On 18 July 2018, the First Chinese Language Training Course for Chinese Tour Guide Teachers in Brunei was kicked off. The training was jointly organized by Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism of Brunei Darussalam (MPRT) and ASEAN-China Centre (ACC). Ms. Kong Roatlomang, Director of Education, Culture and Tourism Division of ACC, and Mr. Wardi, Deputy Permanent Secretary (Tourism) of MPRT, addressed the opening ceremony. More than 50 people attended the event, including Mme. Ning Bo, Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Brunei, heads of relevant educational institutions in Brunei, special expert from Yunnan College of Tourism Vocation, and head of Brunei Laxamana Business School, which was one of the supporting organizations of this event. More than 30 Chinese tour guide teachers and over 50 licensed Chinese tour guides from Brunei attended the training.

In her speech, Ms. Kong said that ASEAN and China, blessed with geographical proximity and cultural affinity, are good neighbors and partners. ASEAN-China relations have entered the “mature period” from the rapid development of “growth period”. The relationship between China and Brunei has maintained a good momentum of development, as evidenced by the friendship that is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people of both sides. The training course is one of ACC’s flagship projects and another successful case of the cooperation between ACC and leading tourism universities in China. It is expected to improve the Chinese language proficiency of ASEAN tour guide professionals and deepen their understanding of Chinese language so as to raise the service quality of Brunei tourism industry, which will help Brunei further expand Chinese tourist market, make new contributions to promoting the in-depth development of Brunei-China and ASEAN-China relations, and improve mutual understanding between the two sides. She also briefed on ACC’s work. Highlighting that 2018 marks the 15th anniversary of ASEAN-China strategic partnership and ASEAN-China Year of Innovation, she noted that ASEAN-China relations face new opportunities for development and ACC is willing to work hand in hand with all parties to uplift the ASEAN-China practical cooperation to a new level and bring benefits to people of both sides.

In his speech, Mr Wardi said that this training course is the first flagship project of cooperation between ACC and Brunei in the field of tourism and will help improve the trainees’ Chinese language proficiency and tour guide service skills. In recent years, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Brunei has increased year by year. In 2017 Brunei received 52,391 Chinese tourists, up from 40,838 in 2016. China has become one of Brunei’s top ten tourist sources, which is also the biggest result of the opening of direct flights between Kunming-Brunei and Nanning-Brunei in 2017. Brunei is known for its well-reserved natural ecological resources, low crime rate, peaceful society and clean environment. All these factors make Brunei one of the world’s popular tourist destinations. MPRT hoped to achieve the goal of 450,000 tourists by 2020 by enriching tourism products and improving service quality. Finally, he sincerely thanked ACC for hosting this training course in Brunei and hoped that participants would benefit greatly from this training.

The training course officially started following the opening ceremony. The three-day training course includes classroom teaching, interactive communication, situational teaching and live tour guide explanation.