KUCHING: Friendship between Sarawak and China have over the years led to mutually beneficial relations.
Deputy Minister of Public Health, Housing and Local Government Michael Tiang said the start of the close relations is evident through the co-development of the Friendship Park in the capital city in 2005.
“Today, almost 20 years later, this Friendship Park is still very well-visited signifying the unwavering Sarawak-China friendship.
“I am sure those who went back from travelling to Sarawak could tell the warmth they got from the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural Sarawakians.
“This is a manifestation of the friendly nature of Sarawakians and open policies by the Sarawak government,” he said when attending Asean-China Week 2023 recently.
Aside from that, he said, Kuching South City Council (MBKS) and the Quanzhou City of Fujian Province had also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) recently to foster better relations between the local governments and the people of Sarawak and China.
“At the government-to-government level, the local governments of Sarawak and China can encourage cultural activities and exchanges between municipalities via promoting tourism activities.
“For example, the capital city of Sarawak, Kuching which is recognised as a City of Gastronomy by Unesco, has a vast variety of traditional heritage food products and experiences that can be promoted to and shared with visitors from China.
“Similarly, Sarawakians visiting China would be most fascinated with the cultural products and experience offered by cities in China,” he said.
On promoting visits between cities, Tiang said the governments of both Sarawak and China can explore standardising services or provide convenience to visitors via uniformity and integration of services.
He added that one way to do this is to drive the development of online platforms that allow for access to essential services, information, help and multi-lingual guides and many more.
“For example, our local government websites and call centres can be optimised to be informative, intuitive, and helpful to not just locals but friends from overseas.
“For Sarawak, another example of this is the Sarawak government’s S Pay Global e-wallet, the most widely used e-wallet platform in Sarawak where its first and only international payment platform integration is with the UnionPay Virtual card.
“This allows visitors to Sarawak, especially those from China to have seamless payment experience in Sarawak,” he added.
