Malaysia’s Economy Continues To Soar 马来西亚的经济持续高速增长

Malaysia Continues to be the Preferred Investment Destination for High-Value Manufacturing and Global Services Hub in Asia

Deep in the heart of Southeast Asia, businesses from around the world are tapping into one of the region’s most significant advantages – Malaysia’s manufacturing prowess. With its skilled workforce business-friendly government and strategic location, the country has long been a manufacturing hub of choice. Now, it’s turning its competitive advantage into comparative advantage. Central to that transformation is Shared Prosperity Vision 2030—the Government’s plan to turbocharge the economy. Contained in the Vision is a strategic focus on manufacturing, which now accounts for roughly a quarter of annual GDP and 2.2 million jobs. The Government’s commitment to helping manufacturers embrace Industry 4.0, bolster their technical know-how and add value promises to propel the economy and deliver significant benefits for businesses.

Malaysia has successfully achieved USD73.5 billion of approved investments in 2021 for the manufacturing, services, and primary sectors, charting an astounding 83.1 per cent increase compared to the performance in 2020. This is a record-breaking figure as it is the highest approved investments received since 2006. Total approved FDI also saw a massive jump of 224.9 per cent to USD49.89 billion in 2021. These significant investments approved in the manufacturing, services and primary sectors are from notable foreign sources, where the top five FDI sources are from The Netherlands (USD18.6 billion), Singapore (USD11.3 billion), China (USD7.5 billion), Austria (USD4.5 billion) and Japan (USD2.4 billion). Our robust business ecosystem has enabled us to secure strategic investments and forge new trade relationships placing us on a positive trajectory to propel our economy to greater heights as well as expedite efforts towards inclusive socio-economic growth.

Malaysia’s sustainable economic recovery is right on target with the latest Bank Negara report showing our full-year GDP growth of 3.1 per cent in 2021. World Bank has projected Malaysia’s economy to be bullish and to expand by 5.8 per cent for 2022. In its Global Opportunities Index 2022, Milken Institute ranked Malaysia as the most attractive destination for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) among emerging economies. Malaysia is also ranked 3rd most innovative upper-middle-income economy by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and 25th on IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook 2021 attesting to Malaysia’s capabilities to attract strategic and quality investments.

The easing of pandemic containment measures has allowed for the resumption of economic activities coupled with high vaccination rates among diverse industries and professionals. Further efforts were put in place to ensure that the business ecosystem remains responsive to global trends with policies and initiatives for business facilitation, talent upskilling and reskilling, digitalisation and automation. In a nutshell, these measures have successfully placed our economy on a firm and resilient footing towards the path of vibrant growth and sustainable recovery.

 
⬆ Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Chinese Investment Continues the Confidence in Malaysia

As the first country in ASEAN to establish diplomatic ties with China in 1974, Malaysia has enjoyed fruitful bilateral relation in both political and economic aspects. This year marks the 48th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between China and Malaysia.  As the world’s second largest economy, China is an important trading partner to Malaysia. According to Malaysia’s Department of Statistics, China has been Malaysia’s number one trading partner for the past twelve consecutive years. In 2021, trade with China expanded by 27.0% to USD101.55 billion, accounted for a larger share at 18.9% of total trade. China also remained as Malaysia’s largest export destination, with exports expanding by 20.6% to USD46.31 billion, the highest value thus far contributed 15.5% of Malaysia’s total exports in 2021. On top of that, China was also Malaysia’s largest import source, accounting for 23.2% of total imports in 2021 or USD55.24 billion, increased by 33.0% compared to 2020.

The active trade relationship between both countries has been instrumental in supporting the investment landscape of Malaysia. Since 2016 to 2020, China has been Malaysia’s largest source of foreign investment in the manufacturing sector for five consecutive years. In comparison to other investor countries, China is relatively a newcomer, making inroads into Malaysia’s investment sphere. However, China’s investment in Malaysia has been accelerating in recent years, coinciding with China’s ‘Go out strategy’ and the strong Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

In 2021 itself, a total of 43 projects with participation from China were approved with investments totalling USD3.98 billion. These projects are mainly in basic metal products, electrical and electronics, non-metallic mineral products, machinery and equipment, wood and wood products; petroleum products including petrochemicals; as well as chemical and chemical products. The investments are expected to create 13,898 jobs opportunities in the country.

