China, Malaysia to upgrade cooperation

BEIJING, June 4 -- China would take the 35th anniversary of Sino-Malaysia ties to promote cooperation, said President Hu Jintao here Thursday.

Hu made the remarks during a meeting with visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

He said ties had developed smoothly in the last 35 years, with frequent high level visits, increasing political trust and fruitful cooperation in trade, energy and infrastructure.

The two sides had also worked together to promote cooperation in east Asia and maintained coordination to deal with the international financial crisis, Hu added.

Hu said cementing strategic and cooperative partnership was an important component in China's peripheral diplomacy.

The two governments signed a joint action plan on strategic cooperation on Wednesday. Najib and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao attended the signing ceremony after their talks.

Hu said China would take the action plan as an opportunity to push forward tangible cooperation.

Najib said the action plan outlined future political, economic, cultural, and education cooperation.

He said Malaysia would join with China to promote bilateral and regional cooperation to deal with the financial crisis.

Najib and Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu attended a business forum earlier Thursday, calling for stronger cooperation between companies from both countries.

Hui told the forum attended by more than 700 people from China and Malaysia that the two nations should encourage companies to increase mutual investment.

Malaysia has become China's largest trade partner among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Hui said bilateral trade reached 53.47 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, two years ahead of a target of 50 billion U.S. dollars set by Chinese and Malaysian leaders.

Malaysia was the first ASEAN member country to forge diplomatic relations with China 35 years ago under then Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak, Najib's late father.

Najib arrived Tuesday for a four-day visit on his first trip abroad to a country outside the ASEAN since he took office in April.