Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia

The East Asia Division deals specifically with overall bilateral relations between Malaysia and China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Mongolia. In addition, the East Asia Division also handle matters with Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR and Taiwan.

 

The East Asia region has long and close economic, social, cultural and political relations with Malaysia. It is among the most important geopolitical region to Malaysia after South East Asia and will continue to be a priority region in terms of political and economic engagements for Malaysia. Malaysia’s relations with the individual countries of East Asia are not solely aimed towards strengthening bilateral ties but regional links as well. While there have been frequent exchanges of visits among leaders and the private sectors as well as tourists cross flows, Malaysia will continue to encourage more people-to-people contacts in order to forge stronger partnership between Malaysia and East Asian countries.

 

The East Asian region according to Malaysia is the second largest market for tourist arrivals after the SEA region. The numbers of tourists in 2011 are more than 2 million which amounts to 8.62% of the total tourist arrivals.

 

East Asia is Malaysia’s largest trading partner. In 2011, the trade with the East Asian region contributed 35.9% of Malaysia’s total trade amounting to RM 455.69 billion. For the East Asia region, China continues to be the largest trading partner for Malaysia and was followed by Japan, Republic of Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. With the good bilateral relations and better opportunities, Malaysian industries and businesses should prepare to avail themselves of the opportunities as well as challenges anticipated through the liberalization process.

 

 

Photo : State Visit of H.E. Lee Myung-bak, President of the Republic of Korea to Malaysia,

9-10 December 2010