HUZHOU (Zhejiang, China): Malaysia and China will continue to strengthen ties by cooperating in areas such as the digital economy, cybersecurity, vaccine research, cultural diplomacy and filmmaking.
Concluding his two-day official visit to China, which began on Friday, foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah said the new collaborations will add value to Malaysia-China bilateral relations.
“These new areas (of cooperation) will add value to both parties, and I see this in today’s discussion, which is going very well,” he told the Malaysian media here today.
The inaugural meeting of the Malaysia-China high-level committee on cooperation in the post-Covid-19 era, co-chaired by Saifuddin and China’s state councillor and foreign affairs minister Wang Yi, saw both sides agreeing to cooperate in research and development (R&D), vaccine production, digital telecommunications and joint film production, traditional medicine, cooperation in basketball, and Malay language teaching in China.
“We have connected Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka with 15 universities in China that teach Malay. Today, we brought 200 copies of Malay books to present to the universities,” he said.
Saifuddin also witnessed the signing of three agreements between Malaysian and Chinese companies.
The agreements were a memorandum of understanding between GHHS Healthcare and Sinopharm (Tianjin) Asset Management Co Ltd, a memorandum of agreement between INIX Technologies Holdings Bhd and Professor Chunhua Zhao, and a joint venture agreement between Riongtou Watch (Shenzhen) Co Ltd and INIX Technologies Holdings Bhd.
On Saturday, Saifuddin also honoured 10 officers who assisted in missions to repatriate Malaysians from Wuhan after movement restrictions were announced due to the outbreak of Covid-19 in February 2020.
The first mission involved seven officers who brought home 87 Malaysians and 20 dependents (foreign nationals) on Feb 2, 2020.
The second mission, which brought home 46 Malaysians and 20 dependents (foreign nationals) on Feb 25, 2020, involved three officers.
At the combined ceremony, Saifuddin said although it was held a bit late, he wanted to personally thank those who served with excellence.
He said all the officers involved had accepted the decision of the Malaysian ambassador to China Raja Nushirwan Zainal Abidin to carry out the mission with trust and sacrifice.
“Just imagine, when other people ran out of Wuhan, you ran into Wuhan to help our people get out from there.
“Some people had died (due to Covid-19) at that time and we did not understand what the pandemic was, and there was no vaccine yet then, ”he said.
Saifuddin also presented a certificate of appreciation to Raja Nushirwan who represented the mission members from the Malaysian embassy in Beijing.