Liew
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah China Chamber of Commerce (SCCC) president Datuk Frankie Liew welcomed China’s State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s affirmation that Malaysia and China were good neighbours whose friendly relations have lasted for millennia, good brothers in the fight against Covid-19 and good partners in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
He said China and Sabah have demonstrated strong solidarity in the battle against Covid-19, whereas the spirit of brotherhood was clearly evident within the exchanges at the government, companies and people levels of both sides.
In a talk with Malaysia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein in Nanping City, Fujian Province on April 1, Wang said China was ready to maintain exchanges with Malaysia at all levels, enhance cooperation on Covid-19 vaccine and drug research, and promote negotiations on mutual recognition of health code.
Wang said both sides ought to give full play to the China-Malaysia high-level committee, deepen the alignment of development strategies, steadily advance cooperation on major projects, facilitate industrial upgrading and innovation-driven development to jointly foster new sources of growth in the cooperation of 5G and digital economy, and expand cooperation in such fields as modern agriculture, intensive food processing and halal food certification.
Wang also said that both sides also needed to continue to hold successful activities for the China-Malaysia Year of Culture and Tourism, and boost law enforcement and security cooperation.
Liew said Sabah has benefited from the enhanced friendly relations between Malaysia and China.
“In recent years, Sabah had received increasing number of Chinese tourists.
“China has become the largest tourist source country for Sabah and contributed tremendously to the growth of our tourism industry and economic development.”
At the same time, he said the government and business corporations in Sabah have maintained frequent exchanges with their Chinese counterparts, which resulted in many win-win outcomes.
“Many major corporations from China are taking part in large-scale development projects in Sabah, and in turn expose the local construction industry to new technologies and higher standards.”
Liew went on to say that the Sabah State Government was the first to initiate a fundraising campaign in aid of the battle against Covid-19 in China.
“When the virus spread to Sabah, China reached out to us and contributed personal protective equipment (PPE) as well as sent its medical experts to Sabah to guide us in combating the pandemic.”
He was pleased to see that the Covid-19 pandemic in Sabah and China have both subsided, allowing Hishammuddin to meet with Wang in effort to further strengthen the relationship between China and Malaysia.
He said the Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin would visit China soon, which would take the bilateral ties between both countries to greater heights.
“We look forward to enhanced friendly relations between China and Malaysia and deeper cooperation on BRI after the Covid-19 pandemic to create a more prosperous nation for both sides.”
Liew said the good relations between both countries would augur well for the socio-economic development in Sabah as our State was nearest to China geographically, as well as located strategically along the Maritime Silk Road and in the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) region.
He stressed that the Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Hajiji Noor has introduced the Sabah Maju Jaya development plan which concentrated on the agriculture, industrial and tourism sectors to propel the economy of Sabah forward.
Liew believed that the close cooperation between Sabah and China would upgrade to a higher level when the pandemic was over and yield more fruitful outcomes.