KUALA LUMPUR: China is making it easier for Malaysians to visit and do business as ties between the two nations deepen in tourism, trade and investment.
Chinese ambassador to Malaysia Ouyang Yujing said Beijing had rolled out measures to simplify border procedures, ease payments and improve tax refund services as two-way travel continues to grow.
He said Malaysia was “very welcome” in China and urged more Malaysians to see the country for themselves and experience its landscapes, culture, history and rapid development.
“The electronic payment platforms commonly used in China and Malaysia have now achieved interoperability. Going forward, we will continue to optimise policies and services to make travel to China even more convenient and comfortable for Malaysians,” he said here yesterday.
Ouyang said these steps build on the mutual visa exemption agreement signed during President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Malaysia in April last year, which came into effect on July 17 the same year.
He said the visa-free deal had produced “remarkable and positive” results, and has become an important tool to boost people-to-people exchanges, economic and trade cooperation and closer ties.
Citing Malaysian figures, he said Chinese arrivals to Malaysia reached 4.66 million last year, with more than 600,000 visitors coming during the Chinese New Year period alone.
In the first quarter of this year, the number of Chinese visitors rose 25.2% year-on-year.
Outbound travel from Malaysia to China has also grown, with Beijing alone receiving nearly 300,000 Malaysian tourists in 2025, up 43.2% from 2024.
“The large flow of visitors strongly drives the development of aviation, hotels, catering and other related industries, injecting new momentum into economic recovery and consumption growth in both countries,” he said.
Ouyang said Chinese companies in Malaysia were also moving beyond traditional “brick-and-mortar” projects to root themselves more deeply in the local economy through localisation, skills transfer and sustainable development.
He said more firms were now sourcing from Malaysian suppliers, hiring locals and building up domestic capabilities instead of relying mainly on imported technology and workers.
Investors who once saw Malaysia mainly as a production base were now working with local partners to build industrial ecosystems spanning entire value chains, with more emphasis on technology transfer, supply chain collaboration, and long-term social contributions, he added.
This shift can be seen in areas such as high-end manufacturing, new energy vehicles, green energy and the digital economy, where Chinese firms are increasingly partnering with Malaysian companies, universities and training institutions.
Ouyang noted that China has remained Malaysia’s largest trading partner in recent years, and one of its main sources of foreign investment, saying this reflected the “solid and growing” ties between the two countries.
