Exploring the cooperation mechanism for foreign aid training in the field of ocean governance between China and ASEAN countries under the‘Belt and Road’Initiative

SHI Xiaoxiao, WAN Fangfang

National Marine Data and Information Service, Tianjin 300171, China

Abstract: Analyzed the foreign aid training in the field of ocean governance between China and ASEAN countries under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, and discussed problems and challenges faced by the foreign aid training. According to international training's characteristics and trend, the author put forward countermeasures and suggestions for the development of foreign aid training between China-ASEAN ocean governance by standardizing the management mechanism, expanding the layout of training, enriching the content of courses, fostering stronger team building, and enhancing the political mutual trust.

Keywords: 'Belt and Road' initiative, ocean governance, foreign aid training

'Belt and Road' refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21stcentury Maritime Silk Road. The proposal not only puts forward higher requirements for integrated ocean governance, but also makes governments around the world generally recognize the importance of international cooperation in ocean governance. Since China proposed the green Belt and Road Initiative, ASEAN countries have responded positively and became the firm supporter of the initiative. Therefore, under the new circumstances, China should focus on researching foreign aid training and cooperation mechanisms in the field of integrated ocean governance, enhance the friendship between China and ASEAN countries’ocean institutions, and lay a solid foundation to promote the high-level, and all-round development of the marine field for years to come.

1 Status of marine cooperation d between China and ASEAN countries

As a developing maritime country, China has laid a solid foundation for protecting the ecological environment and transforming the economic growth mode by vigorously developing a low-carbon marine economy and enhancing the national marine awareness.At present, in the process of reform and opening up and modernization, China has achieved tremendous outcomes in the marine field. Many developing countries have the intent to know and understand the successful experience of China. China has been fulfilling its responsibility and obligation to share its successful experience with other developing coastal countries. Ocean related training programme is not only a feasible way to help coastal developing countries to cultivate ocean governance talents and technical backbones, but also a long-term plan to help them achieve sustainable development.

1.1 Current status of ocean governance in ASEAN countries

The Southeast Asia is composed of two parts, the Indochina Peninsula and the Malay Archipelago. It covers an area of about 2.43 million square kilometers and contains nearly 20,000 islands, at the same time sharing the complex and diverse geographical conditions of crowded straits, numerous islands, wide bays, and estuaries shallower.Southeast Asia region is rich in marine and fishery resources. Due to the dense population, the rapid economic development of ASEAN countries is largely dependent on their marine resources. However, some ASEAN countries also facing pollution and lost of the marine ecological environment and biodiversity, due to the overlook of environmental protection during development and construction. The threats to the marine environment in ASEAN countries mainly include: overfishing, destruction of coral reefs, seagrass beds and marine habitats damage, attenuation of mangroves, soil erosion and salinization caused by land development, unsustainable coastal development, discharging of untreated garbage, random mining, excessive reclamation, organic pollution, land and seabed pollution, natural disasters, and invasion of alien species, etc.

Although the ocean problems faced by China and ASEAN countries are different to some extent, the methods of management in fact are common and regional. Being neighbors, China and ASEAN’s ocean management issues are easy to rationalize. It is the only way that China and ASEAN countries work together to study ocean governance methods, cultivate talents, strengthen communication, and promote cooperation and interconnectivity that can truly improve the environment between China and the Southeast Asian Nations.

1.2 Cooperation status between China-ASEAN countries

In 1991, China and ASEAN started the dialogue process. Since China and ASEAN countries formally established a dialogue partnership in 1992, marine environmental governance has been included in the scope of cooperation. Entering the 21st century, the cooperation between the two sides in the marine field began to grow. In 2003, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations signed the Joint Declaration on the China-ASEAN Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity. In 2007, at the 11th China-ASEAN Leaders' Meeting, the two sides put forward strategic initiatives for the deployment of environmental cooperation, and China-ASEAN cooperation entered a new stage. In 2010, the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China established the China-ASEAN Environmental Protection Cooperation Center to handle ASEAN environmental protection cooperation matters. Subsequently, the two sides adopted two phases of the China-ASEAN Environmental Protection Cooperation Strategy, at the same time formulated and implemented three phases of the China-ASEAN Environmental Cooperation Action Plan.Under the framework of the collaboration strategy, China and ASEAN countries have established a series of cooperation channels and platforms such as the China-ASEAN Environmental Cooperation Forum, China-ASEAN Eco-Friendly City Development Partnership, China-ASEAN Environmental Information Sharing Platform, and China-ASEAN Green Messenger Program. Multi-field exchanges and cooperation in the fields of environmental industry, biodiversity protection and marine technology have been carried out.

