Vice Mayor of Chongqing Met with Representatives of the 8th ACC JC Meeting

On 26 November 2018, Mr. Liu Guiping, Vice Mayor of Chongqing Municipal People’s Government, met with the representatives of the 8th Joint Council (JC) Meeting of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC). Mr. Tan Hung Seng, Permanent Representative of Singapore to ASEAN, Mr. Huang Xilian, Ambassador of China to ASEAN, Mr. Chen Dehai, Secretary-General of ACC, and other JC representatives from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Viet Nam and the ASEAN Secretariat as well as officials from related government departments of Chongqing attended the meeting.

Vice Mayor Liu Guiping welcomed the holding of the 8th ACC JC meeting in Chongqing. He briefed on Chongqing and its cooperation with ASEAN countries. He said that as the only municipality under the direct administration of the central government in central and western China, Chongqing stands in a strategic pivot in the development of the west region and an important conjunction point of the Belt and Road and the Yangtze River Economic Belt with favourable geographical advantage. Chongqing is now speeding up exploring new horizons of opening-up, preserving a charming landscape of lush mountains and lucid rivers and working to realize high-quality development and ensure high-quality livelihood for people in Chongqing. Exchanges and cooperation between Chongqing and ASEAN countries have yielded fruitful results. ASEAN is Chongqing’s third largest trading partner. There have been 34 flights operating between Chongqing and ASEAN countries. Chongqing is willing to further expand the economic and people-to-people cooperation with ASEAN, and hopes that ASEAN countries could actively participate in the building of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and support important expos held in Chongqing such as the Smart China Expo, through which both sides could produce more mutually beneficial cooperation outcomes.

Ambassador Tan Hung Seng, on behalf of the delegation, thanked Chongqing government for the thoughtful arrangements for the ACC JC Meeting and commended the cooperation between ASEAN and Chongqing. He said that China is one of the most important and substantive dialogue partners of ASEAN. This year marks the 15th anniversary of ASEAN-China strategic partnership. The 21st ASEAN-China Summit issued the ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership Vision 2030, which would chart the future course of the bilateral relations. Chongqing, as an important gateway in central and western China to open up to ASEAN, has enormous potentials and broad prospects in strengthening cooperation with ASEAN especially in connectivity. It is hoped that both sides could take the opportunity of jointly building the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor to deepen mutually-beneficial cooperation across the board and achieve common development.