Malaysia seeks to further strengthen economic ties with China

Malaysia looks forward to closer economic ties with China by enhancing bilateral cooperation in various fields, Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry Mustapa Mohamed told Xinhua in a recent exclusive interview.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Malaysia and China, and Mustapa said the two countries have enjoyed very close political and economic ties in the past 40 years.

Forty years ago, there was hardly any trade or investment between the two countries, Mustapa said. "But now China is Malaysia's biggest trading partner, while Malaysia is China's biggest trading partner in ASEAN, and the trade volume in 2013 between the two countries amounted to 106 billion U.S. dollars," he added.

Mustapa said the two countries also have two sister industrial parks in the Chinese city of Qinzhou and Malaysia's coastal resort of Kuantan. "The park in Qinzhou has been doing very well, and our job in Malaysia now is to make sure that we develop the Malaysia- China Kuantan Industrial Park in the shortest possible time," he added.

Mustapa said no matter on trade, culture, education or tourism, the relations between Malaysia and China have become closer and closer, which are further cemented by the good ties between the two countries' highest leadership.

"The prime minister of Malaysia has enjoyed very close ties with Chinese leaders in the last many years," he said.

However, the minister believed that there are also many areas that the two countries can further promote. "Investment is an area where we can further improve," he said.

At present, Malaysia has more than six billion U.S. dollars of investment in China, while there has been only one billion U.S. dollars' Chinese investment to Malaysia, Mustapa said, adding that they would like to see more investments coming from China.

"About 500 billion U.S. dollars of Chinese investments are going out of the country in the next five years. The challenge for us is to obtain a small share of this 500 billion U.S. dollars' investments," he added.

Referring to tourism as another area the two countries can promote, Mustapa said Malaysia also hoped to receive more Chinese tourists.

Last year, about two million Chinese tourists came to Malaysia, and this year Malaysia hopes to be able to receive more Chinese tourists, he said.

"Of course we acknowledged that MH370 has some impact on arrivals of Chinese tourists to Malaysia. But we believe it is just a temporary phenomenon," he added.

The minister told Xinhua that Malaysia is taking many measures to promote its economic and trade cooperation with China. "We would like to have more seminars in China. We've been participating in the China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning. This year we are going to participate actively in the China International Fair for Investment and Trade," he said.

Moreover, he said it is also important to implement the agreements signed between the two countries, which he has been monitoring by himself.

The minister also said Malaysia is very supportive of the initiative of building the Maritime Silk Road in the 21st century put forward by China. He said this is a very comprehensive initiative covering development in China, Malaysia and many other ASEAN countries, promising that Malaysia will be working closely with the Chinese authorities to ensure this proposal will further enhance the two countries' bilateral ties.