Malaysia pins its belt and road infrastructure hopes on deepening China ties

“There is a very strong bonding between Malaysia and China,” Loke told This Week in Asia during a sit-down interview in Hong Kong last week.

“The relationship has grown over the years, and right now, it is very stable,” he said. “We currently have many collaborations across many sectors between Malaysia and China, particularly in the transport sector.”

“By and large, we have managed to put up a cohesive government,” Loke said. “Policies are being formulated, government machineries are functioning as normal. We are beginning to see some results.”

“This has shown that investors have regained their interest and confidence in Malaysia,” he said. “Of course it’s very much upon us, the Malaysian government, to continue to formulate investor friendly policies, and also to provide stability and certainty for investors.”

Despite the domestic political hurdles, Malaysia’s position on China’s belt and road plans has held firm, according to Ngeow Chow-Bing, director of the University of Malaya’s Institute of China Studies.

Anwar’s government “appears to want to have more strategic and long-term cooperation with China” and has remained committed to belt and road projects, Ngeow said, dismissing concerns that Malaysia may be too reliant on Chinese investments.

Malaysia “will not be apologetic in terms of asking for more investment from China,” he said. “Malaysia is speaking with roughly the same terms to other countries, and remains very open and welcome to investment.”

“We see a large number of investments from China not because the focus is just on China, but sometimes Chinese companies react more proactively to our calling compared to companies from other countries,” Ngeow added.

“Transit-oriented development is something we are adopting