Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Kuala Lumpur Wednesday afternoon on a two-day official visit to Malaysia, in which strengthening political and economic cooperation will top the agenda.

During the visit, Wen is expected to discuss with his Malaysian counterpart ways of pushing forward bilateral cooperation and to witness the signing ceremonies of a series of cooperation pacts designed to consolidate cooperation in trade, finance and infrastrucuture construction.

The premier will also meet with friends from many fields in Malaysia.

In a written speech delivered at the airport, Wen said that, as developing countries, China and Malaysia had a lot of common interests and that deepening bilateral ties was in the interest of both nations and peoples and was also helpful to the stability and prosperity of the region.

"I hope that this visit will promote the traditional friendship between the two countries, deepen reciprocal cooperation and elevate the strategic cooperation between China and Malaysia to a higher level," Wen said.

Prior to the visit, Hu Zhengyue, a top official with China's Foreign Ministry, described Wen's upcoming visit to Malaysia as "a big event" that would boost ties between the two countries.

"China and Malaysia are friendly neighbors," he said, citing the strategic cooperation forged between the two countries in 2004.

"Both China and Malaysia attach great importance to bilateral ties, and are committed to expanding reciprocal cooperation and joint development of the two countries," he said.

Currently, China is Malaysia's biggest trade partner and Malaysia is China's biggest trade partner within the regional bloc of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Bilateral trade shot up a massive 42.8 percent to $74.2 billion in 2010. The two countries are also making progress in cooperation in tourism, agriculture and infrastructure.

Malaysia is Wen's first leg of his Southeast Asian trip, which will also take him to Indonesia later this week.

(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2011)