KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia and China's already strong relations can be further bolstered through three domains of untapped economic potentials, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
He said the areas of digital economy, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and adopting sustainable development could be explored amid the steadily growing investment and bilateral trade between both countries, whose economic relations date back to the 15th century until today.
Since 2009, China has moved up to become Malaysia's largest trading partner, accounting for 18.6 per cent of total trade in 2020, he said.
"Malaysia's export to China in the same year expanded by 11.1 per cent, which comprised US$37.77 billion. China was also Malaysia's biggest import source accounting for 21.5 per cent of total imports.
"Similarly in the investment sphere, China has become Malaysia's top investor, with investments amounting to US$4.41 billion last year. This ranking has been maintained for the past five years since 2016.
"A total of 71 manufacturing projects with participation from China were approved in 2020 and were expected to generate more than 10,000 employment opportunities in Malaysia," he said.
Ismail Sabri said this in his address at the opening ceremony of the 130th China Import and Export Fair, or Canton Fair, which was held in a hybrid manner and hosted by the government of China.
Present was Chinese premier Li Keqiang and other heads of government.
The organisation of the Canton Fair, which began in 1957, this year marked another milestone in the effort of strengthening trade and investment and to boost post Covid-19 pandemic economic recovery, said Ismail Sabri.
On untapped economic potentials, he said Malaysia, as part of its digital economy effort, has launched MyDigital, which aims to escalate the country's progress as a technologically-advanced economy by 2030 through the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint.
MyDigital, he said, aimed to attract US$17.32 billion worth of international and domestic digital investments.
On 4IR, Ismail Sabri said Malaysia will boost its digitalisation efforts such as leveraging on the synergy of the physical and digital words to elevate the nation's competitiveness.
"For this reason, we have launched the 4IR, which was built upon a whole-of-nation approach through people-private-public partnerships.
"This includes developing 4IR-enabling infrastructures for wider application of technological use while adopting an agile regulatory approach.
"All of those are aimed at meeting the needs of the businesses in the digital economy as well as accelerating innovation and adaptation in technology," he said.
On adopting sustainable development, Ismail Sabri said sustainability of energy resources has been identified as one of the key factors in the economic empowerment dimension, as tabled recently in the 12th Malaysia Plan.
It includes a people-centric economy, green technology, renewable energy and mitigation of climate change, he added.
Such areas have already been the cornerstone of China's trade and economic policies for many years, embodied in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and China's 14th Five Year Plan in which Malaysia will continue to be supportive, said Ismail Sabri.
"Malaysia, being one of the first countries to support the BRI, wishes to reaffirm our confidence that this strategic and forward-looking initiative will open up more frontiers of connectivity.
"We have a firm belief that this mutual understanding will create new possibilities for growth and development across the Asia Pacific, Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe.
"In line with Malaysia's Shared Prosperity Vision 2030, we advocate the spirit of working together for a better future. Hence, we strongly believe Malaysia's aspiration will resonate well with China and Canton Fair participating countries.
"Let us work together to further strengthen this cooperation. Malaysia strongly believes that this path will serve as a prosperous platform in moving forward for the future and beyond," he said.