Amidst the US-China trade tensions and the adverse effects of COVID-19 pandemic across the globe, Malaysia remains the preferred choice for China’s companies looking for expansion opportunities in ASEAN. A recent survey by Standard Chartered in April 2021, “Borderless Business: China-ASEAN Corridor”, found that Malaysia was ranked top of the list on expansion opportunities by 65 per cent of surveyed Chinese companies looking to scale up their sales and production operations. The country’s long-standing and strong economic ties with China offer wide growth opportunities for China companies looking to internationalise while tapping on Malaysia’s favourable investment environment and a big pool of talents with skills and trainable workforce.

According to the survey, 88 per cent of respondents are planning to increase their investments in ASEAN over the next three to five years; as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) plays an integral role to usher more investments into the region. This will benefit Malaysia’s export growth, particularly in the high-value manufacturing, energy and digital services sectors.

Malaysia All Geared Up to Become A Hub for Digital Investments

The pandemic has accentuated the growing need to exploit digitalisation globally. The world has seen digitalisation accelerate at a tremendous speed for the past two years. This has forced businesses to shift and embrace digital transformation by being resilient and agile with more reliance on technology. Thus, it becomes all the more imperative for Malaysia to find its niche in the digital economy, as well as attract and drive investment to achieve the aspiration set in the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint by positioning Malaysia as a digitally-driven, high-income nation and a regional leader in the digital economy.

In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, China has emerged as a global leader, in showcasing their technology prowess in various industries. The country has registered the highest number of patents related to artificial intelligence technologies than any other countries in the world.  This proves the high transformation of its manufacturing industry through innovation. While China is looking to strengthen its focus in four technology sectors, namely renewable energy, Internet of Things (IoT), medical devices and consumer technology, Chinese technology companies are also looking to expand outside their home market. Hence it is important for Malaysia to provide competitive offers and supports to match with the wider needs of China’s market.

Malaysia welcomes new areas of collaboration between China and Malaysia in encouraging businesses to tap on our country’s competitive and comparative advantages. As a technologically developed nation in the ASEAN region, Malaysia provides investors with modern-day requirements and equipment. The entrepreneurs’ persistence in engaging emerging technologies proves to be a great advantage to multi-national manufacturers in Malaysia. The technology transfer from high value investments has also helped Malaysia’s local companies to ascend the value chain in key segments, including service providers in ICT, data analytics, design and development.

Chinese investors are urged to seize the opportunity to explore Malaysia as their operating base to do business with ASEAN and beyond. Located in the heart of ASEAN, Malaysia’s strategic location is complemented with the availability of excellent infrastructure, telecommunication services, financial and banking services, supporting industries as well as a big pool of skilled talents. Investors are   offered a competitive advantage which subsequently contributes to lowering the cost of doing business.

One of the success stories is Bridge Data Centres, one of the region’s key data centre service providers headquartered in Singapore, also a subsidiary of Chindata Group which has announced the construction of its fourth hyperscale data centre, the largest of its kind in Johor, Malaysia. This will involve an investment value of USD592.2 million over the next 5 years. The data center space is economically significant to Malaysia’s transformation towards an advanced digital nation, paving the way for modern businesses. The Digital First Programme, with the goal of increasing the use of cloud computing in the public sector announced as part of Budget 2022, emphasizes the importance of data centers as the key to digital transformation. This is a strong testimony and confidence in the country’s position to become a regional data centre hub.

Key Areas of Investment China to Malaysia

In line with the expansion of Industry 4.0, Digital Blueprint, the upcoming 12th Malaysia Plan and New Industrial Plan, along the National Investment Aspirations (NIAs), Malaysia welcomes quality investment projects that comprise of high technology, high value added, knowledge and capital intensive across the economic sectors.

