On 16 March 2018, the 6th ACC-SEAMEO-GPDE (CAECW) Meeting was successfully held in Bangkok. The Meeting was chaired by Dr. Gatot Hari Priowirjanto, Director of the Secretariat of Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO). Attended the meeting were the delegation of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) led by H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ACC, and the delegation of Guizhou Provincial Department of Education (GPDE) and China-ASEAN Education Cooperation Week (CAECW) led by Mr. Liu Baoli, Executive Secretary-General of CAECW Secretariat, and the delegation of SEAMEO led by Dr. Gatot Hari Priowirjanto.

Dr. Gatot Hari Priowirjanto welcomed the participants and said that SEAMEO always considers education as the vital mechanism to catalyze human resource development in the region, and has been undertaking training and research programs in various fields of education, science and culture to achieve SEAMEO’s seven priority areas as well as Global goals. He hoped that the three parties would work through the tripartite cooperation mechanism to make better preparation for the 11th CAECW and deepen the people-to-people exchanges between ASEAN and China.

Secretary-General Yang Xiuping mentioned that 2017 marks the 10th anniversary of CAECW. The parties signed the Action Plan for ASEAN-China Education Cooperation (2017-2020), which charted the direction for education collaboration in next few years. By seizing the opportunities of the 15th anniversary of ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership and the ASEAN-China Year of Innovation, she stressed that all parties should tap the potential for further collaboration, set up new platforms and make new highlights. She said ACC would work closely with all parties to make more concrete contributions to the 11th CAECW and the development of ASEAN-China educational cooperation and exchanges.

Mr. Liu expressed his gratitude to SEAMEO and ACC for the long-term and important contribution to CAECW. He briefed on all parties on the achievements of the 10th CAECW in the areas of education, science and technology, sports and health, which includes the establishment of the permanent conference venue of CAECW, setting-up of the ASEAN-China Youth Exchange Platform, establishment of the ASEAN-China Tourism Education Alliance and the TVET Collaboration Alliance, and the signing of more than 226 agreements. He said the preparation for the 11th CAECW was well under way. He proposed the three parties to materialize concrete programmes through the meeting, bring innovation and richer contents into existing collaboration, and make greater contributions to the success of the 11th CAECW.

The three parties briefed on their work in promoting education cooperation since the 5th Tripartite Meeting and proposed activities during the 11th CAECW. All agreed that the tripartite cooperation mechanism was of high efficiency and pragmatism and has laid solid foundation for the 11th CAECW. The three parties agreed to work closely together, further discuss and refine the activity proposals, so as to add new highlights to the 11th CAECW and promote ASEAN-China education cooperation and people-to-people exchanges to a new height.