“I see China has some advantage and things that we can learn from, including technology.”
YEO BEE YIN, Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment Minister
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will continue to have good relations with China as both countries have the potential to collaborate in various sectors that will mutually benefit each other.
Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin, said this did not mean that Malaysia would rely on China but would instead look at the advantages it could gain from and provide to the collaboration.
“I see China has some advantage and things that we can learn from, including technology while, at the same time, our strategic location has given us a lot of advantages with China.
“Malaysia will continue to be friendly to everyone and most importantly, what role can we play, being a small country,” she said after delivering her keynote address at the forum on “SouthSouth Cooperation In The New Asian Era” at Universiti Malaya, here, yesterday.
Yeo said as Malaysia had a limited market, it was important to work together with technology leaders in the artificial intelligence and renewable energy sectors such as China.
“We need to transform our businesses to think ahead about technology because this is what creates wealth, not just labour and capital,” said Yeo.
She also urged small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to invest in research and development (R&D) to grow their knowledge and push themselves up the value chain.
“What the ministry is planning to do to catalyse knowledge growth is that we will have an inventory of the scientific equipment that we have and the data that we can share.
“We plan to open source some of the data that we have in the government, as well as the scientific equipment, to outsiders including to the private sector, mainly the SMEs, for them to use at a minimum price,” she said.
Earlier in her keynote address, Yeo expressed hope the collaboration would see more technology commercialisation, academic collaboration and mutual investment between Malaysia and China in a win-win environment.