President Xi’s Visit To Malaysia Set To Trigger New Investments Into ASEAN, Says Trade Chamber In China

By Kisho Kumari Sucedaram 

BEIJING, April 10 (Bernama) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping’s official visit to Malaysia next week will be pivotal in not only triggering new investments in Southeast Asia but also pave the way for further economic development and prosperity in the region.

In expressing confidence over the positive outcome from the visit, Malaysian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China (MayCham) chairman Loh Wee Keng cited the enormous potential for the development of digital currency and cross-border digital payment systems between China and ASEAN in the financial sector.

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“(Although) the trade volume between China and ASEAN in 2023 exceeded US$900 billion (US$1=RM4.47), there is an urgent need for an efficient and cost-effective cross-border transfer (payments) system for the region.

“With the high-level visit from the Chinese President, we expect this will be one of the major topics to be discussed (so) our industry players should get ready to take on the opportunity derived from the discussions,” he told Bernama recently.

Loh also said Malaysia was one of the earliest supporters of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and therefore, one can expect some of the BRI projects such as the high-speed train, Melaka port, green energy and Kuala Ketil power plant to feature prominently at high-level discussions between Malaysia and China.

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“These mega infrastructure projects will have long-term implications for Malaysia’s economic development,” he said. 

He noted that the discussions could also look into issues regarding rare earth exports.

“For instance, Malaysia has huge reserves of rare earth, which are highly in demand by industries in China; but Malaysia does not allow rare earth exports while China’s mining technology for rare earth is not allowed to be transferred to foreigners,” he explained. 

With this scenario, he said, the high-level meeting would be the perfect platform to discuss the trade in rare earth and achieve a win-win situation to help each other.

On conventional items like palm oil and derivatives, rubber products, birds’ nests and agricultural products, he expressed hope that China would increase its imports from Malaysia.

He said there is also room for increased investments between China and Malaysia as well as between China and ASEAN.

Loh said China possesses the most advanced electric vehicle manufacturing technologies and artificial intelligence in the world -- industries which are in high demand in Malaysia and ASEAN countries.

“I would strongly recommend Malaysian businesses to take advantage of these two fields and encourage Chinese companies to work closely with Malaysian entrepreneurs to develop new products with shared intellectual property rights and market them to the world,” he said.

Loh said President Xi’s visit to Malaysia is very timely and will bring more economic opportunities to ASEAN, especially with the crippling American tariffs on ASEAN countries as well as on China which have started a trade war and global economic chaos.

Economic linkages with China should be fully exploited as ASEAN has collective strength, being the fifth-largest economic bloc globally with a gross domestic product of US$3.8 trillion and population of 680 million.

-- BERNAMA