On July 9, Chinese Consul General in Penang H. E. Mr. Zhou Youbin attended the opening ceremony of the Network of ASEAN-China Think-Tanks (NACT) Working Group Meeting and delivered a speech. Penang State Executive Councilor for Tourism and Creative Economy (PETACE) YB Wong Hon Wai, Vice President of the China Foreign Affairs University Professor Gao Fei, Deputy Director of Research at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia Mr. Harris Zainul attended the meeting. The experts and scholars from various ASEAN countries were also present.

In his speech, Consul General Mr. Zhou introduced the fruitful results yielded between China and Malaysia in the field of tourism cooperation, particularly between Chinese localities and the consular district. He pointed out that the people of the two countries have truly benefited from various measures for promoting people-to-people exchanges such as cross-border payments, visa-free policies and direct flights. It is hoped that all the NACT representatives attending the meeting will put forward suggestions and proposals, so as to inject new impetus into the vigorous development of tourism between China and ASEAN countries.

The NACT is initiated by the Chinese government. It is an important mechanism for second-track diplomacy in the region with the purpose of further deepening the China-ASEAN Strategic Partnership. All the relevant parties deliberate on and officially launched NACT in 2014.