The Malaysian Chinese Association, The Star and the Chinese Communist Party, joined at the hips.

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Business

MCA seeks closer ties with China

Malaysian Chinese Association goes further by launching Belt and Road 2.0

Nazvi Careem

Published: 8:33am, 19 Mar, 2018

People view a model of the East Coast Rail Link, a huge railway to be built by China as part of its ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, during the launch in Kuantan, Malaysia, on August 2017. Photo: Chong Voon Chung/ Xinhua

In 2016, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) became the first foreign political party to support China’s ambitious “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) global trade strategy.

The formation of the MCA Belt and Road Centre was aimed at helping Malaysian and Chinese entrepreneurs make the most of BRI opportunities by exchanging information and matching businesses for specific projects.

Last month, the MCA – which is part of Malaysia’s ruling Barisan Nasional coalition government – went a step further by launching Belt and Road 2.0, aiming to build on the initial strategy to forge stronger bilateral ties between Malaysia and China.

This is in addition to the MCA Belt and Road Centre in Penang, which was launched in June last year to attract Chinese investment to the state on Malaysia’s west coast.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak meets President Xi Jinping at the Belt and Road Forum in Yanqi Lake, north of Beijing, in May 2017. Photo: AFP

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BRI 2.0 has identified five strategies on which to promote development – business transformation and young start-ups; SME Go-Global; trade and investment promotion platform; Belt and Road policy coordination; and education and training. “For MCA Belt and Road 1.0, we laid the foundation, the infrastructure and got the support of the Chinese community and businessmen,” Liow Tiong Lai, president of the MCA, said when announcing the launch. “Seeing the good response, we now push for 2.0. Especially with the new Chinese leadership, there is more commitment to buy more products from the Belt and Road countries. We need to seize these opportunities.”

Present at the launch was China’s ambassador to Malaysia, Bai Tian, who said countries that embrace BRI can share China’s growth in terms of development, progress and prosperity.

Malaysia was one of the first countries to support BRI with major projects such as the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park in the state of Pahang; Melaka Gateway on the west coast; the East Coast Rail Link and the Xiamen University Malaysia.