Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim sat with CGTN's Liu Yang during the 20th China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit. The prime minister shared insights into the two countries' diplomatic ties and his perspective on the benefits of the Belt and Road Initiative to Malaysia and the rest of the region.

China put forward the proposal of building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future in 2013.

The future looks bright because at the last ASEAN meeting last week in Jakarta, Chinese Premier Li Qiang impressed ASEAN member states with China's commitment to continue and readiness of ASEAN to benefit from economic advancement by China, said Anwar, answering Li's question on what has the China-ASEAN relations achieved over the past decade.

Malaysia has benefited from ASEAN because we have advanced the East Coast Railway. It is near completion, Anwar said, adding that it is a showcase in terms of relations between China and Malaysia. 

"I think not only in the infrastructure, it is expanded there's many probably what's more critical to ASEAN for investment for infrastructure in key areas like ports, other than the other investors they are involved in like Geely, Rongshens and related companies," said Anwar.

The meetings I had in China are cordial and beneficial because we addressed a number of bilateral, regional, and global issues, said Anwar.

He noted that he would see the potential of Malaysia-China relations not only in terms of trade, economy, and investment, which is pivotal, which to us is key and fundamental, now extended to education, training, digital transformation, and food technology.

"I think, therefore, the relations between Malaysia and China and ASEAN has a great future," Anwar expressed his expectations on Malaysia-China relations' future development.