China-Malaysia industrial park attracts investment

BEIJING - China and Malaysia have inked six agreements for projects forming part of the first industrial park jointly built by the two countries, authorities of the park announced on Monday at a session in Beijing.

China and Malaysia in April launched the park in Southwest China's Qinzhou city in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

The joint steering council said at its first session that the projects have an investment value of 2.93 billion yuan ($470 million), and include food processing, biotechnology, components and parts production for motorcycle and engineering machinery.

It is expected that the annual output value of the park will reach 10 billion yuan, it added.

"The industrial park is conducive to further cooperation between China and ASEAN nations and the development of strategic emerging industries, as well as pushing forward the leading positions of Guangxi and the Beibu Gulf economic zone in the free trade areas of China and the ASEAN," said Zhang Xiaoqin, secretary of the Qinzhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China.

The park, with a total planned area of 55 square km near the port of Qinzhou, was first proposed by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during his visit to Kuala Lumpur in April 2011.

It marked China's first such cooperation with an ASEAN member country after the launch of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area on Jan 1, 2010.

Statistics showed that bilateral trade between the two countries in 2011 reached $90 billion, making China Malaysia's largest export market for the first time and maintaining its status as the Malaysia's biggest source of imports.