From 3 to 5 November 2020, the 3rd Chinese Language Training for AMS Tour Guides was successfully co-organised by ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia and Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism (MICT) of Lao PDR. More than 120 tour guides and tourism employees from Indonesia and Lao PDR joined the online training. Mr. Chen Dehai, Secretary-General of ACC, Mr. Dino R. Kusnadi, Minister of the Indonesian Embassy in China, Mr. Khom Douangchatha, Director General of Marketing of MICT and 4 experts from Beijing Union University and CYTS International Travel Corporation attended the opening session on the morning of 3 November 2020.

Minister Dino stated that for thousands of years, people-to-people exchanges between Southeast Asia and China have remained vibrant. Tourism is of great importance to both Indonesia and China. And activities like the Chinese language training could give a timely boost to the recovery and development of tourism industry in the region.  

On behalf of the MICT, Director General Douangchatha thanked ACC for organising this training course. He mentioned that the people-to-people connection between Lao PDR and China has become increasingly closer in the past years. As more and more Chinese tourists are coming to visit Lao PDR, this has placed higher demands on the services of local tourism industry, in particular, the capacity to provide services in Chinese language. He believes that the online training is timely and could definitely help trainees from the Lao PDR to improve their Chinese proficiency and service standards.

 

On behalf of ACC, Secretary-General Chen Dehai expressed his thanks to the Indonesian Embassy in China, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of Indonesia and the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism (MICT) of Lao PDR for their long-time support to ACC. Thanks to the joint efforts of both sides, the ASEAN-China relations have entered a new stage of all-round development. Both sides are now joining hands in battling the COVID-19 pandemic and trying to revitalize economic growth and maintain the stability of industrial and supply chains. Human resources development could be one of the top priorities for practical cooperation between ASEAN and China. In the future, ACC will strengthen its cooperation with all parties concerned to make such flagship projects as the Chinese language training a success.

The courses of Chinese Language Training for AMS Tour Guides 2020 focused on traditional Chinese culture, language skills and market analysis, combining theories with practice to achieve results that meet the market demand. As one of the flagship projects of ACC, it was initiated by the 45th Meeting of ASEAN National Tourism Organisations during ASEAN Tourism Forum 2017 and was then carried out in Brunei Darussalam in July 2018 and in Cambodia in May 2019.