Perhaps its poignant to note that our bilateral approach with most nations in the world is of cooperative and constructive in nature, our stance with regional partners has also been of conversational and collective. Maybe that’s why Malaysia is seen as friendly and a conducive nation to do business, we don’t judge and hold ourselves fairly, regardless of what some bigger nations spew out.
Its with this long standing policy that we see our relation with China grow especially in economically, this can be further cemented with the finalisation of Malaysia’s second 5 year economic trade cycle with China. Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Malaysia, YB Datuk Lim Ban Hong and His Excellency Li Chenggang, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Commerce, People’s Republic of China had a virtual meeting recently to deliberate on enhancing the trade and economic relations between Malaysia and the People’s Republic of China.
Amidst the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, the discussion has been precise and relevant with the interest of increasing of economic relation between the two country being the main agenda. According to Lim, during the meeting both sides emphasised the continuous engagements to strengthen the cooperation under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and further enhancing regional and multilateral cooperation. “Malaysia also suggested to explore deepening trade and investment opportunities in provinces in China” he shared.
China is Malaysia’s major trading partner since 2009 and the trade momentum between Malaysia and China will continue to be enhanced through strategic engagements by the public and private sectors. China has been Malaysia’s largest trading partner for 11 consecutive years sinceIn 2019, the total trade accounted for USD123.96 billion. China is also Malaysia’s largest export destination and largest import source. For the period January-October 2020, total trade with China increased by 3.5 per cent to reach USD103.93 billion compared with the corresponding period of 2019. “Malaysia is focused on attracting quality investments in capital-intensive, high-value added and high technology projects given that China is Malaysia’s leading source of foreign direct investment,” Lim said. From January to September 2020, 58 manufacturing projects with participation from China were approved with investments totaling USD4.4 billion (RM16.7 billion). China is the largest investor for this period. These projects were expected to create 8,724 jobs.
These projects were mainly in the industry of basic metal products, electronics & electrical products, non-metallic mineral products, machinery & equipment and wood & wood products. Some notable projects approved are Baojia New Energy Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. (Machinery & Equipment), SRE Power Technology Sdn. Bhd. (Electrical & Electronics) and China Tangxing Equipment (M) Sdn. Bhd. (Machinery & Equipment).
