Malaysia-China industrial parks to play bigger role under Belt and Road initiative: official

The two joint industrial parks in China and Malaysia are expected to further boost economic cooperation and connectivity in the region under the Belt and Road initiative, a Malaysian deputy minister said.

"In line with the Belt and Road initiative, two industrial parks established in Kuantan and Qinzhou respectively under the context of 'Two Countries, Twin Parks' will play its role in enhancing connectivity between Malaysia and China through the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative," said Lee Chee Leong, Malaysia's deputy minister of international trade and industry.

For its part, Malaysia is pushing for the greater development for the Kuantan Industrial Park in Pahang state.

Lee told the annual Joint Cooperation Council Meeting in March that the Pahang State government had approved the application to expand a minimum 1,000 acres area for the industrial part. This amounts to the total area to 2,400 acres.

The additional land allocation is now being finalized, before defining the target sectors in the masterplan, Lee told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The nearby Kuantan Port is being expanded into a deep water port to cater the need of the industrial park. The port will be able to accommodate vessels of up to 150,000 tons with a draught of 16 meters upon completion by end-2017. It will be able to double its capacity to 52 million freight weight tons (FWT) of cargo, according to Lee.

He expected the port to be a major catalyst for the growth of the development of the industrial park.

"The emergence of cross-border cargo movement and trade volume between Kuantan and Chinese ports, will facilitate the establishments of these ports as Asian transshipment and redistribution hubs for the global market," he said.

The Kuantan Industrial Park is targeting investment in basic metals and downstream activities, petrol chemical, equipment manufacturing, clean energy, information and communication technology.

The Kuantan Industrial Park has already drawn investment from China. A modern integrated steel plant to produce high carbon steel and H-shaped steel is scheduled to become operational in 2017, with an annual production capacity of 3.5 million tons.

A porcelain production with a total investment of 600 million U.S. dollars is expected to be built in the industrial park.

Economic ties between China and Malaysia have been thriving in recent years. China remains Malaysia's largest trading partner for the 7th consecutive year in 2015, and Malaysia is China's largest trading partner in Southeast Asia.

Lee is upbeat about the trade prospect despite bilateral trade volume recorded a 4.6-percent drop to 97.36 billion U.S. dollars in 2015, according to China's statistics.

"Looking at the positive trade performance between Malaysia and China over the last 5 years, I am optimistic that the annual trade figure for 2016 will also be positive," said Lee.

"Much has been reported on the slowing Chinese economy, but lately, China's economy has eventually stabilized and there are signs that it will further improve," he added. Endit