Envoy: Malaysia overdependent on China? Just look at Australia

Newly-minted Malaysian ambassador to China Nushirwan Zainal Abidin is not too concerned about criticisms that Malaysia is too dependent on the Chinese market.

This, Nushirwan said, is because other countries are far more reliant on trade with Beijing than Malaysia.

As he told Sin Chew Daily in an interview published today, Australia's trade with China stood at 33 percent of its total trade volume, while the figure is just between 25 percent and 28 percent for Malaysia.

Economists have raised concerns about Malaysia's growing reliance on trade with Beijing, as well as direct investment from the country under the BN administration.

The previous government had denied that Malaysia was being "colonised" by China.

In January, the Financial Times reported that Malaysia's reliance on the Chinese market was impacting the export of electronics.

Calling it a “lesson in over-reliance,” the FT report said that the sector was facing a slowdown amid the lingering threat of a trade war between the US and China.

Bilateral trade between Malaysia and China climbed to an all-new high in 2018, rising 13 percent to US$108 billion (RM445 billion) from US$96 billion RM395 billion) the preceding year.

As of this month, trade volume was reported to have reached US$100 billion (RM412 billion).

China has remained Malaysia's biggest trading partner for 10 consecutive years, and the biggest FDI contributor for three years, said Nushirwan, who was sworn in to his new post on July 17.

He said Beijing's development in exploring 5G communication systems, artificial intelligence, digital economy and big data should inspire Malaysians.

"Malaysians should be inspired by the giant leap taken by China in just 30 years," he said.

Nushirwan said that even the US is lagging by as much as two to three years behind China in the development of 5G network technology.

He said there are many technological developments in China worth learning from, and if Malaysia wants to develop 5G systems locally, connections should be built with Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.