Malaysia is seeking to attract more Chinese tourists to the Southeast Asian country by staging a series of tourism promotion exhibitions in cities in central and west China.

Last year, Malaysia received 430,000 Chinese visitors, while the numbers for its neighboring countries of Thailand and Singapore were 750,000 and 500,000, respectively, according to Ng Yen Yen, Malaysia's deputy minister of culture, arts and tourism.

It indicated that Malaysia needs to do more work to tap China's booming outbound tourism market now that Chinese people have more holidays, she added.

The Malaysian government has intensified its promotion efforts since the beginning of this year, setting up tourism offices in Beijing and Shanghai, simplifying visa formalities, opening more charter flights and staging promotion exhibitions.

Recently a promotion commercial has been broadcast daily on CCTV (China Central Television) channels to invite Chinese to tour Malaysia, with the image of the actress who starred in the big winner movie of the 2001 Oscar Awards -- Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

Malaysia has put great efforts into developing tourism, which has become the second-largest source of the country's foreign exchange, earning it US$ 4.5 billion last year, according to the deputy minister.

Her 19-member Malaysian tourism delegation will continue its promotion exhibitions in Chinese cities following a tour of Chengdu, Chongqing and this capital of southwest China' Guizhou Province.

(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2001)