‘Partnership is the right way to go’

BEIJING: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad wants Malaysian businessmen to hook up with Chinese partners in order to penetrate the China market.

The Prime Minister offered this advice when asked on the tips to enter the China market at a business luncheon with Malaysian corporate leaders here.

“Getting products into the world’s second largest economy is not easy.

“We have been trying to sell cars in China but up to now, we have failed, until we teamed up with a Chinese company,” he said, referring to the partnership between Proton Holdings and China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group.

Dr Mahathir is on a five-day official visit to China, beginning last Friday.

He arrived in Beijing on Saturday night from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, where he visited the headquarters of Alibaba Group and witnessed the signing of agreement between Proton and Geely at Geely headquarters to set up a Proton manufacturing plant in China.

The Prime Minister told Malaysians at the event yesterday that the government would try to organise talks and strike an understanding with its Chinese counterpart for Malaysian companies to work with Chinese firms to make inroads into the vast market.

He acknowledged that China’s economy is ahead of Malaysia because of the “learn and produce” attitude of its people, where they learn new technology and then produce their own goods.

In contrast, Malaysians are contented just being “happy buyers”.

“In Malaysia, we like to buy and that’s it.

“But the Chinese not only want to buy things, they also want to produce products and their capacity is quite remarkable,” he said.

Dr Mahathir expressed his disappointment over Malaysians who do not support locally made products and presume that imported goods are more superior.

An example is Malaysians rejec­ting the idea of a third national car, he said, and being more keen to buy foreign vehicles, which result in the outflow of ringgit.

“China was behind us but it overtook us very quickly.

“Malaysians want to consume and the Chinese want to produce. In the end, the producer wins.

“We have to change our mindset and make an effort to learn and produce,” he said.

Dr Mahathir also said that language should not be a barrier when it comes to trading with China.

“Everywhere I went, they briefed me in English.

“The world did not learn all the languages in order to trade with (different) countries, so language should not be a problem even if you don’t speak Chinese,” he said.

One of the attendees introduced his parking meter business and asked Dr Mahathir if the government would use his products.

In response, the premier asked him to go through the proper tendering process.

“You can’t talk to the PM and the PM says ‘yes’, then the thing is done.

“This is cronyism,” he said.