Under the framework of the “Workshop on Managing Potential Conflicts in South China Sea”, China implemented the“SEA-NET”training project.“Training Programme on Ocean Governance for the Western Pacific Region”has been organized by the International Ocean Institute-China Regional Center for the Western Pacific Regional,which have trained a large number of ocean governance talents for Myanmar, Malaysia,Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and many other ASEAN countries. The training activities includes international legal framework, marine integrated governance, marine environmental protection, as well as marine disaster prevention and mitigation. Aiming at solving the outstanding problems in the field of ocean governance in various countries,the training programme systematically taught the theoretical knowledge and key technologies of ocean governance through Chinese practice, helping ASEAN countries’capacity building.

2 Challenges and problems faced by foreign aid training

As the economic development levels of ASEAN countries are uneven, their demands for talents in marine fields are significantly different, which means these countries have different goals for personnel training during participating in ocean governance training projects. Under the new circumstance, the foreign aid training on ocean governance has brought new requirements and challenges to China in terms of both quantity and quality.

2.1 Management mechanism needs to be improved

China has established rules and regulations on international aid training. Since 1998,China has formulated the “Administrative Measures on Budgetary Funds for Foreign Aid Expenditure” (1998), the “Administrative Measures on the Living Treatment of Foreign Aid Overseas” (2007), the “Manual for the Implementation and Management of Foreign Aid Training Programs of the Ministry of Commerce” (2010), the “Regulations on the Administration of Foreign Aid Training Projects”(2011) and the“Administrative Measures on Foreign Aid (Trial)”(2010), guiding foreign aid training in accordance. However, so far there are no clear regulations stipulating the legislation, funds and standards for foreign aid training, and there is not yet a special organization or department responsible for the management of training in the marine field. The lack of unified supervision and in-depth research has resulted in the lack of a national plan and insufficient innovation in training content and form for ocean governance training programme. As a result, institutions undertaking training courses work in their own parallel tracks, leading to the uneven training quality, which has a negative impact on the implementation of the programme and the effectiveness of teaching.

2.2 National neighborliness needs to be encouraged

Most ASEAN countries enjoy relatively stable national security and political environment, but in recent years, some countries have been in a state of turbulence. For a long time, the relatively sensitive regional political disputes between China and ASEAN have also added complexity and uncertainty to the cooperation. According to the current situation, the degree of political mutual trust between China and ASEAN countries still needs to be improved, which has a great impact on the cooperation and exchanges in the marine field. For example, in recent years, some ASEAN countries (such as Myanmar and Thailand) have had unstable domestic political situations and frequent regime changes, which result in many uncertainties in their diplomatic relations with China.Meanwhile, the South China Sea sovereignty disputing with Philippines, Brunei and other countries has also become a major barrier in the relationship between China and ASEAN.Some ASEAN countries have doubts about China's increasing international influence and national strength. When conducting foreign aid exchange training, the lack of national neighborliness between China and ASEAN countries makes it difficult to further develop marine cultural exchanges and cooperation at the political and national levels.

2.3 The layout of training needs to be expanded

Countries in Southeast Asia have various status of economic development, which determines their different needs for talents in marine fields such as law, environmental protection, and culture, etc. This poses a huge challenge to China's ocean governance training projects, especially the function of training centers. The demand for marine talents in ASEAN countries covers multiple levels, wide fields, and multiple types, which needs both short-term professional skill-training and long-term higher education. Currently,China's foreign aid training for the ASEAN countries in the marine field is mainly concentrated in laws and regulations, data management, marine economy, and environmental protection, the professional fields covered are extremely limited compared to the huge needs of ASEAN countries. The training time is mainly 1-4 weeks of short-term centralized training, lacking long-term training. Apart from that, training courses are delivered mainly by China's coastal marine institutions, most of lecturers and professors are part-time. Universities and colleges having superior disciplines in the field of ocean governance have not yet participated in foreign aid training, which lead to the narrow layout of training.

