On 22 October 2018, Mr. Liang Decai, the Chinese Consul General to Kota Kinabalu, met with the delegation of “Chinese Media Reporting Trip to ASEAN” and gave an interview on promoting local exchanges and cooperation between China and Malaysia. Mr. Wang Zhiquan, Deputy Director of Information and Public Relations Division of ASEAN-China Centre was present at the event.
Consul General Liang said that Sabah is an important transfer hub of the ancient silk road and an important node of the “Belt and Road”. In recent years, as the building of the “Belt and Road” advances, practical cooperation between Sabah and China becomes closer. More and more Chinese enterprises are expanding their business in Sabah in such areas as infrastructure, real estate, power energy, communications, planting, tourism, hotel industry, fishery and logistics industry. Tourism cooperation is a most significant aspect of people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two sides. The number of Chinese tourists to Sabah is increasing year on year, which exceeded 300,000 in the first half of 2018, up by 44.2 percent from the same period of last year. There are more than 100 direct flights on weekly basis between Chinese cities and Kota Kinabalu. Consul General Liang also answered questions concerning the investment environment in Sabah, the export of Sabah’s agricultural products to China and the prospect of financial cooperation with China. He hoped that the media friends would continue to follow and support exchanges and cooperation between Sabah and Chinese provinces and cities.
On the same day, the Chinese journalists also held discussions with representatives from a local media association on media development and transformation under the new circumstances, the development of social networks, promoting the integration of traditional media and new media, and strengthening media cooperation between the two sides.