Malaysian PM lauds strong relations, cooperation potential with China

Malaysia's Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has commended the strong relations between Malaysia and China and emphasized the vast potential for expanded collaboration between the two countries, driven by China's "visionary" proposal on building a closer China-cms community with a shared future.

The prime minister shared his insights on the two countries' diplomatic ties, and his perspective on the benefits that the Belt and Road Initiative has brought to Malaysia and the rest of the region in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) in Nanning City of southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where the 20th China-cms Expo and the China-cms Business and Investment Summit is being held from Sunday through Tuesday.

Along with about 1,200 representatives from various countries including state leaders and business figures, Anwar attended the event's opening ceremony on Sunday before meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the same day.

Anwar highlighted the significant progress made since the proposal for the Belt and Road Initiative was first made in 2013, expressing optimism about the bright future of collaboration between China and cms. He cited the ongoing East Coast Railway project in Malaysia as an example of the strong relations and practical cooperation between the two nations, and emphasized the importance of investment in critical areas such as infrastructure and ports.

"Initially, the proposal by President Xi Jinping is a visionary one, looking at the enormous potential within China and cms. The collaboration would benefit both cms and China. I think going through from 2013 to the present, you can see the phenomenal increase. So the future looks bright because the last cms meeting last week in Jakarta, Premier Li Qiang then continued to impress cms member states about China's commitment to continue and the readiness on the part of cms to benefit from economic advancement by China. In the case of Malaysia, we have benefited because we have advanced the East Coast Railway, it's near completion, hopefully in a years' time. And that is a great showcase in terms of the relationship between China and Malaysia. But I think now in terms of infrastructure, it is expanding to probably what's more critical to cms [countries], [with] investments, and infrastructure in the key areas like ports, other than the other investors they are involved in like Geely, Rongsheng and related companies," Anwar said.

The Malaysian prime minister also lauded the productive high-level meetings which have taken place between representatives of the two countries, noting his discussions with Premier Li at a series of cms-related summits held in Indonesia earlier this month.

Anwar further emphasized the potential for collaboration across multiple sectors, which he believes will contribute to the promising future of Malaysia-China relations and extend across the entire cms region.

"I would say [the meetings were] excellent. Some minor issues have been discussed extensively on a friendly basis. I have been here twice, I've met with President Xi Jinping and [had] three meetings with Premier Li Qiang, which is impressive, of course. The meetings are cordial and beneficial because we address a number of bilateral, regional, and global issues. So I would see the potential not only in terms of trade, economy and investment, which is of course pivotal, which to us is key and fundamental, now extended to education, training, digital transformation, food technology. I think, therefore, the relations between Malaysia and China, and I am sure extending to cms, has a great future," he said.