Malaysia is targeting high technology, capital and knowledge intensive in our investment promotion approach. The country’s investment promotion is based on the ecosystem approach where investors are targeted to bridge the nation value chain’s gaps for each of the industry. In addition, focus will be on leveraging on the mega trends’ development in targeting products with technological advancements and new product applications including Industry 4.0.

The Malaysian Government is re-energising the manufacturing sector towards producing higher value-added, diverse and complex goods. The catalytic subsectors, namely the electrical and electronics (E&E), machinery and equipment (M&E), chemicals and chemical products, as well as high potential growth subsectors, namely aerospace and medical devices will continue to be prioritised.

In June 2021, Risen Energy Co. Ltd headquartered in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, which is one of the pioneers in the solar industry with extensive expertise in photovoltaic R&D and provision of end-to-end solutions for the entire solar value chain manufacturing, announced its first investment in Southeast Asia. The company is expanding its global footprint by opening its latest production base in Kulim Hi-Tech Park, Kedah, Malaysia in response to the strong support and facilitation provided by the Government.

Selecting Malaysia as the first production facility in Southeast Asia, Risen Energy is set to produce 3GW of high-efficiency photovoltaic modules to meet growing global demand. Risen Energy has projected to invest a total of USD10 billion. This includes capex and operational expenditure over 15 years to undertake design and development activity, and manufacturing of solar cells and solar modules.This new facility will contribute an annual production capacity of 3GW for the first five years.
Malaysia also welcomes collaboration between China and local Malaysian companies in high value investment which will move up the local value chain in key segments of the Malaysian industry, including manufacturing sectors such as advance electronics and semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, bio-pharmaceuticals, medical device, front end semiconductor, LED, industrial electronics, advanced materials, petrochemicals, machinery for agriculture use, specialised machineries, smart farming tools, high grade ferrous and non-ferrous metals, technical textiles, fibre glass, engineered composite products, biomass, food processing, aquaculture, livestock rearing and etc.

In enabling the services sector to move up the value chain and provide strong linkages with other sectors, China companies are further encouraged to increase productivity by accelerating automation and innovation, undertaking research and development (R&D), implementing sustainable production practices and leveraging industry associations in sharing best practices. The services sectors targeted for China investors include energy efficient vehicles, critical component/systems for automotive, rail transportation, principal hubs, regional offices, representative offices, research and development (R&D), e-fulfilment and integrated logistics, hotels and wellness centres, tank farms, storage hubs for oil and gas, renewable energy from biomass, solar farms, mini hydro, ICT, e-commerce and consulting services.

The Malaysian Government has always been aware on the great potential of China companies in terms of its capital and technology; since late 1970’s, a large number of capital and technology intensive clusters have been developed in megacities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Hence, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) has established three (3) offices in China to target quality FDI from China.

Malaysia is Gateway to RCEP

As the largest Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in the world, covering 15 countries with 2.2 billion or nearly a third (29.5%) of the world’s population, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) represents USD25.8 trillion or 29.4% of the world’s GDP based on World Bank’s 2019 data. It bears stressing that RCEP is a testament to efforts to strengthen not only the multilateral trading system but advancing regional economic integration and upholding the development agenda of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

With this latest submission of IOR to the ASEAN Secretariat as the Depositary of RCEP, Malaysia is now poised to be the 12th RCEP signatory and will join the eleven other signatory countries, namely, Singapore, China, Japan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, Viet Nam, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea that have completed the ratification process. The RCEP Agreement entered into force for Malaysia on 18 March 2022.

Within ASEAN, Malaysia is expected to be the largest beneficiary of the RCEP agreement in terms of gains in exports, with a projected USD200 million increase. According to a report by United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) published on 15 December 2021, these gains will result from tariff elimination and reduction for merchandise goods, including the facilitation of export and import of goods among the RCEP countries. Furthermore, service providers including e-commerce will be able to enjoy greater market access in terms of cross border supply and establishing commercial presence in the RCEP.

