On 29 November 2018, at the invitation of ASEAN-Korea Centre (AKC), ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) sent representatives to attend the opening ceremony of “the 3rd ASEAN Culinary Festival”, where around 200 guests participated including Mr. U Ohn Maung, Minister of Hotels and Tourism of Myanmar, diplomatic envoys of ASEAN member countries to Korea, representatives of ASEAN-Japan Centre as well as Korean and ASEAN media. As the representative of ACC, Mrs. Wang Hongliu, Director of General Affairs and Coordination Division attended the ceremony. Two celebrity chefs from Korea and Malaysia presented a live cooking show. Each of the 10 ASEAN countries prepared two dishes for the guests to taste. The visitors also enjoyed performances by ASEAN artists during the festival. With the theme of “Promoting ASEAN Gourmet Tourism”, the festival was aiming at showing various aspects of ASEAN gourmet, tourism and culture to the Korean public, and increasing mutual understanding and people-to-people exchanges between ASEAN and Korea. The festival has been well received by the Korean people since it was held in 2016.
On the same day, Mr. Lee Hyuk, Secretary-General of AKC met with Director Wang Hongliu at AKC’s Secretariat in Seoul. Mr. Kim Chang-nyun, Head of Development Planning and General Affairs Unit and Mr. Yeunju Jang, Head of Information and Data Unit of AKC attended the meeting. Secretary-General Lee Hyuk thanked ACC for its strong support to the ASEAN Culinary Festival of 2018. He recalled the deep bond that he had developed with China during his diplomatic career, and looked forward to more comprehensive cooperation and exchanges between the two centres in future. Director Wang conveyed Secretary-General Chen Dehai’s regards and congratulations on the success of the Culinary Festival to Secretary-General Lee Hyuk. The two sides briefed each other on their work progress of 2018 and work plan of 2019, and discussed on how to make greater endeavors on further promoting ASEAN plus three cooperation together with ASEAN-Japan Centre. They also exchanged views on capacity building and information exchanges, etc..
Later in the day, Director Wang Hongliu met with Mrs. Han Mei, Deputy Secretary-General of Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS). Mrs. Han welcomed ACC’s visit and briefed on the development of TCS since its establishment seven years ago and its work in economic, social and cultural areas. Both sides further exchanged views on regional cooperation and innovation development, and looked forward to continuously strengthening mutual exchanges and learning in the future.