Joachim (middle) receiving a memento from Phoong while Ouyang (left) looks on.
KOTA KINABALU (Nov 23): This year’s bilateral trade volume between Malaysia and China is expected to exceed 200 billion US Dollars (USD) or RM893.5 billion, said China Ambassador to Malaysia, Ouyang Ujing.
“China-Malaysia relations has enjoyed sound development ever since establishing diplomatic ties 50 years ago.
“Statistics have recorded the leaps-and-bounds growth of trade cooperation between the two countries, which increased from less than 200 million USD in 1974 to over 200 billion USD in 2022, a growth of more than 1,000 times.
“The first three quarters of this year have seen China-Malaysia trade volume achieving 153.6 billion USD, an increase of 10.8 percent than that of last year.
“It is highly probable that this year’s bilateral trade volume between the two countries will exceed 200 billion USD,” he said.
Ouyang said this at the Malaysia (Sabah) – China Business Summit 2024 welcoming dinner cum official opening ceremony at the Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC) here on Friday.
He said cooperation between Malaysia and China has expanded and deepened in various fields, and now, Malaysia has become a favorite destination to Chinese companies and entrepreneurs.
“The year 2023 had seen actual Chinese investment in Malaysia reaching 2.08 billion USD, a 29.1 percent year-over-year increase.
“The first three quarters of this year have seen China’s actual investment in Malaysia amounting to 1.58 billion USD, an increase of 2.9 percent than that of last year.
“Now, China has been Malaysia’s major investment source country and the largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years, while Malaysia continues to be China’s second largest trading partner in ASEAN,” he said.
Ouyang said these impressive achievements made from win-win cooperations are good manifestations and strong consolidators of the friendly and close ties between the two countries.
He foresees more of such achievements in the future with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world’s largest free trade agreement in terms of population and economic scale, taking full effect, when accompanied by the upcoming ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) 3.0.
“With these initiatives, there is good prospect of more market access and tariff concessions being provided from both China and ASEAN countries, greatly promoting the two-way investment and trade growth of both sides,” he said.
He said China-Malaysia relations, which is founded on genuine political trust and strong economic ties, will embrace greater success and more achievements in the future, suggesting for the two sides to strengthen strategic synergy and foster new growth areas in digital economy, green development, artificial intelligence and new energy, etc.
The ambassador noted that this is especially since China is currently speeding up developing new quality and productive forces with priority given to high-quality development, while Malaysia is vigorously developing new industries with premier emphasis given to high-value-added industries and industrial-supply chains upgrading.
“Both China and Malaysia should take the good opportunities of their 50th diplomatic relations anniversary and enrich the building of China-Malaysia Community with a Shared Future with more substantial programmes to better benefit both peoples.
“Enjoying high complementarity and win-win outcomes, China-Malaysia cooperation will keep injecting strong drive to global economic growth and deliver another 50 years of prosperity to people of both countries,” he said.
Ouyang said in terms of Sabah, the second largest state in Malaysia has been establishing cooperations with China in various fields under the China-BIMP-EAGA framework.
He said the two sides’ ever-expanded cooperation covers infrastructure, power and energy, manufacturing, plantation, fishery, tourism and logistics, etc.
This has resulted in more Chinese companies coming to Sabah to invest and expand business, bringing along upgraded infrastructure and job opportunities to the local, he said.
The ambassador also expressed gratitude to the Sabah Government in this regard, for warmly welcoming and greatly supporting Chinese enterprises doing business in Sabah.
He then called on Chinese companies to take the good opportunities of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation and bring greater benefits to people of both Sabah and China.
“The Chinese Embassy and the Consulate-General in Kota Kinabalu will do their best to facilitate and enhance cooperation between the state of Sabah and China,” he said.
Also present were Sabah’s Deputy Chief Minister II Datuk Seri Dr Joachim Gunsalam who represented Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, as well as Industrial Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Datuk Phoong Jin Zhe.