For the past decade, China’s manufacturing sector has grown tremendously through the adoption of a “two ends out” development model – importing raw materials and exporting final products to the world market. With the foreign technologies and brands introduced by foreign trade companies, it enables them to utilise low-cost domestic labours of China in manufacturing their products to be sold to the overseas markets.

In years to come, under the framework of the RCEP, China will transform as a major exporter and importer; as it provides brands, technologies and its enormous domestic market to the world. With the lower tariffs in place, China is more likely to purchase goods and services from the RCEP signatory countries and build their supply chains in the RCEP participated regions. For example, China e-commerce giant Alibaba Group’s logistics arm – Cainiao Network has formed a partnership with Malaysia Airports’ Aeropolis to provide an end-to-end logistics service between Malaysia and China. Sharing a similar view on RCEP, Malaysia and China aim to expand the market for member economies through global collaborations, and both countries have the opportunity to further develop through this complementarities landscape.

Malaysia is also confident that RCEP will be one of the economic recovery tools against COVID-19. The implementation of this agreement will ensure the opening of markets as well as an uninterrupted supply chain with greater trade integration and diversifying of production networks with China.

The pandemic has underscored the paramount importance of international trade and cooperation as well as the inter-linkages of regional supply chains. Malaysia is confident that RCEP would be a key enabler for Malaysia in revitalising the domestic and international business activities, post pandemic. Business communities, from large to small scale entrepreneurs are encouraged to take advantage of the vast investment opportunities and greater participation in regional and global value chains presented by this mega trade agreement. As a trading nation, Malaysia will continue to be an open economy, with business-friendly and pragmatic policies that foster a conducive investment climate in the country.

马来西亚仍然是高价值制造业和亚洲全球服务中心的首选投资目的地

在东南亚腹地，来自世界各地的企业正在利用该地区最显著的优势之一——马来西亚的制造业实力。马来西亚拥有熟练的劳动力、有利于营商的政府和战略位置，因此长期以来一直是制造业的首选中心。现在马来西亚正在将其竞争力优势转变成比较优势。这一转变的核心是“共同繁荣愿景2030”，即政府推动经济增长的计划。这一愿景中包含了对制造业的战略聚焦，因为制造业目前占到年度GDP的约四分之一，提供了220万个就业岗位。政府承诺帮助制造商做好迈入工业4.0时代的准备，提升他们的专有技能和产品附加值，进而推动经济发展，也为企业创造更大的收益。

2021年，马来西亚已经成功地获得了735亿美元的核准投资，比2020年增长了令人吃惊的83.1%，它们将用于制造业、服务业和基础领域。这是一个破纪录的数字，是自2006年以来马来西亚获得最多的核准投资。2021年，马来西亚得到的外国直接投资总额也大幅增长，达到了498.9亿美元，涨幅是之前的224.9%。这些核准的大笔投资同样用于制造业、服务业和基础领域，它们均来自境外重要国家，其中前五大外国直接投资国分别是荷兰（186亿美元）、新加坡（113亿美元）、中国（75亿美元）、奥地利（45亿美元）和日本（24亿美元）。马来西亚强劲的商业生态系统使其不仅能够获得战略投资，而且还能与其他国家建立新的贸易关系，从而确保经济迈入良性发展的轨道，推动经济增长达到更高的水平，也加速了实现包容性社会经济发展的努力。

马来西亚经济的可持续复苏是真实的。马来西亚央行最新的报告显示，2021年马来西亚全年GDP的增长率为3.1%。世界银行预测，马来西亚的经济将持续看涨，2022年的增幅可达到5.8%。在其发布的2022年全球机会指数中，梅肯研究院将马来西亚列为新兴经济体中最具吸引力的外国直接投资目的国。马来西亚还被世界知识产权组织列为排名第三的最具创新型中上收入经济体。在瑞士洛桑管理学院颁布的2021年世界竞争力年鉴中，根据马来西亚吸引战略和优质投资的能力将其列在第25位。