2.4 Interconnection needs to be improved

As to the matters like personnel exchanges, visa processing, and decisions related to national sovereignty and powers, marine institutions undertaking foreign aid training shall report to China Customs Administration and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make comprehensive coordination and review. The training institutions are not authorized to directly negotiate and sign relevant agreements with foreign governments, and sometimes after many rounds of dialogues and coordination between Chinese government and ASEAN countries can a training program be finalized, which makes it more difficult for both parties to cooperate. Moreover, now there exists a large funding gap between China and ASEAN countries in the field of integrated ocean governance training and cooperation. The sustainable construction of perfecting and strengthening training programme is a systematic project, which often requires a large amount of capital investment. The support of the national finance and special funds is often a shortfall. Both the coastal institutions that carry out training activities, and the ASEAN where most member countries are developing countries, are faced with needs of improving national interconnection.

2.5 Faculty needs to be updated

Although China has already carried out multi-disciplinary exchanges and cooperation with countries around the world relying on different types of institutions, the focus of international exchanges in domestic top universities is not mainly in ASEAN countries.Although marine institutions have certain advantages undertaking foreign aid training in the professional field, their staff members and lecturers are not professional teachers, so language and cultural barriers still exist sometimes. As a result, the training functions are not optimized enough, and the quality and quantity of the teaching staff cannot further meet the training needs of ASEAN countries under the new situation. The construction of the faculty is the basis for the in-depth development and long-term sustainability of foreign aid training projects. Under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, foreign aid training for integrated ocean governance requires effective deployment of first-class human resources. Nowadays, the quality of the faculty in training centers in China does not reach the first-class level, and the systems for high-quality marine technical talents’language training are inadequate, resulting in insufficient talent team. Due to the lack of a professional talent training mechanism, there is a shortage of professionals engaged in ocean governance exchanges, which has prevented China and ASEAN countries from carrying out more efficient and professional exchanges and training.

3 Countermeasures and suggestions for developing foreign aid training in ocean governance

The in-depth development of foreign aid training in the marine field between China-ASEAN countries has exposed the functional deficiencies of China's existing cooperation mechanism. Therefore, the effective allocation of higher-level high-quality resources to the cooperation with ASEAN countries will help them to further intuitively understand China’s comprehensive marine achievements.

3.1 Standardize training management and establish marine training centers

First, the training management should be standardized. A China-ASEAN countries ocean governance training exchange and cooperation development plan should be established including: consulting to formulate a feasible and detailed cooperation project and safety measures; establishing a nationally independent management organization in charging of marine international training supervision, management and research; unifying the plan of foreign aid training; formulating nationwide operable training procedures;making general regulations on training form, training content, teacher selection,effectiveness evaluation, follow-up visits, etc.. Though establishing joint training centers, a long-term and stable cooperative relationship would able to be constructed, which will fully mobilize the enthusiasm of talents in ASEAN countries. It’s a feasible way for institutions carrying training programme choosing a cooperation partner in ASEAN. During training cooperation, both China and ASEAN should strengthen communication and coordination,properly solve the problems encountered in training exchanges, guarantee the smooth implementation of the cooperation.

3.2 Rely on superior resources to expand training layout

Under the new situation of the Belt and Road, the existing partnerships in the marine field, such as China-Malaysia partnership, China-Thailand partnership, and China-Cambodia partnership could be fully used to increase cooperation content.Meanwhile, it is also necessary to expand the training layout on the basis of the existing coastal training institutions, and increase the number of training centers housed at high-level professional colleges and comprehensive universities in China. Incorporating comprehensive universities and professional colleges into the training network is able to cultivate the outgoing talents who are familiar with international rules, having international perspective, being well versed in ASEAN countries' ocean related laws, regulations and policies, and at the same time mastering ocean management theory and knowledge.Therefore, we should conscientiously sum up the existing training experience, focus on the educational needs of ASEAN countries, and rely on superior resources to expand the training layout. Based on the results of research at regional and national level, as well as the comparative study, interconnection with universities and colleges who have more industry-specific and comprehensive strength should be built as a part of the new marine training centers.

