On April 3, 2022, Chinese Consul General in Penang Mr. Lu Shiwei was invited to attend a sharing session themed on “RCEP Brings Enormous Trade Opportunities for China and Malaysia” and delivered a speech. The event was jointly organized by Kwong Wah Yit Poh and One Belt One Road South East Asian NGOs Alliance (OBORSEANA). General Manager of Kwong Wah Yit Poh Mr. Lee Hin Chan, heads of organizations such as OBORSEANA, Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce (PCCC), Penang Importers & Exporters Association, Malaysia-China Chamber of Commerce (MCCC) Penang branch, Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) Penang Branch, and the representatives from business circles and media attended the event. The event was held both online and offline, and was available on the official Facebook page of Kwong Wah Yit Poh in the form of live broadcasting with nearly 10,000 viewers watching the event online.

Consul General Mr. Lu Shiwei said in his speech that RCEP is the world’s largest free trade deal. RCEP will create an integrated super-large market with around one third of the global economy, and generate vigorous business opportunities. The entry into force of the RCEP marks a major step forward for economic integration in the Eastern Asia Region and Asia-Pacific region, injecting confidence and impetus into regional and world economic development. RCEP will achieve a higher level of trade and investment openness and will contribute to a safer and more secure institutional environment of cooperation to benefit all member countries. RCEP highlights the trade digitalization and liberalization and will further integrate small and medium enterprises (SMEs) into regional industrial chains, supply chains, and value chains.

China’s participation in the RCEP has set a new benchmark for opening-up. The RCEP enhances the connectivity of China’s domestic market and the global market and also the connectivity of both the resources at home and abroad. RCEP will further integrate China’s economy into the global economic development, promote the industrial transformation and upgrading, realize high-quality economic development, and accelerate the construction of the new development paradigm featuring dual circulation, in which domestic and overseas markets reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay. China and ASEAN will be able to accelerate the high-quality construction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on the cooperation platform established by the RCEP and guaranteed by the mechanism to ensure the trade growth within the region. China and Malaysia will push bilateral trade and investment cooperation to a higher level, bringing more benefits to the enterprises and consumers of the two countries. It is expected that the enterprises from China and Malaysia will ride the waves of the RCEP to elevate China-Malaysia relations to a higher level, and promote cooperation in various fields to grow in depth and substance. Malaysian enterprises are welcome to explore and share business opportunities by participating in the 131st China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) online.

General Manager of Kwong Wah Yit Poh Mr. Lee Hin Chan said that Malaysia should pay attention to the huge business opportunities of the Chinese market. The purpose of this sharing session is to help Malaysian enterprises to understand RCEP and seize the opportunities. Malaysia’s rectification of RCEP will bring more revenues through export. Nevertheless, Malaysia still need to comprehensively upgrade its quality of products and sales to meet the fierce challenges of RCEP in the future.

The keynote speaker, Chairman of Tongda Group Dr. Ben Ng analyzed the new opportunities brought by RCEP to Malaysian enterprises from the aspects of tariffs, people-to-people exchanges, investment, and the Belt and Road Initiative.