Ong: China is the ‘current attraction’
Trade minister says Malaysia does not want to be left out of Chinese bandwagon
MALACCA: China is the biggest trading partner for some 90 countries in the world and Malaysia does not want to be left out of this “current attraction.”
“It is a big, emerging market with a huge purchasing power. A total of 36% of the electronic and electrical items produced by multinational corporations in Malaysia go into China.
“Not only is Malaysia talking about China, even the United States is talking about China. If India rises next, everyone will talk about it as well. But for now, China is the attraction,” said International Trade and Industry Minister II Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan.
Responding to concerns about China using the Malacca port for its military strategy, Ong said Malaysia wants to just be a trading country, and not establish military alliances with others.
When delivering a keynote address at the 8th World Chinese Economic Summit organised by Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli) yesterday, Ong said free trade among countries for a more integrated world is the direction to go,
“Malaysia is a small economy with only 30 million people.
“We cannot increase our population overnight, so we try to integrate into a bigger economy through 14 free trade agreements (FTA),” he said.
He added that globally, there are over 600 FTAs and negotiations for 400 of them have already concluded.
Malaysia, meanwhile, has bilateral FTAs with Japan, Pakistan, New Zealand, Chile, India, Australia and Turkey, and a multilateral FTA with Asean.
Asean, in which Malaysia is a member, also has FTAs with China, South Korea, Japan, India, New Zealand and Australia.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement is under construction, pending the United States’ final decision.
Speaking to reporters later, Ong said the countries involved in TPPA would be disappointed if it failed to be ratified by the US Congress, as it is not a norm for this kind of multilateral agreement to fall through.
However, he said all parties have to wait for the outcome.
He did not rule out the possibility of negotiating a FTA between Malaysia and China.
“That should be the direction. It is normal for countries already engaged with each other in a multilateral FTA to sign a direct FTA.
“At the moment, only 6% of our total fruits export is to China. This is not enough, we have durians and many other agricultural products as well,” he said.
Ong, together with Asli co-founder and CEO Tan Sri Michael Yeoh, also witnessed the signing of three memoranda of understanding (MoU).
According to the MoUs, Asli will work together with the Malaysia-China Chamber of Commerce to promote trade cooperation and the China International Council for the Promotion of Multinational Corporations.
Asli will also collaborate on academic roundtables with Oxford University’s Belt and Road Institute.
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