KUALA LUMPUR: ASEAN can reap huge economic benefits through deepening ties with China and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), says Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.

"The recent ASEAN-GCC-China Summit has also positioned our region as a bridge between Asia, the Middle East, and beyond. 

"This trilateral partnership offers an opportunity to combine China’s technology and infrastructure capacity, the GCC’s energy and capital, and ASEAN’s market and industrial dynamism into a new engine for growth and resilience,” he said in his keynote address at the ASEAN Business Forum 2025, here today.

The speech was delivered on Tengku Zafrul’s behalf by the Malaysian Investment Development Authority’s (MIDA) chief executive officer, Sikh Shamsul Ibrahim Sikh Abdul Majid.

Tengku Zafrul said the newly established ASEAN Geoeconomics Task Force, co-chaired by Malaysia and Indonesia, is now fully operational.

He noted that the task force’s mandate is to provide real-time economic analysis, scenario modelling, and coordinated policy recommendations to help ASEAN anticipate and mitigate economic risks and, where appropriate, turn them into opportunities.

"Additionally, our ministers have reaffirmed an unwavering commitment to a rules-based multilateral trading system, with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at its core. 

"Our joint statements underscore a mature, forward-looking approach as ASEAN will respond to external shocks not with retaliation, but with deeper engagement, open dialogue, and collective solutions,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tengku Zafrul added that ASEAN’s true superpower is the region’s unity, resilience, and pragmatism. 

"As the world undergoes a profound realignment, ASEAN’s unity and centrality matter more than ever.

"From the Asian Financial Crisis to the pandemic to the present day, ASEAN has shown the world that collective action, trust, and shared purpose are the bedrock of our success,” he added. - Bernama