On 11 December 2017, Mr. Qin Chuncheng, Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Guilin Committee and Acting Mayor of Guilin Municipal People’s Government, met with the representatives of the 7th Joint Council (JC) Meeting of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC). H.E. Ms. Elizabeth P. Buensuceso, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to ASEAN, Ms. Jiang Qin, Chargé d’ Affairs of Chinese Mission to ASEAN, H.E. Mr. Jose Santiago L. Sta. Romana, Ambassador of the Philippines to China, H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre(ACC), Permanent Representatives of Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam to ASEAN, Director-General of the ASEAN Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lao PDR, Consul General of Malaysia to Nanning, Officials from Brunei, Cambodia and ASEAN Secretariat, Mr. Zhang Xiaowu, member of the standing committee of the CPC Guilin Committee, Executive Vice Mayor of Guilin, Mr. Ding Dongdi, Secretary-General of Guilin Municipal People’s Government, representatives from the Foreign Affairs and Overseas Chinese Office, Tourism Development Committee and the Convention & Exhibition Bureau of Guilin attended the event.

Acting Mayor Qin Chuncheng, in his remarks, congratulated on the successful conclusion of the 7th JC Meeting of ACC in Guilin. He briefed on the development of Guilin and its exchanges with ASEAN countries. He said Guilin, as a world-renowned scenic city, famous Chinese historic and cultural city as well as famous ecological tourism city of mountains and rivers, has made great efforts to build itself into an international tourist attraction. Guilin has implemented a series of policies including 72-hour visa-free transit policy for foreign visitors from 51 countries, 6-day visa-free policy for group visitors from ASEAN countries, so as to facilitate its tourism development. Guilin is expected to receive more than 80 million tourists in the year 2017.

He further said that Guilin maintains frequent exchanges with ASEAN countries and conducts close cooperation with its sister cities. In 2016, the trade volume between Guilin and ASEAN countries reached RMB 678 million. Guilin has been designated as the permanent city to hold the China-ASEAN EXPO (CAEXPO) Tourism Exhibition and has already successfully held the Exhibition for three times. Guilin would like to further deepen the cooperation with ASEAN countries in the areas of tourism, education, trade and investment as well as sister cities to achieve more win-win outcomes.

H.E. Ms. Elizabeth, on behalf of the representatives of the 7th JC Meeting of ACC, expressed her appreciation to the Guilin Municipal People’s Government for the great hospitality. She said that China is the most important strategic partner of ASEAN and both sides have maintained frequent high-level exchanges. In the 20th ASEAN-China Summit, both sides issued a series of joint statement on deepening cooperation in tourism, infrastructure connectivity, poverty reduction and anti-corruption, which charted the future course of ASEAN-China relations. ACC is an important platform to promote ASEAN-China practical cooperation. The successful conclusion of the 7th JC Meeting of ACC in Guilin is of significance for ACC to better implement its work in 2018. The representatives of the 7th JC Meeting of ACC had good impressions on Guilin, and ASEAN countries would like to further push forward the economic and people-to-people exchanges and cooperation with Guilin.