One-decade mark: Ouyang (second from right) and Liow autographing a copy of the book cover. With them are TAR UMT president Prof Dr Lee Sze Wei (left) and Association of Belt and Road Malaysia deputy president Datuk Lim Kah Chuan. — RAJA FAISAL HISHAN/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: Chinese companies have increased their investments in e-commerce, digital economy and green development in Malaysia, and are on track to further cement Malaysia and China’s millennium-old friendship by being good partners in win-win collaborations, says China’s Ambassador to Malaysia Ouyang Yujing.
He said that in recent years, there was an increase in the number of Chinese companies investing in Malaysia, and those companies had helped in Malaysia’s economic transformation.
He said he visited some states in Malaysia and found many Chinese companies had formed industrial clusters of unique characteristics which contributed much to local development.
“We are happy to see flowers of China-Malaysia cooperation blossoming everywhere in Malaysia,” he said at the launch of the Walk Along the Road: Ten Years of BRI Belt and Road Scholar series book here yesterday.
He said this year marked the 10th anniversary of China President Xi Jinping’s proposal of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the publication of this book is right on time.
“Malaysia is among the first group of countries joining BRI. Take our major cooperation project, ‘Two Countries, Twin Parks’ as an example; with the sister Qinzhou Industrial Park and Kuantan Industrial Park setting a good model.
“As far as I know, the Kuantan Industrial Park, with an investment of over RM30bil, has brought Kuantan port an additional 10 million metric tonnes of throughput annually and provided around 20,000 jobs to local people.
“These are tangible benefits,” he said.
Ouyang also highlighted the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) as the flagship of the Malaysia-China high-quality BRI cooperation.
“Construction of the ECRL has achieved 40% overall completion, with the whole project expected to be completed by the end of 2026, and this project provides 5,000 jobs to locals.
“When construction is in full swing, the ECRL project will provide even more job opportunities to Malaysians.
“The ECRL is expected to increase Malaysia’s GDP by 2.7%; it will also bring more than 5,000 skilled railway construction and operation technicians and professionals to Malaysia,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ouyang said he is happy that the book contains contributions from over 30 scholars from institutions such as the Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT), Universiti Malaya and Universiti Putra Malaysia, just to name a few.
“We are living in a challenging yet promising era. China and Malaysia are fully aware that peace, development and win-win cooperation are what people in the world aspire for.
“Under the guidance of leaders of both countries, China-Malaysia relations have been developing steadily. No matter the changes taking place in international and domestic arenas, the friendship between our two countries and peoples will remain unchanged,” he added.
TAR UMT board of governors chairman Tan Sri Liow Tiong Lai expressed gratitude to the Southeast Asia Research Centre of Humanities (SEARCH) and TAR UMT for their efforts to publish the book in three languages to promote the big picture of BRI through more than 100 commentaries from scholars across local public and private universities to allow readers in Malaysia to understand BRI from multiple perspectives.
He said China’s commitment to the BRI is not just confined to infrastructure development, but to also strengthening regional cooperation and integration and sharing resources and expertise for shared prosperity.
“We look forward to seeing Malaysia and China work together to strengthen cooperation in various fields, bringing the strategic partnership of both countries to a higher level,” he said.
