On 21 August, the 2024 China-ASEAN Education Cooperation Week (CAECW), an annual event jointly staged by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Ministry of Education of China and Guizhou Provincial Government, and supported by the ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO), was opened in Guiyang City of Guizhou Province. Secretary General Shi Zhongjun of the ACC and diplomats in charge of education affairs from the Embassies of ASEAN Member States (AMS) in Beijing attended a series of events under the framework of 2024 CAECW, providing recommendations on the way forward to enhance exchanges and practical cooperation in education-related areas between ASEAN and China.

Shi Zhongjun was invited to address the Symposium on Smart Cities and Sustainable Development, and stressed that smart city development stands out as a significant means to secure sustainable development and a key emerging area of cooperation between China and ASEAN. He looked forward to the universities and research institutions like Tianjin University fully drawing on the ASEAN-China Network for Cooperation and Exchanges among Engineering and Technology Universities (ACNET-EngTech) and their respective strengths to chart the course for future talent cultivation, achieving technological breakthroughs, initiating new programs and securing international cooperation, as well as generating innovative solutions to the issues related to smart city development and sustainable development for both AMS and China.

During the 2024 CAECW, Director Hadi Tjahjono and Deputy Director Liu Xiao of Education, Culture and Tourism of the ACC, Minister Counsellor Pasupha Chinvarasopak of Royal Thai Embassy, Counsellor Chindavong Xaiyasin of Embassy of Lao PDR, Counsellor Muhammad Sallehuddin of Embassy of Malaysia, and Attache Yudil Chatim of Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia were invited to respectively attend the 2024 ASEAN-China International Conference on Special Education, the 2024 China-ASEAN TVET Consortium Annual Conference, Pragmatic Language Education to Support China-ASEAN Integration of Industry and Education Development, and the 2024 China-ASEAN International Conference on High-Quality Development of Preschool Education, where they had in-depth exchange of views with relevant stakeholders from both AMS and China.