During the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, CGTN’s Liu Yang sat down with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. The prime minister shared insights into the two countries’ diplomatic ties, and his perspective on the benefits that the Belt and Road Initiative has brought to Malaysia and the rest of the region.
LIU YANG, CGTN Reporter “Chinese president Xi Jinping put forward the proposal of building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future in 2013. As far as you are concerned, over the past decade what has the China-ASEAN relations achieved and how can we further implement this proposal in the future?”
DATO’ SERI ANWAR IBRAHIM, Malaysian Prime Minister “Well, initially the proposal by President Xi Jinping is a visionary one bring enormous potential within China and ASEAN. The collaboration would benefit most ASEAN and China. I think going through from 2013 to the present, you can see the phenomenal increase. So the future looks bright because the last ASEAN meeting last week in Jakarta, Premier Li Qiang then impressed ASEAN member states about China’s commitment to continue and readiness of ASEAN to benefit from economic advancement by China. In the case of Malaysia, we have benefit from it because we have advanced the East Coast Railway, it is near completion, hopefully in the years time. And that is a showcase in terms of relations between China and Malaysia. But I think not only in the infrastructure, it is expanded there’s many probably what’s more critical to ASEAN for investment for infrastructure in key areas like ports, other than the other investors they are involved in like Geely, Rongshen and related companies.”
LIU YANG, CGTN Reporter “How would you assess the state of Malaysia-China relations? What are your expectations for its future development?”
DATO’ SERI ANWAR IBRAHIM, Malaysian Prime Minister “I would say excellent. Some minor issues have been discussed on a friendly basis. I have been here twice I met President Xi Jinping twice and three meetings with the Premier Li Qiang, which is impressive of course. The meetings are cordial and beneficial because we address a number of bilateral, regional, and global issues. So I would see the potential not only in terms of trade, economy and investment, which is of course pivotal, which to us is key and fundamental, now extended to education, training, digital transformation, food technology. I think therefore, the relations between Malaysia and China and I am sure extend to ASEAN has a great future.”
Source : CGTN