Renowned Chinese navigator Zheng He visited Malacca, now a historical city of Malaysia, five times during his seven transoceanic expeditions around the Indian Ocean over 600 years ago, which laid solid foundation for the friendship between the two countries.

Now with China’s initiatives to build the Silk Road economic belt and a 21st-century maritime Silk Road, known for short as the Belt and the Road, China and Malaysia see a new opportunity to promote their cooperation in trade and economy.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry Mustapa Mohamed said that the Malaysian side is supportive of the incentive to build the Maritime Silk Road and the Silk Road Economic Belt, and has been keeping an open mind on it.

… At the same time, Oh Ei Sun, senior research fellow at Nanyang Technology University of Singapore and former political secretary to the Malaysian prime minister, told Xinhua that the countries in the South East Asia have a very positive attitude towards China’s proposal of building the Silk Road economic belt and a 21st- century maritime Silk Road, and hope that China can play a leading role in this process.