Prime Minister Najib Razak described his two-day visit to Nanning, China, as short but very productive.

Najib met his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, and exchanged views on various bilateral and regional issues, including the import restriction on swiftlet bird nests.

Wen agreed to find a mutual solution to the problem and the Malaysian health minister is expected to visit China to iron out the problem soon, the prime minister told reporters at the end of his working visit to Nanning yesterday.

Describing the current bilateral trade between Malaysia and China as being on a strong footing, he said there were prospects for further trade expansion in all areas.

"In the first six months of the year, two-way trade grew by about 20 percent when compared with the same period in 2010.

"Although Malaysian investments in China far exceeded that of Chinese companies in Malaysia, total investments grew in 2010.

"To date, there are 121 Malaysian projects with Chinese investments amounting to US$250 million while there were 120 Chinese companies operating in Malaysia in the manufacturing, services, electronic, chemical and automotive sectors," Najib said.

Roundtable dialogue

Impressed with Chinese companies' ability to secure international power generation, rail and communication contracts, he called on them to make Malaysia their regional business centre.

Najib's visit to Nanning was at the invitation of Wen to attend a roundtable dialogue with CEOs of leading Chinese companies, a special event at the China-Asean Expo this year for Malaysia as the Country of Honour.

At the dialogue, Najib said Chinese corporates had expressed huge interest in Malaysia's investment developments.

On regional matters, the premier said China assured it would act responsibly and keep peace in the South China Sea.

- Bernama