BEIJING: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will witness the signing of two significant agreements between Malaysia and China during his working visit here.
Together with Chinese premier Li Keqiang, Dr Mahathir, who is arriving in the Chinese capital tonight, will witness the signing of memoranda of understanding on enhancing palm oil trade and cooperation, and on cooperation in the development of industrial parks, infrastructure, logistics hub and transit oriented developments pursuant to the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project.
The prime minister is here on a five-day working visit to attend the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
At a press conference with the Malaysian media here today, Malaysian embassy in China charge d’affaires a.i. Nuryante Mohd Yazid said the first MoU would be signed by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board and the China Chamber of Commerce of Import and Export of Foodstuff, Native Products and Animal By-products (CFNA).
The second would be signed by the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) and China Communication Construction Company Ltd (CCCC).
The promotion of the palm oil industry is high on Malaysia’s agenda in the republic.
The deal between Malaysia and China is believed to include trade offsets involving the increased sale of Malaysian palm oil to China.
Last month, China injected US$890 million (RM3.69 billion) into Malaysia’s economy by purchasing 1.6 million tonnes of palm oil.
And, it is keen to not only increase the purchase to greater amounts following good demand from its 1.4 billion population, but assist Malaysia in improving the crop’s yield.
Nuryante said the prime minister would also meet Xi, as well as National People’s Congress chairman Li Zhanshu, ahead of the BRF to discuss bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest.
For China to accommodate and arrange for all three, the president, prime minister and chairman of the National People’s Congress to have bilaterals with Dr Mahathir was an honour, she said.
Apart from the official programme, the prime minister would also be visiting some high-tech companies here, namely Huawei Technologies, and SenseTime Private Ltd, an artificial intelligence (AI) company focused on computer vision and deep learning.
He is also scheduled to meet key investors, international capital market analysts as well as the business community based in Beijing.
Nuryante said the prime minister would be attending a Proton Holdings’ special programme to witness an exchange of documents between Malaysian and Chinese automotive manufacturers.