On 5 April 2017, H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), and H.E. Mr. Soegeng Rahardjo, Indonesian Ambassador to China, met with Mr. Wang Jianjun, Deputy Secretary-General of Qinghai Provincial Party Committee and Governor of Qinghai province. Mr. Zhang Huangyuan, Secretary-General of Provincial Government, Mr. Yan Haimao, Secretary-General of Provincial Education Commission, Mr. Shang Yulong, Director-General of Department of Commerce of Qinghai Province, Mr. Xu Hao, Director of Qinghai Tourism Development Committee, Mme. Ma Naixin, Deputy Director of Provincial Foreign Affairs Office, Mr. Santo Darmosumarto, Counsellor of Indonesian Embassy in China, and Mr. Zhang Xuehai, Deputy Director of Information and Public Relations Division of ACC, attended the meeting.

On behalf of Qinghai provincial government, Governor Wang extended a warm welcome to the delegation for the visit and Ambassador Soegeng Rahardjo’s planned lecture in Qinghai University. He introduced socio-economic development and foreign exchanges of Qinghai, and cited that Qinghai is actively pushing forward the four transformations in which Qinghai would endeavour to transform itself from a province with small GDP to that with good eco-environment, from a province with a small population to that with ethnic unity and progress, from a province focusing on local development plan to that integrating into the national strategy, from a province with a single ecological form of planting by peasants and aquaculture by herdsmen to that with virtuous circle between ecology, production and life. Furthermore, Qinghai province would actively engage in and promote the Belt and Road Initiative, increase the level of opening up, and achieve greater development. He also expressed that a great deal can be achieved in cooperation between Qinghai and Indonesia which is an important member of ASEAN and an important country for the Belt and Road Initiative in areas such as trade, tourism, education, etc. He welcomed all interested partners in Indonesia to participate in Qinghai China Investment and Trade Fair for Green Development, China (Qinghai) International Halal Food and Products Fair, etc. to continuously explore new cooperation fields, improve friendly exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation. Finally, he hoped that Indonesian Embassy in China and ACC could continue their supports to Qinghai province.

Ambassador Soegeng Rahardjo expressed his gratitude for the friendly reception, and spoke highly of the Qinghai’s achievements in socio-economic development. He said that the relations between Indonesia and China, and ASEAN and China are improving by leaps and bounds, which has injected strong impetus to the bilateral cooperation. In 2013, during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Indonesia, he proposed to jointly build the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road with ASEAN Member States. Indonesia and other ASEAN countries and China are important partners for the development of the Belt and Road Initiative. This visit is his first one to Qinghai during his term as the Ambassador to China. He was deeply impressed by Qinghai’s unique historical and cultural heritages, magnificent landscapes, and vast potential of development. Indonesia and Qinghai share a lot in common in their development which would bring plenty of opportunities to trade and people-to-people exchanges of both sides. Indonesian Embassy in China will continue to encourage Indonesian enterprises to invest in Qinghai, explore the cooperation between the industries of halal food and so on for economic complementarities and common development.

Secretary-General Yang briefed the bilateral relations between China and ASEAN, and the mandate and recent work of ACC. She outlined that ACC, as an intergovernmental organization founded by China and ten ASEAN Member States, has dedicated itself to implementing the consensus of both sides’ leaders, promoting the exchanges and cooperation in trade, investment, education, culture, tourism, and media, etc., and serving for the wellbeing of 2 trillion people on both sides. At the opportunity of the 50th anniversary of ASEAN’s inception and the Year of ASEAN-China Tourism Cooperation, ACC would continuously serve as a bridge to facilitate the practical cooperation for both sides, and build the platform for Qinghai to expand its exchanges with Indonesia and other ASEAN Member States for win-win results.