疫情管控措施的放松以及各行业和专业人士疫苗的高接种率使马来西亚的经济活动已经得以恢复。为了确保商业生态系统能始终顺应全球发展趋势，马来西亚政府也做出了进一步努力，在营商便利化、人才技能和技能再提升、数字化和自动化等方面制定了政策和举措。这些措施成功地为马来西亚的经济发展奠定了坚实并且具有灵活性的基础，使其可以充满活力地增长和可持续地复苏。

 
⬆ 马来西亚全力拥抱工业4.0时代（马来西亚驻华大使馆供图）

中国对投资马来西亚始终充满信心

1974年，马来西亚是东盟国家中第一个与中国建交的国家，这些年来双边关系在政治和经济方面都取得了丰硕成果。今年是中马建交48周年。作为世界第二大经济体，中国是马来西亚重要的贸易伙伴。根据马来西亚统计局的数据，中国已经连续12年成为马来西亚的第一大贸易伙伴。2021，马来西亚与中国的贸易额增长了27%，达到了1015.5亿美元，占到马来西亚贸易总额的18.9%，这是相当大的份额。中国还是马来西亚最大的出口目的地，2021年，出口到中国的贸易额增至463.1亿美元，增长了20.6%，是迄今为止的最高值，占到马来西亚出口总值的15.5%。与此同时，中国也是马来西亚最大的进口来源，2021年的进口额为552.4亿美元，占马来西亚进口总值的23.2%，比2020年增加了33%。

两国之间积极的贸易关系对支持马来西亚的投资也非常有帮助。从2016年至2020年，中国连续五年成为马来西亚在制造业领域的最大的外国投资来源国。虽然与其他投资国相比，中国相对来说是一个新来者，刚刚开始进入马来西亚的投资领域。但是，近年来，中国对马来西亚的投资一直在加速，这与中国的“走出去”战略和“一带一路”倡议是相一致的。

仅在2021年，就有43个来自中国的投资项目获得批准，投资总额达39.8亿美元。这些项目主要涉及基本金属产品、电气和电子、非金属矿产品、机械和设备、木材和木制品、包括石化产品在内的石油产品，以及化工产品。这些投资预计将为马来西亚创造13898个就业机会。

在美中贸易紧张局势和新冠疫情给全球造成负面影响的大背景下，马来西亚仍然是中国公司在东盟寻求扩展机会的首选。渣打银行2021年4月进行的一项名为“无国界企业：中国-东盟走廊”的调查发现，在被调查的希望扩大其销售和生产业务的中国公司中，65%的公司将马来西亚的拓展机会列在首位。马来西亚与中国长期稳固的经济关系为寻求国际化的中国公司提供了广阔的发展机会，同时马来西亚还具备有利的投资环境和一大批有技能、可培训的劳动力人才可供利用。

调查显示，88%的受访者计划在未来三至五年内增加投资者对东盟的投资，这是由于区域全面经济伙伴关系（RCEP）在吸引更多投资进入该地区方面发挥了不可或缺的作用。这将有利于马来西亚的出口增长，尤其是在高价值制造业、能源和数字服务业领域。

马来西亚有望成为数字投资中心

新冠疫情凸显了全球对数字化需求的日益增长。过去两年里，世界也见证了数字化正在以惊人的速度发展。这就迫使企业必须通过更依赖技术使其变得更具灵活性和敏捷性来转向并接受数字化变革。因此，马来西亚更需要在数字经济中找到自己的定位，并通过将马来西亚定位为数字驱动的高收入国家和数字经济的区域领导者，吸引和推动投资，进而实现马来西亚数字经济蓝图中设定的目标。

在第四次工业革命中，中国在各个行业都展示出其技术实力，已经成为全球的领导者。中国注册的人工智能技术专利的数量是世界上最多的。这充分证明了中国的制造业通过创新实现了高水平的转型。虽然中国仍在继续加强对可再生能源、物联网（IoT）、医疗设备和消费技术等四个技术领域的重点关注，但中国的科技公司也在寻求其在国内市场之外的发展。因此，马来西亚必须提供具有竞争力的报价和支持，满足中国市场更广泛的需求。

