BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong's visit to the United States next week will help the international community to understand China's reform plans, Minister of Education Yuan Guiren said here on Friday.

Yuan told a press briefing that Liu's trip will be the first overseas visit by a Chinese leader after the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The CPC meeting on Tuesday approved a plan of deepening reforms, described by U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew as an "ambitious agenda" during his meeting with Chinese officials in Beijing.

Yuan said Liu's visit to the United States will help the international community understand the reform plan.

Liu and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will co-chair the fourth China-U.S. High-level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange in Washington on Nov. 21.

During her stay, Liu will also visit Chicago and New York.

She will talk with representatives of leading U.S. cultural institutions at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Five cultural agreements and a number of programs are expected to be agreed on during the meeting, said Vice Cultural Minister Ding Wei.

The programs will include a folk arts carnival, exhibitions at Chinese and American museums, a performing arts joint venture and a three-year-long themed event for American children, he said.

According to Yuan, youth and innovation will be the main theme of the consultation, which also covers such fields as education, science and technology, culture, sports and women.

Yuan predicted that programs such as a students innovation forum, youth business startup competition and Chinese cultural masters lectures will be among the meeting's outcome.

Since the forge of the consultation in 2010, China-U.S. people-to-people exchange has made progress, including increasing students exchange, scholarships, joint education institutions in China and Confucius Institutes in the United States.

"We believe this meeting will achieve positive results...and exert new impetus into the two sides' strive for a new type of relationship between big powers," said Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang.