BEIJING: Malaysian Ambassador to China Datuk Zainuddin Yahya is encouraging more Chinese investors to tap the Malaysian market, despite being actively involved in the construction sector.

Malaysia continued to be the preferred destination for foreign investors for its political stability, good infrastructure, abundant skilled workforce, many attractive incentives, as well as, a business-friendly government, he said.

However, despite several well-known Chinese financial institutions, as well as, a few Chinese companies doing quite well in the construction sector in Malaysia, investment from Chinese companies were relatively modest especially in other sectors, he said.

Currently, there are more Malaysian investment in China than Chinese investment in Malaysia,” he said at the opening of “One Belt and One Road” China-Malaysia Business Dialogue here today.

Zainuddin pointed out that relations between Malaysia and China had never been stronger and provided an opportunity for both private sectors to engage in greater collaboration and synergies. “The two-way trade between Malaysia and China grew five-fold over the past ten years. “Since 2009,

Malaysia has become China’s largest trading partner in ASEAN, while for the first half of the year, China remains as Malaysia’s largest trading partner,” he said, adding that the trend was expected to be maintained.

However, Zainuddin reiterated that to continue the trend, a lot of works were still needed to be done especially to attract more Chinese investments into Malaysia.

Malaysia was ranked the 12th most competitive economy in the world for doing business by the International Institute of Management Development in its 2015 World Competitiveness Yearbook.

“This ranking has placed Malaysia ahead of economies like the United Kingdom, Australia, Finland, New Zealand, Japan and Korea,” he added.