Malaysia can attract more capital from China by allowing Chinese companies to tap the country's rich natural resources and utilizing the Malaysian business platform to gain exposure in international business cultures and practices, Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew told China Daily.

Lee, the founder of Country Heights Group in Malaysia, who spoke to China Daily about the Sino-Malaysian trade relationship prospect on the sidelines of the forum, said that as China was becoming an exporter of capital in the Asian region, the Malaysian government should offer more infrastructure work to attract more Chinese capital to flow into the country.

In Lee's view, Malaysia can contribute to the Chinese economy in two ways to elicit more Chinese capital export to Malaysia.

"First of all, Malaysia is very rich in natural resources, particularly in iron and palm oil. The abundance of these resources should attract more Chinese companies to set up their operations in Malaysia."

"Secondly, the Chinese companies can utilize the Malaysian business platform to gain more exposure in international business cultures and practices because Malaysia has a supply pool of talented business workers who are multi-lingual and multi-cultural," Lee noted.

Looking ahead, Lee hoped that the Chinese government would be bold enough to introduce some kind of business incentive terms to the ASEAN countries that can further boost Sino-Malaysian economic relationship.

"For example, the Chinese government can sign some kind of cross investment agreement with Malaysia to further facilitate the mutual trade and capital exchange between the two countries. These incentive measures would also help China a great deal," Lee reckoned.

The Malaysian government estimated earlier that the Sino-Malaysian bilateral trade can exceed $100 billion in 2012 despite the economic slowdown in China and uncertainty in the global environment.

oswald@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 01/16/2013 page2)