Today is 1st May, a Labor Day all over the world. Labor is an important asset for the nation, without which development of a nation cannot be achieved. It is also important for nation to continue to generate new employment as the number of population keeps growing. It is a great challenge to offer employment and this requires more economic activities to be generated.

As for Malaysia, generating employment is an important agenda of the government under its Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) with New Economic Model and National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) and Entry Point Projects (EPPs) and the main drivers. Under ETP, the investment is to be led by the private sector and every EPP identified it should be able to generate high income for the country and also high number of employment.

Malaysia continues to prosper with its 27 million population. The economy grows steadily and there are still rooms for improvement. International trade, especially exports, continue to assume an important role in the country's economic growth. Exports flourish with new and diversified markets and focus on high value exports.

The recent China's Premier Wen Jiabao visit to Malaysia signifies the importance and close relationship that both countries have had, way back from 1974 when Malaysia established diplomatic relation with China. Malaysia was the first among ASEAN countries who established diplomatic relation with China and this displayed the vision that Malaysian leaders had at that time on China, that's going to be an important partner many years to come, economically and politically.

Malaysia should continue to explore opportunities to increase and expand its current cooperation with China, especially in trade and investment. Malaysia can offer not only commodities but also many other high value added products and services. One of potential areas is in the information and communication technology (ICT) industy sector. Though China itself is quite advance in this sector, Malaysian ICT players are also competitive and creative in creating new and niche technology and solutions. Certainly they can work with other local players in China  and target less competitive markets in second and third tier cities in China.

China is flourishing and consumers' purchasing power is increasing. Consumers are looking for imported products that they regard are of high quality and different from what the local can offer. This is another factor that Malaysian exporters should consider and put up efforts to penetrate the huge consumers market.