Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Liu Jian pointed out that one of the important tasks for the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia to do this year is to aggressively work on the implementation of many cooperation agreements signed between China and Malaysia when the Chinese and Malaysia national leaders paid official visit to each other's country in 2009.
Mutual Exchange of Visits
Liu Jian said: "In 2009, the fruitful mutual exchange of visits between Malaysian and Chinese national leaders has resulted in the sealing of several cooperation agreements. We cannot allow these agreements to stay at document or memorandum of understanding stage. We must make effort to implement all the consensus and agreements reached between the two countries."
Liu Jian said that Malaysia and China have made good use of the opportunity of the 35th anniversary celebration of diplomatic ties to realize mutual visits of Malaysian and Chinese national leaders to each other's country. During these exchange visits, both countries have signed many important documents and speed up the Malaysia-China bilateral development.
Trade Volume in 2009
According to Ambassador Liu Jian, the signed cooperation agreements between Malaysia and China have included financial cooperation. He said the bilateral trade volume between Malaysia and China was very high. This trade volume accounted for one fourths of China's total trade volume with ASEAN as a group. He said for 2010, Malaysia and China would ensure such smooth trade between the two countries would continue.
In 2009 during the global financial crisis, the trade between Malaysia and China was still able to reach the target of close to M$ 52 billion. It was the first time the Malaysian Government mentioned that China has become the largest importing country for Malaysia.
Ambassador Liu Jian also disclosed that the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia would continue to make effort to sustain high level visits between Malaysia and China. Among the high level visit will be the visit of Vice Chairperson of China's Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) Wang Zhaoguo' to Malaysia toward the end of March. He said exchanges in other fields also included political parties, parliamentarians and state counselors, ministers and government department officials. It was hoped that through official exchanges and cooperation, visiting officials from both countries could help to push the Malaysia-China relationship to a higher level and to bring more tangible benefits to both nations.
Ambassador Liu Jian said that another job for him to do was to promote more investment opportunities for both nations. He said since 2009, many Chinese trade delegations have visited Malaysia. They were interested in investing in Malaysia. At this moment some of these trade delegations have already signed some cooperation projects with Malaysian partners.
Domestic Demand of Goods
In 2009, Chinese tourists to Malaysia were 1.04 million. To Ambassador Liu Jian, tourism development between Malaysia and China was a good way to enhance understanding between the two countries. This would also include the exploration of business opportunities. Tourism could play a very good role to promote bilateral market and bilateral domestic demand of goods.
As for the bilateral cooperation in higher education, Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Liu Jian pointed out that all along, China has maintained a positive attitude in the recognition of Malaysia's university degrees. He hoped that Malaysia could also fully recognize the qualifications of Chinese universities. He added that in 2009, although Malaysia and China have signed a higher education cooperation agreement, but between the two there were still a number of pending problems. These problems have included the mutual recognition of university degrees or issues relating to academic qualifications.
Nevertheless, having a signed agreement on higher education can allow both countries to base on principle and direction to make final decision. The positive meaning of having a bilateral higher education agreement cannot be underestimated.
Ambassador Liu Jian said in 2009, a total of 12,000 Chinese students have come to Malaysia for further study. These students have helped to promote the youth exchange activities between Malaysia and China.
Unilateral Action Island Disputes
As for the dispute over sovereignty right over the Nansha Island (South Spratly Island), Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Liu Jian pointed out that China has always advocated the use of a peaceful and negotiation method to resolve the island disputes in order to avoid the conflicting issue from affecting the overall situation and relationship between China and concerned countries, including Malaysia.
China and Malaysia have reached a consensus on how to resolve the sovereignty conflicts over the islands. Both countries have agreed that in addition to using peaceful negotiation method to resolve the maritime sovereignty issue over islands along South China Sea, both countries have also requested neither party should take unilateral action on the island conflict to avoid complicating the case.
Assessment
It can be said that the reason why Malaysia and China could attain such good rapport was because the national leaders of both countries have attached great importance to care about the bilateral ties.
In addition to that the good relationship between Malaysia and China could not do without the active participation and support of the Malaysian media and the Malaysian public at large.
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