KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 — China is the “future” for Malaysia’s trade relations, and as such, more Malays should learn Mandarin, an Umno delegate said today.

Pasir Salak Umno delegate Datuk Dr Wan Norashikin Wan Noordin said that Malaysians should position themselves “closer” to China.

“China is the future. We have to learn their language, to expand our knowledge and future,” she said in her speech during the Umno assembly.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak recently visited China, where he signed a number of trade and investment deals with China worth an estimated RM155 billion, on behalf of the government.

She also said the Education Ministry should expand the availability of the Mandarin elective classes to more schools.

“We have to produce a generation that can take advantage of these periods,” she said.

But she also urged the government not to give in to demands that the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) be recognised by the government for Chinese private schools.

Instead, she called for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations to be strengthened further.

The UEC is a standardised school-leaving examination conducted by the United School Committees Associations of Malaysia, better known as Dong Zong, in the country’s 60 Chinese independent secondary schools.

The certificate is widely-accepted in many countries for tertiary education, including Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, the UK, Singapore, Taiwan and the US.

The Sarawak government has also accepted the school-leaving certificate, but the federal government has yet to do so.