Entering the Malaysia China Kuantan Industrial Park located in Pahang, Malaysia, every process on the factory assembly line is well-organized, and large trucks loaded with goods shuttle back and forth outside the factory; On the other side, the boom and bulldozer are busy running, and the construction of new projects is in full swing… The Malaysia China Kuantan Industrial Park has continued to expand since its opening. It has worked hand in hand with the China Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park located in Qinzhou, Guangxi, China, under the innovative cooperation model of “two countries, two parks”, and the industrial synergy is increasingly close, injecting surging momentum into the high-quality joint construction of the “the Belt and Road” between China and Malaysia.
As a flagship project of China Malaysia cooperation, the two sides have continuously deepened cooperation for more than 10 years, from port interconnection, industrial cooperation to park co construction, continuously building a cross-border industrial chain supply chain system with complementary advantages, and promoting the upgrading of regional economic and trade cooperation. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has publicly stated that the “Two Countries, Two Parks” cooperation project has brought tremendous economic impetus to the east coast of Malaysia.
Since the beginning of this year, the construction of the Malaysia China Kuantan Industrial Park, Logistics Park, and Kuantan Port has been steadily advancing. The newly signed projects in the park cover fields such as food, metallurgy, and silicon materials, and the industrial structure continues to improve. Feng Guoli, a Malaysian Chinese and the General Manager of the Development Department of Malaysia China Kuantan International Logistics Park, who witnessed the development process of the park, said that the park also plans to introduce emerging formats such as artificial intelligence and green industries, and synchronously build supporting power stations and infrastructure to provide more comprehensive support for enterprises.
Port logistics is the foundation for the smooth operation of the “Two Countries, Two Parks”. With the stable operation of the direct flight route from Kuantan Port to Qinzhou Port in Guangxi, the transportation cycle of Southeast Asian tropical fruits and other commodities has been significantly shortened, and customs clearance efficiency has been significantly improved. Through the Western Land Sea New Channel, it quickly enters the southwestern Chinese market.
The cold chain route from Kuantan Port to Beibu Gulf Port in Guangxi, which was opened in April this year, has enabled Malaysian specialty agricultural products such as durian, mangosteen, and coffee from Maoshanwang to reach the Chinese market faster. Malaysia’s Minister of Transport, Lu Zhaofu, stated that this route is not only a logistics channel, but also a manifestation of the long-term cooperation between Malaysia and China. “Under the framework of high-quality joint construction of the ‘the Belt and Road’, Malaysia and China ‘two countries and two parks’ have laid a solid foundation for the two sides to strengthen cooperation in the fields of industry, trade and infrastructure.”
The Kuantan Port route has covered major ports along the coasts of Southeast Asia, India, and China, providing efficient logistics support for industrial park enterprises. In the future, the route will be further extended to efficiently link the hinterland of the Chinese and Malaysian markets. Wang Chao, the General Manager of Operations of Kuantan Port (Group) Co., Ltd., introduced that in the first half of this year, the throughput of goods between Beibu Gulf Port and Kuantan Port increased by 136% year-on-year, with container cargo mainly consisting of chemicals, metal ores, and agricultural products transshipped from Kuantan Port to Qinzhou Port in Southeast Asia.
Across the mountains and seas, the industrial processing end of the Qinzhou Industrial Park in China and Malaysia is also thriving. In the production workshop of Guangxi Zhongma Jinguyan Biotechnology Co., Ltd., workers are busy with the fine processing of bird’s nest. As the first bird’s nest full industry chain platform in China, the park has attracted 23 enterprises to settle in, of which 13 have obtained the qualification for importing and processing swiftlets, accounting for two-thirds of the national total. Relying on the linkage between China and Malaysia, Malaysian swiftlets are processed and packaged in Qinzhou before being sold nationwide, achieving a value leap from “swiftlets” to “premium bird’s nests”.
On the banks of Qinzhou Port, the China Petroleum Guangxi Petrochemical Integrated Transformation and Upgrading Project has recently been fully completed and put into operation. It will further rely on the Western Land Sea New Corridor to radiate the markets of Southwest China, South China, and ASEAN, create a green chemical new material industry cluster facing ASEAN, and drive the coordinated development of downstream industries.
Jiang Chenxian, a researcher at the China ASEAN Regional Studies Institute of Guangxi University for Nationalities, pointed out that under the principle of consultation, co construction and sharing, the “Two Countries, Two Parks” model between China and Malaysia not only accelerates the optimization of regional resource allocation and production capacity cooperation, but also significantly improves the overall efficiency and level of China ASEAN economic and trade cooperation through measures such as port interconnection and industrial collaboration.
During the 22nd China ASEAN Expo, China and Malaysia held promotional events and other activities around cross-border industrial chain and supply chain cooperation, signing a total of 50 investment projects and cooperation agreements covering fields such as artificial intelligence, food processing, port and shipping logistics, new energy materials, and equipment manufacturing, injecting new momentum into the “dual park” cooperation between the two countries.
The ‘dual parks of the two countries’ are continuously expanding their industrial radiation and open level, “said Zuo Kongtian, Deputy Director of the Qinzhou Industrial Park Management Committee of China and Malaysia. Currently, the park has formed multiple cross-border industrial and supply chains, including bird’s nest, palm oil, non-ferrous metals, and new chemical materials. From specialty agricultural products to green chemicals, from single channel to multimodal transportation, the cooperation mode is upgrading from “point-to-point” to “chain to chain”.
Weng Zhongyi, Executive Director of the Asia Pacific “the Belt and Road” Joint Strategy Committee, a Malaysian think tank, believes that the “two countries, two parks” between China and Malaysia are not only economic and trade cooperation projects, but also a successful example of promoting regional integration and shared development, demonstrating the practical significance of jointly building the “the Belt and Road” initiative with mutual benefit as the core and common prosperity as the goal.