BEIJING – Kuala Lumpur will go all out to forge better ties with Beijing as this would bring mutual benefits for both sides, said Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
He said focusing on economic development rather than confrontation should be the way forward in terms of relations between Malaysia and China.
In this regard, Chinese businessmen were welcome to invest in Malaysia, he said when addressing some 400 top Chinese entrepreneurs and business leaders here Sunday.
Dr Mahathir is on a five-day official visit to China.
Dr Mahathir also made it clear what was the new Malaysian government's stand with regard to inv. estments from China.
"We're not against any Chinese company but against Malaysians who borrow huge sums of money to carry out unnecessary projects," he told the China Entrepreneur Leaders Forum, Bernama reported.
There have been worries that touchy issues concerning some Chinese projects in Malaysia are standing in the way of good relations between the two countries lately.
Dr Mahathir noted that Malaysia had had a relationship with China for almost 2,000 years.
"Today, China's trade with Malaysia is the biggest compared with other countries in the region," he said.
"There was a time when China was very poor, but now China is rich... Even at a time when it was poor it was a market for Malaysia, but now that it is rich we feel that China is a big market," said Dr Mahathir.
He said by China's trading and investing in Malaysia, both sides would be able to build a big market for China as well.
"So there's mutual benefit in having good relations with each other, solving problems between us not through confrontation but through negotiation, arbitration, and the court of law.
"That's the way we should go," Dr Mahathir said, adding that confrontation would not help build their economies.
The prime minister said both countries could complement each other, especially in the economic field, for the benefit of their people.
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