China-Japan-ROK cooperation

V.

Social and cultural exchanges1.

1. Culture

Since the First Trilateral Culture Ministers' Meeting held in Nantong, China, in 2007, the three countries had put in place a regular dialogue mechanism of cultural ministers, providing an important platform to constantly promote tripartite cultural exchanges and cooperation. Between 2007 and 2011, culture ministers of the three countries held three meetings, during which the Nantong Declaration, Jeju Declaration and Nara Declaration were adopted respectively in addition to other cooperation documents. They also reached consensus on major cooperation areas such as expanding and enhancing cultural and art exchanges, promoting tangible and intangible cultural heritage protection, boosting exchanges of the cultural industry and deepening tripartite culture exchanges of the youth. In May 2012, the Fourth Trilateral Culture Ministers' Meeting was held in Shanghai, during which the Shanghai Action Plan (2012-2014) was signed. There would also be the selection of "East Asia Capital of Culture" and joint hosting of events such as "East Asia Art Festivals".

The Trilateral Cultural Industry Forum alternately held by the Ministry of Culture of China, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the ROK and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan is an important cooperation project of the three countries in the field of cultural industry. The forum was first held in China in 2002. Since the third forum, a meeting mechanism of vice ministers of the three countries has been created and was incorporated into a trilateral cooperation action strategy. Major cooperation projects under the forum include investigation of the cultural markets of the three countries, information gathering of cultural industry exhibitions, policy dialogue and joint personnel training of the cultural industry and plans of academic exchanges.

In September 2009, the three countries signed the Busan Declaration during the Eighth China-Japan-ROK Cultural Industry Forum in Busan, the ROK, and established a joint working group for trilateral cooperation in the cultural industry which served as the working organ of the forum according to the declaration. The establishment of the working group marked a new era of tripartite cooperation in the cultural industry and was a new attempt to set up an inter-governmental cooperation platform for international cultural industry.

In 2011, the three countries completed drafting the text of a trilateral memorandum of cooperation on the cultural industry, which identified cooperation areas such as exchanges among the educational, training and professional personnel, exploring the joint manufacturing of and investment in cultural products, mutual attendance at each other's international cultural industry exhibitions and copyright protection of cultural products. This memorandum is a guideline for the three countries to gradually expand their cooperation in the cultural industry.

2. Education

Since 1999, China has attached great importance and been committed to tripartite educational cooperation. In March 2006 and April 2007, China, Japan and the ROK held trilateral meetings for DGs of ministries of education in Seoul and Beijing respectively to discuss specific cooperation projects such as training high-end professionals, cooperation in scientific research, student exchange and language teaching.

In order to push forward exchanges and cooperation among their universities, the three countries decided to jointly implement the "CAMPUS Asia" (Collective Action for Mobility Program of University Students) project, which aims to enhance school competitiveness and nurture the next generation of talent in Asia through multiple forms of exchange programs, including mutual recognition of credits and student exchange. A trilateral committee for promoting exchange and cooperation among universities comprising representatives from educational government agencies, universities, quality guarantee agencies and the business community of the three countries has held three successful meetings and reached consensus on the guidelines for the implementation of the "CAMPUS Asia" project, pilot projects and other specifics. The " CAMPUS Asia" pilot project was launched in November 2011. Student exchange formally started in April 2012. The pilot project will last three to five years.

At present, the educational government departments of the three countries are in close consultation in an effort to establish a tripartite mechanism of education ministers' meeting at an early date so as to further push forward trilateral educational cooperation.

3. Tourism

Thanks to the exchange mechanism which mainly includes the Trilateral Meeting of Tourism Authorities, the tourism departments and the tourism industry of the three countries have engaged in close and practical cooperation at all levels.

In order to implement the Joint Declaration on the Promotion of Tripartite Cooperation issued in October 2003, the tourism departments of the three countries signed a memorandum of understanding on initiating China-Japan-ROK tourism cooperation and formulated plans to promote tripartite tourism cooperation and hosting tripartite meetings of tourism departments.

In 2006, the First Trilateral Meeting of Tourism Authorities was held in Hokkaido, Japan, during which a trilateral plan of tourism exchanges was adopted. It set the goal of expanding the scale of tripartite tourism exchanges from 12 million person times in 2005 to 17 million in 2010. This goal had been met on schedule. In 2010, the Fifth Trilateral Meeting of Tourism Authorities set a new goal of increasing the scale to 26 million in 2015.

At present, six trilateral meetings of tourism authorities have been held. The outcomes of the meetings have been released as declarations or joint statements.

An exchange mechanism for the tourism industry was added to the Trilateral Meeting of Tourism Authorities in 2007. The Symposium on Educational Travel launched in 2006 was incorporated into the framework of the Trilateral Meeting of Tourism Authorities and has been held by the three countries alternately. This symposium has become an effective platform to boost youth exchanges in education and tourism and actively promoted youth exchanges through tourism among the three countries. This year, the Seventh Symposium on Educational Travel will be held in Sichuan Province, China.

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