Third Conference on China-ASEAN People-to-People Friendship Organizations Held i

The Third Conference on China-ASEAN People-to-People Friendship Organizations was held in Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, from June 2 to 4. About 100 representatives from Chinese and ASEAN people-to-people friendship organizations attended it. The delegation of China-ASEAN Association led by Gu Xiulian, former vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and president of the Association, attended the conference and had extensive and in-depth discussions on cooperation and exchanges with the representatives of the people-to-people friendship organizations of the 10 ASEAN countries.

The Conference on China-ASEAN People-to-People Friendship Organizations with the aim of promoting nongovernmental exchanges and cooperation between China and ASEAN initiated by the CPAFFC in 2006 and participated by the Chinese and 10 ASEAN countries’ friendship organizations is held once a year rotationally in China and ASEAN countries. With the concerted efforts, after the 2006 Beijing Conference and the 2007 Bandar Seri Begawan Conference, the 10+1 nongovernmental consultation mechanism was preliminarily set up.

The task of this conference with the theme of “mutual assistance, cooperation and unity” was to sum up the past experience, plan for the future and explore together new thinking for friendly cooperation. At the conference the 2008-2009 China-ASEAN People-to-People Friendship Organizations’ Cooperation Plan was approved and five working groups in charge of detailing and implementing the cooperation plan, namely, the economic, cultural, educational, health and sports working groups were set up. The participants of various countries unanimously held, through this conference, the nongovernmental 10+1 cooperation was playing a greater role in promoting governmental relations through nongovernmental channels and various sides were taking a more pragmatic attitude towards mutually beneficial cooperation. The nongovernmental 10+1 mechanism has made an important progress.

During the conference an exhibition of Chinese and ASEAN commodities was held. More than 20 economic and trade companies including the Shenzhen Huawei Technology Co., Ltd., the Beijing Beiao Incorporation, the Guangxi Golden Throat Group Co., Ltd. and other CPAFFC group council members from China and companies from Indonesia and Thailand took part in the exhibition. On the afternoon of June 3, a meeting on exchanges between the Chinese and ASEAN businessmen was held to explore experience in cooperation and seek opportunities for business cooperation.

Experience in exchanges was summed up and practical cooperation stressed.In the past year the Chinese and ASEAN people-to-people friendship organizations actively implemented what had been agreed at the Bandar Seri Begawan Conference, and under the guidance of the Declaration on China-ASEAN People-to-People Friendship and Cooperation coordinated and cooperated with each other and made new progress in personnel and cultural exchanges, economic and trade cooperation and philanthropic work.In the aspect of personnel exchanges, friendship organizations of various countries continued to keep contacts and exchange of visits; the number of visitors surpassed the previous years, greatly boosting exchanges and cooperation. In cultural exchanges, activities such as the ASEAN knowledge quiz, the Chinese language speech contest, the China-ASEAN media TV summit, the Thai elephants greeting the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, etc., were successfully held and enhanced understanding and trust. In the aspect of economic and trade cooperation, economic and trade delegations of various countries made frequent visits to one another’s countries, and the ASEAN Commodities Exhibition Hall in the Commodities City of Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, began to be put in place, promoting mutually beneficial cooperation to achieve win-win results. In the work of charity and donation, various friendship organizations lent helping hands in the wake of the Myanmar tropic cyclone and the Sichuan earthquake. The Singapore-China Friendship Association donated money for education to China’s poor areas. All this shows the nongovernmental forces are becoming stronger and more mature. The participants of various sides held, in the past year the Chinese and ASEAN people-to-people friendship organizations achieved notable results in their cooperation with more solid foundation, had a clearer orientation for their future work and made contributions to promoting China-ASEAN relations through the nongovernmental channel. In future friendship organizations of various sides should further consolidate the existing mechanism, pay greater attention to practical cooperation and continuously build up the strength and influence of nongovernmental organizations.

The plan of cooperation was signed and the task set. At the conference the 2008-2009 China-ASEAN People-to-People Friendship Organizations’ Cooperation Plan was approved. According to the plan, the friendship organizations of China and ASEAN countries will continue to make efforts to regularly exchange visits and keep contacts, strengthen exchanges and cooperation, promote economic and trade cooperation and investment and increase exchanges in tourism and culture. Particularly they will work together to carry out the large-scale transnational charity activity “Pass on Love, Be Friendly Neighbours―Panglin Bringing Light Tour”. They will try hard to carry out the project of cooperation in personnel training between China and Singapore and continue the construction of the ASEAN Commodities Exhibition Hall in Yiwu Commodities City. When conditions are ripe, they will carry out youth sports exchanges and tourism projects for promoting cultural exchange.

Working groups were set up to share out the work and help one another. At the conference five working groups, namely, the economic, cultural, educational, health and sports working groups were set up. The friendship organizations of China, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia respectively serve as coordinators in charge of coordinating exchanges in the above five fields. The participants held, the above five fields are the highlights of people-to-people exchanges. To strengthen exchanges in these five fields will help promote the overall nongovernmental cooperation between China and ASEAN; to appoint coordinators in charge of the exchanges in these five fields will facilitate sharing out work and help one another.

The participants are fully aware of the necessity of strengthening information exchanges and unanimously agreed to set up the official website of the Conference. Indonesia will be in charge of setting up the website and Brunei the website’s maintenance and renewal. The participants unanimously held the establishment of the five working groups and the plan for setting up the website symbolize a new progress of the institutionalization of the Conference.

Showing concern for the disaster areas and loving care for the victims of the disasters. The participants of various countries showed great concern for the recent catastrophic disasters in Myanmar and China. Before the opening ceremony of the Conference, all the participants stood in silent tribute for the victims of the tropical cyclone in Myanmar and the Wenchuan earthquake in China. Friendship organizations of various countries expressed in different ways their sympathy and solicitude for the Chinese and Myanmar participants. Dr. Sukamdani Sahid Gitosardjono, president of the Association of Indonesia-China Economic, Social and Cultural Cooperation on behalf of the sponsor of the Conference donated 10,000 US dollars respectively to China and Myanmar via Gui Xiulian and the representative of Myanmar. Lorenzo Ku，honorary chairman of the Association for Philippines-China Understanding, suggested setting up a China- ASEAN loving care foundation to raise money to build a loving care school in the disaster area in Sichuan. His suggestion received positive responses from various sides. Gui Xiulian said, in time of difficulty, people of various countries lend their helping hands to express their loving care, showing the great spirit of humanitarianism. “Misfortune tests the sincerity of friends.” The Chinese people will forever remember the friendly sentiments shown by the people of all countries in the world including the ASEAN countries.

Frequent natural disasters in various places of the world in recent years have sounded a warning to the people of the world. The participants in the conference said, natural disasters are the challenge that humanity is facing. Only by uniting as one and making joint efforts to cope with them can humanity conquer disasters and realize common development. People-to-people friendship organizations should play a greater role in it.

The conference decided that the Fourth Conference on China- ASEAN People-to-People Friendship Organizations would be held in Malaysia in 2009.