The Secretary-General of the Union of Arab Chambers, Dr. Khaled Hanafi, during his speech at the sixth session of the China and Arab States Expo, which it is hosting in the city of Yinchuan, the capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwestern China, during the period 21-24 September 2023, Under the title: “A New Era, New Opportunities, and a New Future,” Stressed, "The exhibition serves as a bridge and an important platform for creating favorable conditions to facilitate economic activity, trade and investment exchange, and cooperation between Chinese and Arab companies along the Belt and Road, which contributes to continuing to expand areas of cooperation in new and promising sectors."
The Secretary-General of the Union explained that “the volume of trade between China and the Arab countries nearly doubled from the level of 2012 to reach 431.4 billion dollars last year.” Pointing out “China remained the first trading partner of the Arab region in the first half of 2023, as the volume of bilateral trade reached 199.9 billion US dollars in the first half of this year. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is China’s largest trading partner in the Middle East, with bilateral trade reaching $116 billion in 2022.”
He said: “China has strengthened cooperation with Arab countries in the past decade, in the field of advanced technologies, such as the fifth generation, big data, spatial information, and new energy. Therefore, what makes China a resilient exporting country is the diversity of the products it manufactures, from agriculture, clothing, and textiles to electronics, machinery, and Computers. Whereas in 2021, nearly half (47%) of China’s total exports to the Arab world consist of machinery and transportation equipment.”
He noted, "The value of new investments between China and the Arab countries has risen to $1.44 billion, an annual increase of 7 percent. The Belt and Road Initiative has strengthened cooperation between China and the Arab countries, this led to a boom in trade and investment and enhanced cooperation in infrastructure, as two-thirds of China’s exports to Arab countries now pass through the infrastructure built by the Gulf countries.”
He believed that “due to its strategic location on the sea route, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries serve as a hub linking Asia, Africa, Europe, and projects along the Belt and Road Initiative. Beijing invested $10.5 billion in 2021 in projects related to the Belt and Road Initiative and energy in Iraq, the third largest oil supplier to China after Saudi Arabia and Russia.”
He noted, "Egypt is also an important station for the Belt and Road Initiative, as Beijing participates in various infrastructure projects in Egypt, including the New Administrative Capital in Cairo and the Economic and Technological Development Zone in the Suez Canal Economic Zone in Egypt."
He stressed, "China and the Arab world must deepen their cooperation in order to jointly advance the implementation of Belt and Road projects, make more contributions to maintaining regional peace and security, as well as jointly address global challenges such as epidemics and climate change. The two sides must also continue to advance, enrich, and deepen their traditional friendship, enhance their multiple and wide-ranging cooperation towards achieving sustainable and sound development of their strategic cooperation relations, and continuously enrich and improve cooperation by strengthening the mechanisms of trade, culture, media, non-governmental exchanges, and other fields.”
Source (Union of Arab Chambers)