马来西亚鼓励企业利用马来西亚的竞争优势和比较优势，与中国在新的领域展开合作。作为东盟地区的一个技术发达国家，马来西亚能够为投资者提供现代化的需求和设备。事实证明，坚持使用新兴技术对马来西亚的跨国制造商来说是一大优势。高价值投资带来的技术转让助力马来西亚当地的公司也提升了关键领域的价值链，包括信息与通信技术、数据分析、设计和开发领域的服务提供商。

中国的投资者也应抓住机会，将马来西亚开发成为其与东盟及其他国家开展业务的经营基地。马来西亚位于东盟的中心，其战略位置与其先进的基础设施、电信服务、金融和银行服务、配套产业以及大量的技能人才相得益彰。投资者可以从这些方面获得竞争优势，从而降低经营成本。

一个成功的案例是桥梁数据中心，它是该地区主要的数据中心服务提供商之一，总部位于新加坡，它也是中国数据集团的子公司。中国数据集团已宣布在马来西亚的柔佛建造其第四个超规模数据中心，这是同类数据中心中规模最大的一个。该项目在未来五年需要投资5.922亿美元。数据中心对马来西亚向先进数字国家转型具有重要的经济意义，也为现代企业的发展铺平了道路。作为2022年预算的一部分，数字第一计划的目标是在公共部门增加云计算的使用，该计划强调了数据中心作为数字转型关键的重要性。这充分证明了马来西亚致力于成为区域数据中心地位的坚定信心。

中国对马来西亚投资的重点领域

随着工业4.0、数字蓝图、即将开启的第12个马来西亚计划和新兴产业计划以及国家投资愿望（NIAs）的展开，马来西亚欢迎包括高技术、高附加值、知识和资本密集型经济领域在内的高质量投资项目。

马来西亚在促进投资时将高科技、资本和知识密集型产业作为目标。马来西亚的投资促进以生态系统趋近的方法为基础，旨在让投资者弥合国家每个行业的价值链差距。此外，投资也要与大趋势的发展相一致，瞄准具有技术领先和工业4.0时代的新产品应用。

马来西亚政府正在重振制造业，目的是能够生产高附加值、多样化和复杂的商品。同时政府也将继续优先考虑孵化一些子行业，即电气和电子（E&E）、机械和设备（M&E）、化学品和化工产品，以及具有高增长潜力的子领域，即航空航天和医疗设备。

总部位于浙江宁波的瑞兴能源有限公司是太阳能行业的开拓者之一，它在光伏研发方面拥有丰富的专业经验，并且能为整个太阳能价值链制造提供端到端的解决方案。2021年6月，该公司宣布它将首次在东南亚进行投资。作为对马来西亚政府提供的大力支持和便利的响应，该公司在马来西亚基达的库林高科技园建立了最新的生产基地，这样也扩大了其在全球的生产规模。

瑞兴能源选择马来西亚作为东南亚的第一个生产基地，将生产3吉瓦的高效光伏组件，以满足全球日益增长的需求。瑞兴能源预计将投资100亿美元，其中包括未来15年的资本支出和运营支出，用于从事设计和开发活动，以及太阳能电池和太阳能组件的制造。这座新工厂在头五年的年产能就将达到3吉瓦。

马来西亚还欢迎中国与马来西亚当地的公司在高价值投资方面进行合作，这将提升马来西亚工业关键领域的价值链，包括制造业领域的先进电子和半导体、制药、生物制药、医疗设备、前端半导体、LED、工业电子、先进材料、石化产品、农业机械、专用机械、智能农具、优质黑色金属和有色金属、工业用纺织品、玻璃纤维、工程复合产品、生物质、食品加工以及水产养殖和畜牧业等。

