However, the relationship must be based on equal partnership and not skewed in favour of just one party, said Jomo, who is senior adviser to Khazanah Research Institute.

“We do not want the relations to be like with other large countries where we appear to be just a political pawn,” he told reporters in Beijing, where he is attending a meeting of the Malaysia-China Outlook Forum.

He gave as an example the strategic partnership between China’s Geely automotive company and Malaysia’s national carmaker Proton, in which Geely holds a 49% interest.

Geely’s participation as a strategic foreign partner offered huge prospects for Malaysia, he said, especially in the Southeast Asian market for right-hand-drive cars.

Geely has made Proton its production hub for right-hand-drive cars.

“If we succeed in this strategy, we can be like (auto maker) Thai Rung in Thailand.

“Ultimately, we need somebody, possibly the prime minister, to advise Proton on how better to negotiate (because) right now, it is not government-owned,” he said.

Proton’s owner, DRB-Hicom Bhd, sold a 49.9% equity interest in Proton to Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. DRB-Hicom also sold Geely a 51% stake in luxury sports car brand Lotus.

Jomo said that although Malaysia was among the largest exporters of solar panels to the United States, there had not been any serious efforts to capture the solar panel market, in which China is a world leader.

“We can master it easily but there are no serious efforts to do so. Again, there is much potential here. We are still using coal to generate electricity. “Why are we not encouraging the use of solar panels?” he said.