PUTRAJAYA, June 19 — Fourteen memoranda of understandings and agreements, and protocol and joint statements involving nine ministries were exchanged between Malaysia and China today, as witnessed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and China Premier Li Qiang.
The documents were exchanged during Li’s official visit to Malaysia, which is his first visit to the country as Premier, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Malaysia-China diplomatic relations. He is here for a three-day official visit.
Nine ministries involved are the Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti); Finance Ministry; Agriculture and Food Security Ministry; Housing and Local Government Ministry; Home Affairs Ministry; Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti); Higher Education Ministry (Mohe); Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry; and Communications Ministry.
On behalf of Miti, two MoUs were exchanged, on strengthening investment cooperation in the digital economy and promoting investment cooperation in green development.
Besides the MoUs, Malaysia and China also inked the second cycle of the Malaysia-China five-year programme for economic and trade cooperation to deepen further linkages between industries in priority sectors like high-level manufacturing and digital economy development.
The programme would also deepen cooperation in robotics, entrepreneur development, innovation and startups, as well as research and development in agriculture and primary industries.
For the Communications Ministry, two MoUs were exchanged, the first with China Media Group on cooperation in the field of media, with the second to strengthen cooperation in the postal field between the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and the China State Postal Bureau.
Under the Finance Ministry, the document exchanged was a joint statement on national single window for cross border trade initiative.
The deal exchanged under Mohe was the MoU on cooperation in the field of higher education, while that under Mosti was on a science and technology people-to-people exchange programme.
As for the Housing and Local Government Ministry, the MoU exchange was for the fields of housing and urban development.
Earlier, both leaders had a closed door meeting to discuss bilateral relations between Malaysia and China and exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interests.
Anwar also hosted a luncheon for Li and his delegation, before they departed to Shangri-la Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.
Li will also have an audience with His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia, today.
Both Anwar and Li will attend the East Coast Rail Link ground-breaking ceremony in Gombak and conclude their schedule today with a dinner for Malaysia-China’s 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
China has been Malaysia’s largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years since 2009. Last year, total trade with China was valued at RM450.84 billion, contributing to 17.1 per cent of Malaysia’s global trade.
The diplomatic relations between the two nations was established by the Joint Communiqué signed by then Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak and then Chinese Premier Chou En Lai on May 31, 1974.
— Bernama
