On 9 January 2017, ACC Secretary-General Yang Xiupingmet with Mr. Mao Zonghui, Party Secretary of Hekou County of Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province, and Mr. Li Xingkun, Executive Deputy Director of the Administrative Committee of Hekou Cross Border Economic Cooperation Zone and Deputy Party Secretary of Hekou County. They had discussions on cross-border exchanges and cooperation between Hekou and Viet Nam. Ms. Tan Ping, Deputy Head of Honghe Prefecture and Mr. Zhang Xuehai, Deputy Director of the Information and Public Relations Division of ACC, attended the meeting.

Extending warm welcome to Secretary-General Yang Xiuping and her colleagues to Hekou, Mr. Mao Zonghui and Mr. Li Xingkun introduced the construction plan of Hekou (China)-LàoCai (Vietnam) Cross Border Economic Cooperation Zone. They mentioned that Hekou and LàoCai, standing at the two sides of the same river, share similar history and culture, and have close economic, trade, culture and people-to-people links. The two sides have established effective mechanisms and achieved fruitful results in practical cooperation. Hekou-LàoCai Cross Border Economic and Trade Fair has been held for 16 times. Hekou Port is the largest land port in Yunnan Province with trade volume ranking the fourth in all land ports in China, which accounts for 80% of the gross export and import volume of Yunnan Province. The accumulated number of people travelling through the port has reached more than 10 million. The construction of Hekou-LàoCai Cross Border Economic Cooperation Zone will bring new vigour and vitality into the cross-border tourism and trade of Hekou. It is expected that ACC could give greater support in expanding exchanges and cooperation between Hekou and Viet Nam.

Secretary-General Yang Xiuping highly valued the achievements made by Hekou County in promoting cross-border exchanges and cooperation and gave a brief introduction of ACC’s work in promoting ASEAN-China cooperation in trade, investment, education, culture, tourism, media and information. She said that promoting sub-national cooperation is one of the priorities of ACC. ACC is ready to provide support and assistance to Hekou in further expanding its friendly exchanges with Viet Nam and other ASEAN countries.

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