KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's sovereignty wealth fund Khazanah said Wednesday that it will continue to build on its well-established relationship with China in mutually beneficial cooperation.
"We have a long history of investing in China. This has gone from traditional sectors such as power and infrastructure to new technology especially in e-commerce and the digital marketplace," said Shahril Ridza Ridzuan, Khazanah's managing director.
"China has in turn invested in turning Malaysia into a regional logistics hub and has made Malaysia the focus of Alibaba's regional operations," he told the China Conference organized by South China Morning Post.
Sharil said the cooperation and investments flowing between the two countries had been mutually beneficial, pointing out that Khazanah was an early investor into China's e-commerce giant Alibaba, which had gone from start-up to one of the largest companies in the world.
"One of Malaysia's problems is its small population base, but China is a huge potential market with over 1 billion people," he said.
Shahril said the sovereign wealth fund would look into ways to profit from the huge wealth of China's middle class.
"Going forward, Khazanah and other funds like Employees Provident Fund (EPF) want to forge long term bond with China to capture investment opportunities in the hugely populated country," he said, referring to the pension fund he had served in before joining Khazanah.
He also encouraged Malaysian businesses to seek out suitable investment partners in China.
"Investment capital is not an issue but rather Malaysians need to find suitable partners in the country despite some claims that China's economy is slowing," he said
"Rather than slowing down, China is a more matured economy which has consolidated. There may be more risks, but these are offset by much greater returns," he added.
The conference brought together business, academic and political leaders to discuss cooperation between China and Southeast Asia on politics, economy, technology and how to tap opportunities of the Belt and Road Initiative, among others.
