On 15 February 2017, H.E.Mme.Yang Xiuping,Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre(ACC) visited Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology and exchanged views with the management of the laboratory. Mr. Ma Jun, Division Director of Shandong Foreign Affairs Office joined the visit.

Mr. Song Jinming, deputy director of the laboratory made a briefing on the operation of the laboratory. He said that the laboratory aims at setting up an open-end collaborative and innovative platform and building a maritime cooperation network with international partners. Since the establishment of the laboratory in October2015, it conducted extensive cooperation with Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and other ASEAN countries, in the areas of capacity building, academic exchange, disaster prevention and mitigation, and offered some marine scientific facilities to ASEAN countries. The laboratory hoped that through ACC’s platform, it could make itself better known to ASEAN countries,and hopefully develop joint researches with ASEAN countries to contribute to the regional development.

Secretary-General Yang spoke highly of the cooperation achievements made by the laboratory with ASEAN. She mentioned that ACC, as an inter-governmental organization co-established by the governments of ten ASEAN Members States and China, is committed to implement the consensus reached by the leaders of both sides, and made all efforts in promoting the pragmatic cooperation in the areas of trade, investment, education, culture, tourist and information and public relations. The laboratory did a lot of work in promoting marine cooperation between ASEAN and China, especially in the areas of disaster reduction and prevention and capacity building, which received good reputation from many counties. She hoped that the laboratory could continue to explore new ways to carry out practical cooperation with more ASEAN countries and make the laboratory a mutually-benefitial platform. ACC will continue to provide support and assistance in enlarging the cooperation between the laboratory and ASEAN countries.

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