CHINA is undeniably a prominent financial market for Malaysian investors, given its growing financial sector and the rapid expansion of its corporate and financial investments globally.

With Covid-19 hitting Malaysia and the world in 2020, various companies were forced to digitise their businesses to stay afloat.

TOPICS dealing with development and the environment have concerned many for years.

THE Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), put forth by Xi Jinping, the President of China, in 2013, carries enormous potential to make positive contributions to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a strategy initiated by the People’s Republic of China seeks to connect Asia with Africa, to improve regional integration, increase trade and stimulate economic growth.

The U.S. Dollar has been the dominant international trade currency for the past few decades. This is owing to the strength of U.S. institutions, robust capital markets with highliquidity and positive regulatory records.

For the record, BRI has stimulated colossal infrastructure investments worth trillions of dollars across Asia, Europe and Africa.

China, being the world’s second-largest economy and the largest trading country, is the key trading partner for numerous countries.

While many would associate the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with greater infrastructure connectivity among participating countries, promoting financial cooperation and enhancing capital flows are also objectives of the BRI in a bid to establish a transnational platform in order to deepen economic cooperation and financial integration.

CULTURE embodies the way of life of a society. From language, knowledge, customs and beliefs to ideas, skills, arts and crafts, culture is how a society organises itself. Heritage is an aspect of culture that is transmitted from generation to generation. According to the Unesco Convention for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, “tangible cultural heritage” includes artistic creations, built heritage such as buildings and monuments and other physical or tangible products of human creativity that are invested with cultural significance in a society. Meanwhile, “intangible cultural heritage” indicates “the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage” (Unesco, 2003).

THE Advisory Council of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (Advisory Council) is a non-profit and international policy advisory body. Established in 2018, it aims to provide intellectual support to the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. In the latest annual meeting of the Advisory Council of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was held on Dec 17, 2021, the report titled “High-Quality Belt and Road Cooperation: Partnership on Connectivity” was released, focusing on findings and recommendations from the 2019 and 2020 meetings.

FOREIGN direct investment (FDI) has long been viewed as an important catalyst of economic development. It contributes to job creation, productivity growth and infrastructure development, all of which lead to greater living standards and higher economic growth.