In a short moment, we will be bidding farewell to 2016.
The bilateral relationship between Malaysia and PR China has taken another big leap over the last one year; in particular the official visit by Prime Minister to PR China in November 2016. It was a fruitful visit where a total of 14 bilateral official documents were signed on matters including the national defence, agriculture, education, commerce, taxation etc. Apart from this, the entrepreneurs from Malaysia and PR China had also signed the B-B MOUs amounting to RM144 Billion. All these reflected the peak level of bilateral trade between Malaysia and China built upon openness and mutual trust.
During this visit, the Prime Minister was focusing on collaboration on Digital Economy between the two nations and YAB succeeded in inviting the founder of Alibaba, Mr Jack Ma to be the Advisor on Digital Economy to Malaysian Government. Before this, Malaysia-China Business Council was given the task to organise the Malaysia-China Digital Economy Forum that set the pace for the bilateral cooperation in digital economy between the two nations. As a follow up on the programs on digital economy arising from Prime Minister’s visit as well as the Digital Free Trade Zone announced under the new budget, MCBC will be focusing on our works on digital economy including the collaboration with Chinese digital economy giants such as Huawei, Alibaba and Tencent.
Meanwhile, MCBC will continue its facilitation role for the Malaysia China Twin Industrial Parks and Xiamen University Malaysian Campus (XMUM) projects which have taken off and progressing well. The Vice Governor of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, HE Zhang Xiaoqin visited Malaysia in May 2016 to promote the Malaysia-China Twin Parks. XMUM launched the pioneer students intake ceremony on 22 February 2016 and as of September 2016, 440 Gaokao students from China were recruited making a total of 1350 students at XMUM. This is also the first time a Malaysian Institution of Higher Learning had ever recruited such big number of Chinese students. The scale and speed of setting up the university is also unheard off before.
It is my fervent hope that Malaysia and China will continue to make breakthrough in Malaysia-China relationship in the coming year. Malaysia-China Business Council will strive at its level best to work with the Malaysian and Chinese governments for the win-win cooperation and mutual benefits of both nations.
Wishing all a Happy New Year.
