KOTA KINABALU: In conjunction with the China visit led by Sabah Deputy Chief Minister III and Minister of Industrial Development, Entrepreneurship and Transport Datuk Ewon Benedick, the Malaysia China Chamber of Commerce Sabah (MCCC Sabah), together with Dalian Federation of Industry and Commerce, jointly organised a high-level industrial business collaborations session in Dalian.
Building on the existing foundation of cooperation, the initiative seeks to deepen engagement and enhance collaboration in key industries and strategic development areas, while fostering higher-quality and more focused trade and economic exchanges between Sabah and China.
MCCC Sabah President Datuk Dexter Lau said the business collaborations session was positioned as a high-level and in-depth economic exchange platform, bringing together business representatives and investors from various key industries with proven scale, development foundations, and collaboration potential.
The overall arrangement centred on the principle of “precision matching” to ensure strong alignment in business interests and cooperation objectives among participating parties.
He said participation in the session was highly exclusive. Apart from the President, MCCC Sabah was represented by its Deputy President and Vice Presidents in order to maintain a focused, efficient, and results-oriented environment.
Although many business leaders and entrepreneurs expressed strong interest in participating, the Chamber decided, after careful consideration, to maintain a “small but focused, precise, and efficient” format to ensure deeper and more meaningful engagement.
“These high-level business collaborations sessions are not merely about discussing potential collaborations. More importantly, they focus on how to turn collaborations into reality, including discussions involving resource integration, financial coordination, human capital, industry support, and future market positioning. We wanted the discussions to remain focused so that representatives with genuine capability and cooperation potential could engage meaningfully,” he said.
Also representing MCCC Sabah at the Dalian business collaborations session were Deputy President Kapitan Dr. Callee Tan Kai Lee, Vice Presidents Louis Su and Yong Siew Lee, as well as Secretary Lam Lee Chin.
Datuk Dexter Lau also revealed that during the China visit, in his capacity as Executive Director of Kim Teck Cheong Consolidated Berhad, he travelled tirelessly across multiple cities including Nanjing, Wuhan, and Guangzhou on a daily basis for business development and corporate engagements. Despite his demanding itinerary, he still made a special trip to Dalian after completing his business commitments to join the Sabah state delegation and participate in the high-level business collaborations session, reflecting the Chamber’s strong commitment and support towards advancing Sabah-China economic cooperation.
During the session, MCCC Sabah and the Dalian Federation of Industry and Commerce also officially established a sister chamber relationship, further strengthening the long-standing friendly ties and cooperation between both parties. Both sides also expressed interest in enhancing connections through more people-to-people and youth exchange activities, including exploring football and other sporting activities as platforms for fellowship and interaction to foster closer ties and exchanges between the two sides.
Datuk Dexter Lau said Datuk Ewon Benedick and the officials in the delegation to China demonstrated a pragmatic and proactive approach, while genuinely prioritising Sabah’s development and the needs of the business community. As such, the Chamber is willing to actively support the state government’s external development direction by serving as a bridge and facilitator in helping to make such exchange and cooperation platforms possible, while securing more tangible development opportunities for Sabah.
He also pointed out that despite their respective busy schedules, participants travelled specially from different regions to gather in Dalian for the high-level industrial matching session, before continuing with their respective business and official engagements in other cities the following day, reflecting the importance all parties placed on the exchange and cooperation.
He noted that Malaysia and China have long maintained stable and active economic relations, supported by strong foundations and broad growth potential. According to him, the China visit was not only important in sustaining existing partnerships, but also served as a key opportunity to elevate future cooperation to a higher level.
“By establishing closer and more direct engagement with Chinese business organisations and industry players, we are able to further expand cooperation opportunities, optimise resource allocation, and strengthen Sabah’s positioning within regional economic cooperation,” he said.
Datuk Dexter added that as the regional economic landscape continues to evolve, Sabah’s strengths in resources, strategic location, and industrial development are increasingly attracting attention. Through such high-quality industrial exchange platforms, Chinese companies are able to gain deeper insights into Sabah’s investment environment and business opportunities, while Sabah-based companies can explore new avenues for international cooperation and business transformation.
“We have always approached cooperation with openness and pragmatism. In today’s economic environment, businesses are looking for opportunities that are sustainable and achievable. Therefore, our discussions go beyond cooperation itself — we also focus on how to make it happen, including policy support, market resources, funding coordination, and talent development, so that collaborations can move towards long-term and project-based implementation,” he said.
Datuk Dexter Lau also took the opportunity during the engagements to highlight Sabah’s development potential to Chinese enterprises, while sharing that Kim Teck Cheong Consolidated Berhad, as a Main Market-listed company, plans to invest a further RM200 million in Sabah over the next two years to strengthen the Group’s operational footprint and business expansion within the state.
“If we did not have confidence in Sabah, we could have chosen to expand elsewhere. It is precisely because we believe in Sabah’s long-term development potential that we continue to channel our investments, resources, and long-term growth plans here,” he said.
He further noted that Sabah possesses not only abundant natural resources and a strategic geographical location, but also key industrial platforms and strategic port infrastructure such as POIC Lahad Datu, which could further strengthen regional trade and cross-border industrial cooperation while reinforcing Sabah’s position as a gateway to ASEAN and neighbouring markets.
Datuk Dexter stressed that MCCC Sabah will continue to play its role as a bridge and platform between government agencies and the business community by facilitating stronger communication channels, connecting quality resources with potential partners, and accelerating the transition of promising collaborations from intention to implementation.
He added that the chamber will continue supporting the government’s external economic development agenda by strengthening ties with business organisations across China and building more high-quality exchange platforms to further expand bilateral cooperation across broader sectors and higher levels.
The China visit is also viewed as an important step towards strengthening Sabah-China economic relations and opening up greater possibilities for deeper industrial cooperation and regional connectivity in the future.
