What products or services that China want? For so many years, China has been importing a lot of natural resources/raw materials and commodities and continues to do so. China imports timber, natural rubber, oil and gas and palm oil from Malaysia in a large quantity. It also imports huge volume of semi-conductor and integrated circuits from Malaysia. Generally speaking, imports of all these items constitute more than 60% of China's total imports from Malaysia. It implies that China still require these products for its industrial use and more or less we can say that there are already big players from Malaysia who consistently export these products to China and if you plan to join in, you need to compete with these big players and certainly it is a tough challenge.

So, what else we can offer for Chinese market? Products like processed food and beverage, like confectionery, snacks and bakery products, canned and ready made products, frozen food, seafood, juices, white coffee and cocoa products among those that have good potentials in China. As I mentioned several times earlier, the increase of purchasing power and the middle income population has to some degree shifted the customers perference for imported products. Buying imported products, though relatively expensive as compared to local ones, is perceived as having a high status in the society and imported products are regarded as high quality products.

The mushrooming big shopping malls and complexes in major and medium size cities in China has contributed to increasing inflows of imported products. Products with big brands like Channel, D & G, Dunhill, Ferragamo and Gucci are much sought after in the market and it goes on to so many other foreign brands that to us some of the brands maybe we have never heard before. All these brands and products have their own niche market and relatively doing well even though some of them did fail.

During my stay in China, some of Malaysian brands are already present in the market, among them like Royal Selangor (pewter), Bonia (leather products) and Ekowood (engineering wooden flooring). The brands are not only limited to products but also companies and services and these include companies like Maybank, Petronas, Malaysia Airlines, Air Asia, Parkson, Shangri-la Group, Sime Darby and UMW.

Beside food and beverage products, what else have good prospects in China? Some of Malaysian ICT companies have also made inroads into China with their unique services that can cater the need of ICT customers; like softwares, solutions, creative multimedia contents,etc. We read in the media that such companies as Green Packet, Cworks Berhad and Mobif Berhad have ventured into China market. If Malaysian enterprises can offer some special and unique ICT services that can fulfill the increasingly ICT savvy customers in China, then they have a good chance of success.

The above are just some instances of what products or services that Malaysian enterprises can offer for China customers.