KUALA LUMPUR: Close bilateral ties between Malaysia and China are set to continue with leaders from both countries fully aware of the importance of the "millennium-old friendship", says China’s Ambassador to Malaysia, Ouyang Yujing.

"Under the guidance of leaders of China and Malaysia, both countries' relations have been developing soundly and steadily, and the friendship between the countries and their people will remain unchanged.

"Malaysia and China are good neighbours with millennium-old friendship and good partners of win-win cooperation," he said.

He added that in recent years, the number of Chinese companies investing in Malaysia has increased in sectors like ecommerce, digital economy and green development, helping Malaysia’s economic transformation.

Ouyang said he has visited several states in Malaysia and found many Chinese companies have formed industrial clusters of unique characteristics which contributed greatly to local development.

“We are happy to see flowers of China-Malaysia cooperation blossoming everywhere in Malaysia," he said at the “Walk Along the Road: Ten Years of BRI” Belt and Road Scholar series book launch ceremony on Monday (Jan 9).

He said the book was published in time to mark the 10th anniversary of China president Xi Jinping’s proposal for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

“Malaysia was among the first group of countries to join BRI. Take our major cooperation project ‘Two Countries, Twin Parks’ as an example; the sister Qinzhou Industrial Park and Kuantan Industrial Park have set a good example.

“As far as I know, Kuantan Industrial Park, with an investment of over RM30bil, has brought Kuantan Port an additional 10 million metric tonnes throughput annually and provided around 20,000 jobs to local people. These are tangible benefits,” he added.

He stressed that the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) was the flagship project of Malaysia-China's high-quality BRI cooperation.

“Construction work of ECRL has (reached) 40% overall (and) the whole project is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. This project provided 5,000 jobs to local people.

"(Once) in full swing, ECRL will provide even more job opportunities to Malaysian people.

“ECRL is expected to increase Malaysia’s gross domestic product 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 BRI has attracted over 30 scholars from renowned universities such as Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT), University Malaya (UM), and University Putra Malaya (UPM) who have contributed to this book.

TAR UMT board of governors chairman Tan Sri Liow Tiong Lai expressed gratitude to the South-East Asia Research Centre of Humanities (SEARCH) and TAR UMT for their efforts to publish the Belt & Road Scholar Series Book in three languages, to promote the big picture of BRI in general and particularly that of Malaysia-China cooperation through BRI.

He said the book compiled more than 100 commentaries on BRI by a group of scholars across local public and private universities in Malay, English and Chinese.

Liow said China’s commitment to the BRI is not confined to infrastructure development but to strengthening regional cooperation and integration and sharing resources and expertise among participating countries and regions 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 added.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2023/01/09/malaysia-china039s-039millennium-old-friendship039-to-continue-says-envoy