为了促使服务业向价值链的上游发展，并与其他行业建立起强有力的联系，马来西亚还鼓励中国公司能够通过加快自动化和创新、开展研发、实施可持续生产实践以及利用行业协会分享最佳实践等方式提高马来西亚当地企业的生产率。面向中国投资者的服务行业包括节能汽车、汽车关键部件/系统、轨道交通、主要枢纽、区域办事处、代表处、研发中心、电子物流和综合物流、酒店和健康中心、油库、石油和天然气储存中心、生物质可再生能源、太阳能农场、小型水电站、信息与通信技术、电子商务和咨询服务。

马来西亚政府一直以来都很清楚中国企业在资金和技术方面的巨大潜力，自20世纪70年代后期以来，像北京、上海、广州和深圳这样的特大城市都发展了大量的资本和技术密集型集群。因此，马来西亚投资发展局（MIDA）已经在中国设立了三个办事处，目的就是吸引中国的高质量直接投资。

⬆ 马来西亚的i-Park 工业园效果图（马来西亚驻华大使馆供图）

马来西亚是RCEP的门户

区域全面经济伙伴关系（RCEP）是世界上最大的自由贸易协定（FTA），覆盖15个国家，涉及人口22亿，占世界人口的近三分之一（29.5%）。根据世界银行2019年发布的数据，RCEP签署国的生产总值达到25.8万亿美元，占世界GDP的29.4%。值得强调的是，RCEP不仅见证了加强多边贸易体系的努力，也见证了推动区域经济一体化和维护世界贸易组织（WTO）发展议程的努力。

最近通过向东盟秘书处提交批准书，马来西亚已经完成了成为RCEP第12个签署国的工作。已经签署RCEP的另11个国家是新加坡、中国、日本、文莱达鲁萨兰国、柬埔寨、老挝人民民主共和国、泰国、越南、澳大利亚、新西兰和韩国，这些国家已经完成了批准程序。RCEP协议在2022年3月18日对马来西亚正式生效。

在东盟内部，马来西亚预计将是RCEP协议在出口收益方面的最大受益者，预计其出口收益将增加2亿美元。根据联合国贸易和发展会议（UNCTAD）2021年12月15日公布的一份报告，这些收益将来自商品关税的取消和减少，同时也包括RCEP国家间货物进出口的便利化。此外，包括电子商务在内的服务提供商将能够在跨境供应和在RCEP范围内推广其商品时享受到更大的市场准入。

在过去十年中，中国制造业通过采取“两端向外”的发展模式，即从国外进口原材料然后向世界市场出口最终产品，实现了巨大的增长。外贸公司引进外国的技术和品牌，再利用中国低成本的国内劳动力制造产品，最后又将成品销往海外市场。

未来在RCEP框架下，中国将进一步转型成为主要的出口国和进口国，因为它将向世界提供品牌、技术和巨大的国内市场。随着关税降低，中国更有可能从RCEP签署国购买商品和服务，同时在参与RCEP的地区建立其供应链。比如，中国电子商务巨头阿里巴巴集团的物流子公司菜鸟网络就与马来西亚机场的航空城建立了合作伙伴关系，在马来西亚和中国之间提供端到端的物流服务。马来西亚和中国对于RCEP有着相似的观点，两国的目标都是通过全球合作扩大成员国经济体的市场，而两国也都可以借助这种互补的格局进一步发展自身的实力。

马来西亚相信，RCEP将是抗击疫情，使经济得以复苏的工具之一。该协议的实施将确保市场的开放和供应链不被中断，并且能与中国在更大程度上实现贸易一体化和生产网络的多样化。

疫情已经凸显了国际贸易与合作以及区域供应链相互联结的极端重要性。马来西亚相信，RCEP将成为马来西亚在疫情后重振国内和国际商业活动的关键推动因素。马来西亚鼓励企业界，无论是大型企业还是小型企业的企业家，充分利用这一庞大贸易协定带来的巨大投资机会，更多地参与到区域和全球价值链当中。作为一个贸易国，马来西亚的经济将继续保持开放，并且采取有利于营商的务实政策，为马来西亚打造更有利投资的环境。