On 21 June 2017, Secretary-General H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) met with ASEAN Senior Education Officials Delegation led by H.E. Vongthep Arthakaivalvatee, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN Secretariat, at the ACC Secretariat. The Delegation is comprised of Mr. Mohd. Khairul Adib Bin Abd Rahman, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education of Malaysia, Dr. Ahmad Nazri Sulaiman, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia, Atty. Alberto Jesus T. Muyot, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education of the Philippines, and Ms. Watanaporn Ra-Ngubtook, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education of Thailand, as well as senior education officials from the Ministry of Education of Myanmar, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of Cambodia, Ministry of Education and Sport of Lao PDR, Ministry of Education of Singapore and ASEAN Secretariat. Ms. Huang Ying, Director of General Affairs and Coordination Division, Ms. Kong Roatlomang, Director of Education, Culture and Tourism Division of ACC, attended the meeting.

ACC Secretary-General Yang Xiuping warmly greeted the delegation, and briefly introduced ACC’s main work. She said that ASEAN-China education cooperation is vital for people-to-people exchanges between both sides, which achieved fruitful and productive outcomes and has a broad perspective. In 2016, the student mobility between the two sides exceeded 200,000. ACC has carried out a rich variety of activities in the areas of education, culture and tourism, including deeply participating in the China-ASEAN Education Cooperation Week (CAECW), conducting youth exchange programme, promoting TVET cooperation. In 2017, taking the big momentum of the 50th anniversary of ASEAN, ASEAN-China Year of Tourism Cooperation and the 10th anniversary of CAECW, ACC has been actively implementing relevant flagship projects, and hope to continuously receive big supports from ASEAN Secretariat and related departments of ASEAN countries.

Deputy Secretary-General Vongthep Arthakaivalvatee praised ACC’s effective and fruitful work in promoting practical cooperation between ASEAN and China since its inception. He stated that education plays a great role in social and economic development of each country and is also a key part in developing ASEAN social and cultural community. The visit of the delegation to China is aiming to have a comprehensive exchange of views with relevant departments, and discuss on the signing ASEAN-China Education Cooperation Action Plan, thus to further deepen ASEAN-China people-to-people collaboration. The ASEAN Secretariat is willing to strengthen communication with ACC and jointly conduct activities in the fields of education and culture.

Deputy Permanent Secretary Mohd. Khairul Adib Bin Abd Rahman of the Ministry of Education of Malaysia and Deputy Permanent Secretary Atty. Alberto Jesus T. Muyot of the Ministry of Education of the Philippines briefed on relevant situation and effort to improving education cooperation of ASEAN countries, and expected to strengthen collaboration with China in the fields of TVET, teacher training, youth exchanges, and hope ACC could continuously play its active role.