On 16 December 2024, the 14th Joint Council (JC) Meeting of the ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) was held in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. The meeting was co-chaired by Director General Chatoulong Bouasisavath of the ASEAN Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lao PDR (ASEAN rotating chair) and Ambassador Hou Yanqi of China to ASEAN. Secretary General Shi Zhongjun and the ACC management team, Counsellor Chen Junjie of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China (representing the ACC Joint Executive Board), Permanent Representative of Cambodia to ASEAN, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Brunei Darussalam and the other JC members, as well as the ASEAN Secretariat representatives attended the Meeting.

Secretary General Shi Zhongjun expressed gratitude to the JC members for their lasting strong support and briefed the Meeting on the ACC’s work in 2024 and its plans in 2025. He applauded the great significance of frequent exchange of visits between the leaders of ASEAN member states and China, and stressed that the ACC will make unswerving efforts to implement the important consensus between the ASEAN and Chinese leaders. The ACC will continue to shoulder its responsibilities as a competent and resourceful coordinator in promoting exchanges and executing cooperation, contribute to the success of the ASEAN-China Year of People-to-people Exchanges, explore new growth drivers for ASEAN-China cooperation, build more platforms for exchanges and dialogues between the local governments and other stakeholders of ASEAN and China, so as to inject more positive and strong impetus into ASEAN-China relations.

The Co-chairs and the JC members all highly commended the ACC’s significant contribution in promoting practical cooperation and enhancing friendship between China and ASEAN, sincerely acknowledged the dynamic and productive achievements registered by the ACC in 2024. They looked forward to the role of ACC as a linking bridge to bring together resources between AMS and China, continuing close engagement with the two sides to build more consensus, enhancing sub-regional cooperation, tapping on new cooperation opportunities and materializing more flagship projects, securing new strengths of cooperation in emerging industries, such as digital and green economy, smart city, cross-boarder e-commerce, rural development, supply chain resilience, as well as fostering traditional cooperation in culture, education, tourism, media, youth and women to promote people-to-people exchanges, in order to celebrate the milestones in ASEAN-China relations and make more substantive contributions to moving forward ASEAN-China relations.

After the Meeting, the JC representatives from both China and ASEAN will pay field visits to well-known enterprises, including Aux Group, Geely Auto in Ningbo and Alibaba Company in Hangzhou, to experience the remarkable achievements in household appliances manufacture, electric mobility innovation and e-commerce, and to explore practical cooperation between China and ASEAN in the related fields.