation in trade, investment, education, culture, tourism, as well as information and media, promoting exchanges between vocational education institutions of ASEAN and China is one of the flagship projects of ACC. Over the past years, ACC has fully played its role as a bridge to facilitate the exchanges and cooperation between the vocational education institutions of both sides, and hosted a series of forums and education fair in TVET, ACC has been working together with its partner, Yalong Company, to donate vocational education equipments and training courses to Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar. ASEAN-China Consortium for TVET Cooperation is a long-term mechanism of ASEAN-China cooperation in TVET which ACC has actively facilitated, and also a concrete measure to implement the initiative of leaders. She hoped vocational colleges of both sides could further tap the potential of cooperation, fully play the role of the consortium as a high-level platform for mutual benefits and common development by carrying out more joint programmes and cultivating more high-quality skilled professionals.
Vice Governor Chen Mingming, President Liu Limin, Director Gatot and Deputy Director-General Zhao Lingshan in their remarks commended ACC for its great efforts in promoting vocational education cooperation, and its remarkable contribution as a main sponsor to the establishment of ASEAN-China Consortium for TVET cooperation. They stated that ASEAN and China have been attaching a great attention to vocational education, it is timely to establish the Consortium, which is an important step for the collaboration between vocational education institutions of both sides. It provides a new platform for the common development of ASEAN-China vocational education and is also a key measure to promote the Belt and Road Initiative. It is expected that the Consortium could adhere to the open development, collaborative development and sharing development, to jointly promote reform and innovation of cultivation mode, create vocational education criteria with international standards, strengthen cooperation in professional qualification framework construction and elevate vocational education level of China and ASEAN countries to benefit peoples of both sides.
The Forum inaugurated the ASEAN-China Consortium for TVET Cooperation and announced the Guiyang Consensus on ASEAN-China Consortium for TVET Cooperation. The participants from China and ASEAN countries made presentations and exchanged views at the sessions of case sharing of ASEAN-China TVET Cooperation and proposals and expectations of cooperation with China, and put forward constructive suggestions and advices on how to facilitate the Consortium to run efficiently and expand cooperation and exchanges between colleges of ASEAN and China.