Indonesia and Chinese youth pledged to make full use of the existing mechanism for youth cooperation between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China to further deepen the people-to-people contact among young people, according to a statement by the ASEAN-China Lecture Series Monday.

Specific activities to be undertaken included ASEAN-China Youth Forums, ASEAN-China Youth Entrepreneurs Symposia, ASEAN-China Youth Camp and ASEAN-China Speakers' Forum, said the statement issued on the sidelines of three consecutive lectures by Chinese, Indonesian and Cambodian representatives at the ASEAN Secretariat building.

Topics to be addressed by these activities ranged from sports, information and communication technology advancement to culture, added the statement.

The activities aimed to encourage greater involvement of youth as stakeholders and future leaders of ASEAN-China cooperation, especially in the decision-making process, it said.

The statement also emphasized the necessity to establish a network of young ASEAN-Chinese entrepreneurs and professionals so that they could share and build up their capacity and skill to survive and compete in the globalized economy.

The seminar, together with the three speeches on Monday, was part of the ASEAN-China Lecture Series, which are held in China and ASEAN countries to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the establishment of dialogue relations between both sides.

Since both sides formed dialogue relations 15 years ago, the ties between ASEAN and China have gone through three stages, namely the establishment of full dialogue framework in 1996, the establishment of friendly neighborhood and mutual trust in 1997 and the establishment of strategic partnership in 2003.

Source: Xinhua