China-Malaysia trade to touch US$100b

KUALA LUMPUR: Trade volume between China and Malaysia is expected to reach US$100bil this year, which would make Malaysia the third Asian country to break through that mark after Japan and South Korea, China's ambassador to Malaysia, Chai Xi, said.

He added that last year, bilateral trade reached a historical high of US$90bil and was very much in Malaysia's favour.
We have gained remarkable achievements in infrastucture cooperation. - CHINA’S AMBASSADOR TO MALAYSIA CHAI XI

“Malaysia benefited from a large surplus of US$30bil,” he said at a press briefing on China-Malaysia relations and the 2012 Sessions of the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

He said palm oil was one of the major commodities exported to China, while the main goods were information technology (IT) products like chips. “IT products took up some 40% of trade both ways,” he said.

Chai said the robust figures were achieved due to the increasing economic and trade ties.

“Our two countries have gained remarkable achievements in infrastucture cooperation, and our mutual investment scale keeps growing,” he added.

He said there were still a lot of scope for further cooperation like in the field of energy and science and technology.

He added that in order to escalate bilateral cooperation through clustering investments, the two countries had also jointly launched the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park and were actively promoting the establishment of an economic and trade cooperation zone in Malaysia.

Touching on China's gross domestic product (GDP) target growth of 7.5% this year, which was much lower than the 9.2% last year, he said the target was in line with the expected 7% growth in the 12th Five-Year Plan.

He added that by properly reducing the growth speed, China could better implement the concept of scientific development and focus on transforming the pattern of economic development.

“In other words, China is no longer just pursuing speed of development, but seeking both quality and speed,” he said.

He said it would still require great efforts to achieve this target in the current grim international economic situation but was confident that it could be done. Bernama