The 6th Network of ASEAN-China Think-Tanks (NACT) Country Coordinators’ Meeting and 6th NACT Seminar was held in Bangkok, Thailand from June 13th to June 14th, 2019. It was jointly organized by NACT China and NACT Thailand. Gao Fei, vice president of CFAU, led a delegation to participate in the meeting.

The meeting heard the report from NACT Vietnam, NACT Malaysia and NACT Singapore on three working group meetings this year, discussed the focus of work for 2020, affirmed NACT Vietnam’s role in the rotating presidency, approved the proposal of 2020 working group meeting to be jointly hosted by NACR Indonesia, NACT Laos, NACT Philippines and NACT China, and deliberated and passed “NACT Memorandum No.2”.

The participants agreed to promote sustainable and inclusive development of partnerships next year and proposed three working group meetings focusing on regional interconnection and sustainable development, sustainable energy development, and sustainable environmental development. They will be overseen by NACT Malaysia, NACT Vietnam and NACT Singapore respectively.

The theme of this year’s symposium is “Enhanced Inclusiveness and Sustainable Economic Development.” Gao Fei, vice president of CFAU, and Soranit Siltharm, permanent secretary of Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation of Thailand, gave an opening address. Nipa Nirannoot, director of the Department of ASEAN Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand delivered a keynote speech. Delegates discussed three topics, including “NACT Partnership and Interconnection,” “Sustainable Economic Development” and “Urbanization and Inclusive Urban Plan.” The seminar reiterated that China and ASEAN would strengthen cooperation at both regional and international levels to achieve the goals set by “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. It put forward many feasible policy proposals for the future reference of the decision department.

In recent years, NACT has continuously innovated its working mechanism, which has achieved remarkable results. In 2019, for the first time, NACT rescheduled all levels of meeting  in line with first-track diplomatic work to ensure the timeliness of research findings. NACT organized three working group meetings in the first half of 2019, the themes of which were “Regional Cooperation of Sustainable Energy Development” (hosted by NACT Vietnam), “Regional Interconnection and Sustainable Development” (hosted by NACT Malaysia), and “China-ASEAN Environmental Protection Cooperation” (hosted by NACT Singapore). In addition, research findings of the working groups will be gathered and published by internationally renowned publishers to further expand the social influence and academic popularity of NACT.