Asean-China Centre Calls For More Malaysian Involvement

By Ng Che Yean BEIJING, March 26 (Bernama) -- Asean-China Centre (ACC) secretary-general Ma Mingqiang has called for more Malaysians to use the centre as a platform to promote Malaysia and boost ties between China and Asean countries in trade, investment, tourism, education and culture. His call for active cooperation of the Malaysian private sector with the ACC comes in the wake of visits by Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry Mustapa Mohamed and Malaysia-China Business Council president Ong Ka Ting to the centre. The ACC is the only official inter-governmental organisation that offers services, activities and authoritative information to both people and institutions in China and Asean member countries, Ma told Bernama in an interview. To enhance the two-way flow of trade between Asean and China, the ACC planned to set up an Asean products export promotion centre in Yiwu in the province of Zhejiang by offering each Asean country one shop of 100-500 sq metres, depending on the number of products displayed, for free for the first three years, he said. He said the ACC would also organise investment trips to Asean countries, including Malaysia, to further enhance investment cooperation between China and Asean. The centre recently organised an investment trip comprising companies from China to Vietnam and Cambodia and received good response, Ma said. He said Malaysian Minister of Tourism Ng Yen Yen showed interest in cooperating with the ACC to promote Malaysian tourism during the latest Asean Tourism Ministers meeting held in Indonesia. Ma said the centre had put in much effort in promoting Malaysian tourism, including promoting travel hotspots and local conditions and customs via its official website and mini blog, and cooperated with travel agents to promote tourism in Malaysia. He said the centre planned to publish travel guidelines for Chinese tourists travelling to Asean countries. Ma, who has been helping to promote Asean-China ties for 21 years, said he was willing to strengthen win-win cooperation between Asean and China. "China and Asean are important to each other. The development of Asean would be influenced if China is unstable. The development of China would also be influenced if Asean is in a mess. "China and Asean are good neighbours, and I'm willing to work harder to promote ties between China and Asean," he said. The ACC was born out of a memorandum signed by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Asean leaders during the 12th Asean-China Summit in 2009 in Beijing. It was officially inaugurated by Wen Jiabao and Asean leaders during the 14th Asean-China Summit in November last year marking the 20th anniversary of dialogue between Asean and China. The ACC's official website, www.asean-china-centre.org, was launched in October 2010. -- BERNAMA