GUIYANG, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Premier Li Keqiang on Monday sent a congratulatory letter to the Ninth China-ASEAN Education Cooperation Week held in the southwestern city of Guiyang.
In the letter, Li said people-to-people exchanges, including education exchanges, are emerging as a new pillar for China-ASEAN relations and showing broad prospects.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the China-ASEAN dialogue relationship. Li said China and ASEAN are good neighbors and partners, and communicate and cooperate in various fields.
Education is a fundamental way to cultivate the younger generation and create a better life, Li said.
This year is China-ASEAN Education Cooperation Year, Li said, and it will be marked by nearly 300 activities across China and ASEAN.
China is willing to work with ASEAN to provide more talent and intellectual support to each other to boost a closer China-ASEAN community of shared destiny, Li said.
Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith expressed his hope that people-to-people exchanges will be a new pillar of strategic partnership between China and ASEAN, in his congratulatory message to China-ASEAN Education Cooperation Week.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong made a keynote speech during Monday's opening ceremony and she said education cooperation had been one of the highlights of increasing cooperation between the two sides in recent years.
China and ASEAN have hosted Education Cooperation Week for eight consecutive years, and have signed over 800 cooperation deals, according to Liu.
She said that China and ASEAN can share resources and draw on each others' strengths in the education field for win-win cooperation.
She suggested the two sides could improve cooperation mechanisms to draw on each others' strategies, build brand characteristics to expand the influence of education week, and enrich forms of exchanges to lift the level of cooperation in basic education, vocational education and linguistic education.
Liu also proposed a China-ASEAN maritime silk road scholarship to elevate student exchanges between China and ASEAN.
Over 1,400 people from China and ASEAN countries attended the opening ceremony.
