Malaysia keen to forge more digital economic cooperation with China
09 Aug 2023
Malaysia is looking forward to forging more bilateral cooperation with China in the area of digital economy in order to increase the people’s income as well as reduce the cost of living.
Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of Malaysian Embassy In China S. Sanmugam said Malaysia and other ASEAN countries can learn a lot from the republic, specifically in the area (of digital economy), because it has a greater number of resources for research and and development in the field of digital economics.
“The trade between Malaysia and China has reached more than US$200 billion last year and during Prime Minister’s (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) visit to China in April this year, we have attracted a lot of Chinese investors to invest in Malaysia; and during the visit, he (Anwar) has secured RM170 billion potential investment into Malaysia.
“So this is one of the success that Prime Minister has achieved during his visit here. Following that visit, we have many ministers who have been coming, (and) follow up to that in many areas like tourism and agriculture,“ he said at ASEAN Day Celebration 2023 held at Malaysia’s Embassy here.
Sanmugam said both ASEAN countries and China also could intensify people-to-people exchange policy to strengthen cross-cultural connections among the regions since China fully reopened its borders to foreigners last March.
“About student exchange, during the COVID-19 pandemic in the past two and a half years, we don’t have many exchange between ASEAN countries and China, but now many of our Malaysian students are returning to China to continue their studies.
“The students had also done a Silat performance today in conjunction with ASEAN Day celebration, showcasing the richness of culture and the unity of ASEAN,“ he said.
He is also optimistic that the good relations and cooperation among China and ASEAN countries could go further for the next 50 years in many areas despite some conflicts and disputes – such as in the issue of South China Sea.
“I believe (that) dialogue, conversation and cooperations with neighbouring countries can always solve problems… we have a lot of positive elements of conversations, dialogue, cooperations, partnerships, these are the things that we have to look forward to,“ he added.
Source: Bernama
