On the morning of November 23 local time, Premier Li Keqiang attended at the hotel where he stayed in Kuala Lumpur the China-Malaysia High-level Economic Forum and delivered a keynote speech entitled "Promote China-Malaysia Cooperation to A New High". Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi of Malaysia accompanied him.

Li Keqiang expressed that the Chinese people have been pursuing peace, openness and inclusiveness for thousands of years. Leading the most advanced fleet at that time, navigator Zheng He of Chinese Ming dynasty made seven voyages to the western seas, during which he visited Malacca five times. His mission was to promote peace and enhance friendship, which embodied the essence of the Chinese traditional culture "harmony is valuable". We will carry forward this fine tradition and live in peace and seek common development along with all other countries.

Li Keqiang pointed out that both China and Malaysia are at a critical stage of economic transformation and upgrading. The Chinese side will work with the Malaysian side to expand all-round practical cooperation to cement its good-neighborly and friendly relations with the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The two countries should better dovetail their development strategies. China is now formulating the 13th Five-Year Plan for its economic and social development, while Malaysia will soon implement its 11th Five-Year Plan, and both countries intensifying integration and cooperation and striving for mutual benefits and win-win results can usher in a promising future for their entrepreneurs. Both nations should expand cooperation in transportation infrastructure. Both countries need to connect the "Belt and Road" construction with the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity to promote production capacity cooperation in infrastructure, industrialization and other fields, and further expand trade scale. China and the ASEAN just signed the protocol on upgrading the free trade area. China will expand service trade contacts with the ASEAN and further ease market access for the ASEAN; deepen cooperation in financial sector and jointly maintain economic and financial stability in the region. China will grant the Malaysian side a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) quota of 50 billion yuan, purchase Malaysian government bonds in line with the market rules, and issue RMB bonds in Malaysia; solidify the foundation for people-to-people exchanges by deepening cooperation between colleges and universities, think-tanks and other circles, increasing students studying in each other's land and strengthening tourism cooperation.

Li Keqiang pointed out that since the beginning of this year, despite of economic slump in the world and various intricate contradictions within the country, China's economy has maintained a stable growth in general and is expected to realize the goal of a growth rate of around 7 percent this year, remaining a major driving force for the stable growth of the global economy. China is now vigorously advancing structural reform and adjustment, giving full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and better play to the role of government, promoting "mass entrepreneurship and mass innovation" and boosting the "double-engine" of public goods and public services. China is synchronically pushing new type of industrialization, IT application, urbanization and agricultural modernization, with its huge domestic demand being constantly released. At the same time, we have a large number of policy options and means for macro-regulation and rich experience in addressing various risks and challenges, and therefore are able to keep our economy developing at a medium-to-high speed and push it toward a medium-to-high level.

Li Keqiang said that China will continue to expand opening-up and integrate more into the global economy. China's import volume is expected to reach 10 trillion USD in the next 5 years. We encourage Chinese enterprises to go out and will gradually ease market access in finance, health care, elderly care and other areas, which will bring new business opportunities to enterprises of all countries including those in Malaysia and usher in a more promising future for China-Malaysia mutually beneficial cooperation in trade and investment.

Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi delivered a speech on behalf of Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia, saying that against the background of downside risks facing the global economy, Malaysia and China witness robust two-way trade and investment, constantly deepened financial cooperation and increasingly frequent people-to-people exchanges, enjoying promising prospects. Malaysia will work with China to push forward ASEAN-China relations and bring benefits to people in both countries and the rest of the region.

Over 600 people from economic and commercial circles of both countries were present. Li Keqiang's speech was warmly responded by and received hearty rounds of applause from people present.