KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 — The Malaysia-China Friendship Association (PPMC) has several major programmes, including on cultural exchange, education and tourism, aimed at strengthening diplomatic ties between Malaysia and China.
Its president, Datuk Abdul Majid Ahmad Khan, said the association also served as a bridge to link requests in trade and economy, apart from boosting ties between youths of the two countries through such exchanges.
“We see a lot of changes and improvements in terms of good relations between Malaysia and China. For example in the aspect of tourism, 2.9 million tourists from China came to Malaysia last year,” he said when interviewed on the Ruang Bicara programme produced by Bernama News Channel (BNC) at Wisma Bernama here last night.
Abdul Majid, who is also Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) chairman, said exchange programmes between the people of Malaysia and China should be undertaken more aggressively to enhance understanding between the people of the two countries.
On Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s statement that Malaysia would continue to use technology from China’s Huawei as widely as possible, Abdul Majid said the prime minister’s remark was bold and appropriate.
He said this also showed that Dr Mahathir recognised China’s achievements in the field of high technology.
“Huawei is a competitive and efficient product that benefits consumers. This is an acknowledgement by Dr Mahathir that an Asian country is capable of producing high technology products, what more if that country has strong ties with us and its products are accepted by the market.
“We are not saying US products lack quality. This is a question of market force,” he said.
On the China-United States trade war, Abdul Majid said Malaysia should encourage the two superpowers to work out a deal and a good formula for cooperation.
He said China and the United States have major ties with all countries and it would be more beneficial to Malaysia and other Asean countries if the two countries could cooperate. — Bernama
