Head of Malaysia's leading business group positive on CIIE to boost win-win cooperation

KUALA LUMPUR -- The third China International Import Expo will serve as a testimony of China's containment of the COVID-19 outbreak and realization of economic recovery while also boost win-win cooperation between China and the world, said head of the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia.

"The fact that the third CIIE would be held as scheduled is a testimony of China's achievement in containing the outbreak and the speeding up of economic growth domestically, as well as China's active effort in facilitating recovery in global trade," President of ACCCIM Ter Leong Yap told Xinhua in an interview ahead of the CIIE to be opened in Shanghai on Wednesday.

"These all made the third CIIE an international event of great significance," he said.

Despite the challenges brought by the pandemic, Ter said Malaysian participating organizations and companies are full of expectations and high hopes that this year's CIIE will be even more exciting despite COVID-19, as the organizers have taken various steps on prevention and control to make the event a complete success.

This year's CIIE will be held in a larger exhibition area and will include new sections on public health and epidemic prevention, energy conservation and environmental protection, and smart travel. It will also see the launch of "cloud signing" and "cloud roadshow" modes, which will fully demonstrate online and offline technologies as part of the trend towards better integration.

Since its inception, CIIE has received strong support from Malaysia's government and business community, said Ter. ACCCIM has also played an active role in promoting and organizing Malaysian companies to participate in the past two expos.

Despite the travel restrictions and uncertainties due to COVID-19, ACCCIM has organized several Malaysian companies to physically participated in the expo, which mainly engaged in local products loved by Chinese consumers, such as bird's nest, coffee, traditional health products and beverages, among others.

In addition, ACCCIM has also promoted economic and trade cooperation through online negotiations and video conferences, creating new business opportunities for companies from both countries.

Earlier in September, ACCCIM signed an agreement with the Bank of China to allow companies that cannot participate physically in the CIIE to negotiate with entrepreneurs from all over the world through online trade and investment platform hosted by the latter.

ACCCIM is a leading business group in Malaysia representing Malaysian Chinese companies, individuals and trade associations in particular and the Chinese business community in general.

For Ter, China's rapid and successful response to the pandemic in the early stage, including promptly releasing information such as the gene sequence of the virus, has laid a solid foundation for China's economic recovery.

"China's strong measures and positive results in response to the outbreak are obvious to all. This is also the key to China's rapid economic recovery," he said.

According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, China's economy expanded by 4.9 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, higher than the 3.2-percent growth in the second quarter, which also drove China's economic growth from negative to positive in the first three quarters.

Ter said 2020 has been a year that both China and Malaysia have had to face the pandemic and its impact, but which in return has drawn the two countries closer together.

In addition to donating medical and essential supplies to each other, Chinese medical experts had been to Malaysia to share experience in fighting COVID-19, he said.

China is already on the way to moving past the pandemic and the Malaysia-China economic and trade exchanges and even the global market have gained renewed confidence and momentum, he added.

Ter said the Malaysian business community is very pleased with the close cooperative relations between both countries and also looks forward to the broader prospects of trade development between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

"I believe that the third CIIE is an important move for China to build a dual cycle development pattern and demonstrate its determination of further opening-up, facilitating mutually beneficial and win-win development for countries," he said.