BEIJING, China: Malaysia’s economy has benefited from China investments, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said, and pledged to continue strengthening cooperation and building opportunities with the world’s second largest economy.

During two back-to-back gatherings with China’s business community today, he welcomed their “great contribution” to Malaysia’s economy and involvement in a range of flagship developments, institutions, and projects.

“We share China’s view that the best way to face the ongoing global economic headwinds is to increase cooperation, and create mutually beneficial and sustainable growth through trade and investment,” Najib said in his opening remarks at a roundtable dialogue with a group of more than 30 Chinese corporate leaders in the morning.

“As China has increasingly engaged with friends and neighbours, through the Go Abroad strategy, the One Belt One Road initiative and multilateral agreements such as the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement, Malaysia has certainly benefited from China’s prominence on the world stage,” he added.

The prime minister said, as at the end of 2015, China’s investments in Malaysia stood at USD2 billion and is expected to increase further.

At a luncheon address to participants of the Malaysia-China Business Forum later, Najib said China is involved in supporting some flagship projects that will play a huge role in Malaysia’s transformation into a high-income status nation and beyond.

“One example is Powerchina International Group, which recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement with a Malaysian company, KAJ Development, for the construction of the Melaka Gateway – a mega development project in the state of Melaka. In fact the deep sea port, which is part of the project, was inaugurated only last month, and is expected to be completed by 2019,” he said.

Other examples include China Railway Group Limited (CREC), which together with Iskandar Waterfront Holdings will develop Bandar Malaysia; Country Garden and Greenland Group in real estate; Xiamen University in education; and in communications, ZTE Corp and Huawei.

In the manufacturing sector, for the first eight months of 2016, Malaysia recorded a total of 20 approved manufacturing projects with China’s participation, with investments of RM2.4 billion. This ranked China as the second largest investor into Malaysia during this period.

“We are also proud to host some of China’s giants, such as China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation; Alliance Steel; Sinohydro Corporation Ltd; Comtech Solar International; and Longi. These companies have contributed much to our economy, just as Malaysian companies have to China’s,” he said.

Najib later witnessed the exchange of business-to-business memoranda of understanding and agreements between Malaysian and Chinese companies.