On 16 February 2017, H.E.Mme.Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) met with Ms. Li Rong, Deputy Director of Foreign?Affairs?Office of Shandong province and exchanged views on strengthening the cooperation between Shandong province and ASEAN.

Secretary-General Yang expressed her thanks to Ms. Li Rong for inviting the ACC to visit Dezhou, Weifang and Qingdao. She said that by the field visits and discussions with relevant government sectors and enterprises of the three cities, ACC learned more about the fruitful results and strong willingness of the cities to strengthen their cooperation with ASEAN. Shandong province, with its prosperous economy, abundant energy, and natural resources, and a full range of industries, has a good foundation in cooperation with ASEAN. As the East Asia Livestock Exchange, East Asia Marine Cooperation Platform and two ASEAN-China Education and Training Center settled in Shandong province, Shandong has more effective platforms to cooperate with ASEAN. ACC would like to keep close contact with Shandong province, to support its cooperation and friendly exchanges with ASEAN by integrating its own advantages and ASEAN’s demands, so as to achieve a mutual benefit and win-win results.

Ms. Li Rong said that Shandong province has been actively implementing the Initiative of “Co-building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road”, and made a great effort in strengthening communication and cooperation with ASEAN in a wide range of areas such as high-level exchanges, economic relations, sister-city relationships, cultural, etc, and received fruitful results. ASEAN has a large population, a rapidly developing economy, and is complementary with Shandong in industries. The cooperation between the two sides has huge potential. She hoped that ACC would continue to support Shandong’s practical cooperation with ASEAN, creating new mechanisms in the cooperation areas of trade, marine, agriculture, culture and tourism, sharing information and resources, and making joint efforts in promoting ASEAN-China cooperation to a new height.

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