On 29 August 2018，the 8th Meeting of the Joint Executive Board (JEB) was held at the Secretariat of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) in Beijing. The Meeting was co-chaired by Ms. Tracy Chan, Deputy Chief of Mission and Minister-Counsellor of the Embassy of Singapore in China, and Mme. Mao Ning, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China. Attendants include Ambassador Thit Linn Ohn of Myanmar to China, Ambassador Jose Santiago L. Sta. Romana of the Philippines to China, Charge d’ Affairs with Embassy of Brunei to China, representatives from embassies of Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Viet Nam, members of JEB from the Chinese side, and officials with the ACC Secretariat.
The JEB members listened to the work report of ACC in 2018, deliberated on ACC Draft Annual Plan of Action for 2019, and gave comments and suggestions on further improving the work of ACC. All members congratulated Secretary-General Chen Dehai on the assumption of office and commended ACC’s great efforts and achievements in promoting friendly exchanges and cooperation in trade, investment, education, culture, tourism, information and media in the context of the 15th anniversary of ASEAN-China strategic partnership and ASEAN-China Year of Innovation in 2018. At the ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting recently held in Singapore, the two sides reached consensus on formulating “China-ASEAN Strategic Partnership Vision 2030” and designate the year 2019 as ASEAN-China Year of Media Exchanges. All members expected that ACC would continuously make full use of its strength, focus on the theme and priority areas of ASEAN-China cooperation, innovate and carry out next year’s activities, so as to make greater contributions to the in-depth and all-around development of ASEAN-China relations.
Secretary-General Chen Dehai expressed his appreciation to the JEB members for their long-standing support to the work of the Secretariat. He said that ACC would continue to actively implement the important consensus reached by leaders of ASEAN member states and China, and solidly push forward friendly exchanges and practical cooperation in various areas. By maintaining close contacts with the JEB members listening to and adopting their suggestions, ACC Secretariat would press ahead with relevant cooperation projects this year and improve the work plan for the next year, so as to better serve the development of ASEAN and China and play an even greater role in deepening ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership.