Malaysia Needs To Leverage Its Strengths To Benefit From China's Growth - HSBC

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1 (Bernama) -- Malaysia needs to leverage its strengths in order to play a vital role in supporting China's outbound investments so as to benefit from the latter's growth opportunities, HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd said. Its Chief Executive Officer, Mukhtar Hussain said both countries had pledged to build stronger all-round strategic partnerships in various areas, including trade, finance, port development and logistics, banking, and infrastructure. "With its strategic location at the heart of Southeast Asia, Malaysia holds an incomparable advantage in the construction of China's 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative. "With China's 'Belt and Road Initiative' (BRI), there has been and will be, many new opportunities for Malaysia to capitalise on," he said in a statement on Tuesday. The BRI aims to facilitate trade and investment by connecting China to Europe with new land and sea routes, as well as the growing economic significance of the Pearl River Delta to the region. Mukhtar said China's economic growth brought vast opportunities for Malaysian businesses to broaden their horizons and tap into China's market, and vice versa. He said simultaneously, the Malaysian government put continuous and committed efforts into the necessary infrastructure to strengthen economic ties with China, and to further promote trade and investment growth between both countries. "China has been Malaysia's largest trading partner for seven consecutive years, with bilateral trade volume topping US$100 billion in 2015. "Furthermore, as China's biggest ASEAN trade partner, Malaysia is in a prime position to be an important gateway to facilitate China's ASEAN trade relationships," he added. --BERNAMA