PUTRAJAYA: Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to Malaysia next week will mark a major step forward in bilateral relations between the two countries.The fact that Hu is visiting Malaysia will surely send a strong message to the world that these two countries must have a very special relationship to warrant a visit by the president himself.

The visit will indicate that the bilateral relationship between the two countries is not going to be dependent on nostalgic and historical ties alone, but also on the current reality and the interests of both nations.

Professor Dr Mohamed Mustaffa Ishak, professor of Politics and International Studies of Universiti Utara Malaysia, said that Malaysia, its relations with China came at the right time as it needed to boost its trade relations with China to overcome the economic slowdown that it was experiencing.

“For Malaysia too, the visit will reaffirm its commitment to China in the sense that Malaysia was right in making its first move in 1974 with former prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein’s inaugural visit to China that established the bilateral ties,” he said.

He said the relationship had developed and matured significantly in both politics and international affairs as well as in economics and trade.

For China, he said, Malaysia was a friend to be remembered and honoured as it had the courage to conduct its foreign policy independently, away from the typical pro-western template that it used to take prior to Tun Abdul Razak’s era, at a time when China was looking for a friend.

The relationship was established at the height of the Cold War, an ideological warfare between democracy and communist blocs in 1970’s, and Malaysia is the first country from Southeast Asia to extend its hand to China.

In fact, the relationship started 600 years ago during the Ming Dynasty when Admiral Cheng Ho conducted trade with Malaysia (then Malaya), especially with Melaka.

Hu will be visiting Malaysia for two days beginning next Tuesday to reciprocate the state visits to China by Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail in 2005, when he was the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, and Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin who attended the official opening of the Beijing Olympics in August last year.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak visited China last June after taking over the helm of the country last April and the fact that China is the first non-Asean country that he visited signifies the strategic importance of Beijing in his foreign policy.

However, Najib had stated that he did not intend to follow the pace of his father, Tun Abdul Razak, but he wanted to “walk faster and further” in developing Malaysia’s bilateral relations with China as the latter had made a quantum leap progress in the last three decades.

Bilateral trade between Malaysia and China reached RM130.09 billion in 2008 compared with less than RM100 million 35 years ago when the bilateral ties were cemented.

Malaysia’s total trade with China in the first six months this year was RM54.23 billion with exports and imports amounting to RM27.64 billion and RM26.58 billion respectively.

During the June visit, Najib wanted to broaden the current narrow base of Malaysia-China trade because close to 67 per cent of Malaysian exports to China consisted of electrical and electronic products and commodities, primarily palm oil.

Similarly, 65 per cent of Malaysian imports from China comprised electrical and electronic products, machinery, appliances and parts.

Besides manufacturing, the prime minister had said that both countries should capitalise on each other’s strengths in construction, engineering and other services sectors.

Surely both countries have more room to expand their bilateral trade and investment, considering China’ market size of 1.3 billion people and Malaysia’s 27 million population.

Furthermore, tariffs on almost all goods traded between Malaysia and China will be eliminated by next year following the signing of the Asean-China Investment Agreement in Thailand last month.

China’s recognition as a new economic powerhouse will also contribute to enhancing the bilateral ties as China is probably the only country in the world that recorded positive economic growth for the first half of this year despite the global economic slowdown.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics estimated the country’s gross domestic product to increase 7.1 per cent to 13.986 trillion yuan in the first half of this year after being injected with four trillion yuan economic stimulus package to boost its economy and domestic demand. — Bernama