KUANTAN: Kuantan and Qinzhou city of China have strengthened ties in tourism, industrial development and halal food industry with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) here on Saturday.
Pahang Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob said the cooperation would benefit small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and called on entrepreneurs to seize the opportunity.
He said Qinzhou was noted for turning raw materials into finished products.
“Nanning is accessible through direct flights. From Nanning to Qinzhou, it takes only a half-an-hour by car,” he told reporters after opening the Pahang Seminar 2020: Invest Kuantan in conjunction with the Malaysia-Qinzhou Friendship City in Kuantan.
At the event, Kuantan Municipal Council (MPK) president Datuk Fadzilla Salleh signed the MoU on behalf of MPK while Qinzhou was represented by its deputy mayor, Han Liu.
In his speech, Fadzilla said the programme kept in step with the strides towards the development of the Kuantan Malaysia-China Industrial Park (MCKIP) in Gebeng, which would be the twin industrial park of Qinzhou.
“Kuantan development and Qinzhou’s economic progress can be harnessed to forge friendship, spurring the influx of investors to various industrial parks, especially MCKIP,” he said.
Qinzhou, which has a population of four million people, is located 110km from Nanning, a harbour city and a transportation nucleus for the Beibu Gulf economic zone and the China-Asean Free Trade Zone.
“We hope to learn from Qinzhou on how it has promoted itself to become a top tourist destination in China,” he said, adding that the city was noted for lychees, cow and buffalo milk, and nixing vases. - Bernama