3.3 Enrich course content and enhance major coverage

In order to meet the needs of ASEAN countries, China should give full play to its advantages by combining the characteristics and advantages of different scientific research institutions and universities to strengthen the professional coverage of training.The arrangement of courses should be application-oriented and heuristic, so that the theory and innovation of marine knowledge can be better combined. The subject of ocean governance is a comprehensive interdisciplinary subject covering science and engineering and liberal arts. Firstly, the scope of enrollment should be broadened, all marine related majors should be included into the training; basic courses for marine majors should be set up to consolidate the professional foundation; professional skills such as marine technology and marine economy should be cultivated to increase comprehensive professional practice. At the same time, as to the compilation and revision of textbooks,the advanced technologies and latest research results domestic and abroad should be incorporated in order to keep pace with the times.

3.4 Strengthen training team building

An excellent team is an important guarantee for the successful implementation of training, and the selection of lecturers and working staff is the top priority. To strengthen the construction of the team, administrative staff should be regularly trained in foreign aid training policies, foreign security, political awareness, national awareness, foreign affairs etiquette, and foreign discipline to improve their ability to respond to emergencies. It is necessary to establish a fixed and professional management team, and often carry out relevant training to improve service capability. In terms of lecture/teacher selection, priority should be given to professional researchers with overseas study background and fluency in one or two foreign languages in order to ensure the quality of teaching. The training center can systematically cultivate professionals required for exchange and cooperation in the marine field, and provide lecturers with foreign cultural courses. In order to build a high-level faculty team with teaching, scientific research capabilities and international perspective, training centers should "introduce" teachers with international background and scientific research experience outside the institution, on the other hand, provide support for teachers "going out" to learn from other countries. IELTS and TOEFL English training classes should be regularly set up to encourage teachers to improve their bilingual ability. At the same time, training centers should explore a talent selection and recruitment mechanism which is in line with international standards to recruit high-level talents in the marine field for ASEAN and other countries, and introduce international professional management team into the training to encourage overseas talents to actively participate in the construction of China-ASEAN marine talent exchange and cooperation.

3.5 Enhance national cooperation and political mutual trust

As to establish a functional overseas training mechanism, the undertaking institutes should strengthen cooperation and communications with both developed and developing countries. It’s necessary to learn advanced training concepts from developed countries while increasing connectivity and political trust with developing countries.

First of all, the core of foreign aid training in the marine field is the quality of teaching content. Institutions can take the lead in inviting developed countries including the United States, Japan, and European countries to jointly hold an international seminar on training experience communication in the marine field, sharing success cases and lessons learned. China and ASEAN are both interested in promoting the development of maritime cooperation, and have established the China-ASEAN Maritime Cooperation Fund. Under such circumstance, local government can promote the establishment of a "friendship city"network between ASEAN countries and to enhance cultural cooperation and mutual understanding. It is helpful to regularly hold forums and academic conferences on marine cultural exchanges to create a good atmosphere for communication. Last but not the least, local government can also play a part by means of strengthening policy consultation and information communication, signing reciprocal agreements such as visas and facilitate customs clearance, and expanding the scope of funding sources to reduce conflicts and frictions meanwhile enhance political mutual trust.

Under the Belt and Road Initiative, foreign aid training in the field of integrated ocean governance plays an important part in China’s marine developing. It complies with the country's overall development needs and is in line with China's strategic goal of building a strong maritime country. In the age of economic globalization, the development of foreign aid training in ocean governance requires us to solve existing problems and improve running of training centers. A highly professional marine training programme is of far-reaching and practical significance for promoting communication with, and maintain stable and long-term relations with ASEAN countries.