The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
China’s Ningxia province will leave no stone unturned to integrate itself further into Belt and Road Initiative through China-Arab States Expo 2017 which the China’s autonomous region will host on Sept. 6-9 this year.
“China-Arab States Expo constitutes an important platform for Ningxia to integrate itself into the Belt and Road Initiative,” Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Vice Gov. Wang Heshan said in a press conference on Friday.
Wang said China-Arab States Expo will also open wider Ningxia’s door to the outside world “in a comprehensive and multi-tiered manner.”
He attributed Ningxia’s 8.1 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2016 to the Belt and Road Initiative which Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed in 2013.
“Integrating into Belt and Road Initiative and expanding opening-up to the outside world has greatly promoted the economic and social development of Ningxia,” Wang said.
Since 2010, Wang said Ningxia has hosted five sessions of China-Arab States Economic Trade Forum and Expo, resulting in 876 signed agreements worth RMB 435.93 billion ( $63 billion) and signed 241 projects with an investment amount of RMB183.04 billion ( $23 billion).
He said that through Belt and Road’s land, air and maritime silk road, Yinchuan airport’s international passengers had increased to 168,000 or up by 72 percent in 2016.
Wang invited visitors and businessmen from the Belt and Road Initiative countries, including from Southeast Asian countries, to participate in the China-Arab States Expo 2017 to be held in Yinchuan, Ningxia.
“We will invite visitors and businessmen in countries from Southeast Asia, Africa including South Africa and Mauritania, Central Asia including Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan as well as Northeast Asian Countries such as Mongolia,” he said.
Themed “Towards a New Model of Partnership Featuring Results-oriented and Win-win Cooperation,” China-Arab States Expo 2017 will also focus on trade and economic cooperation, strategy of innovation, and joint contribution and shared benefits.
The cooperation projects are in the field of technology, finance, energy, agriculture, health, tourism, culture and education.
Ministry of Commerce Vice Minister Qian Keming said China has been the second largest partner and an important crude oil export market to Arab countries.
In 2016, China-Arab trade volume decreased by 15 percent or totaled $171.14 billion only while China’s direct non-financial investment in Arab countries reached $1.174 billion or an increase of 75 percent.
“Against this new background, however, Arab countries are now actively advancing economic restructuring and accelerating diversification which highly fits with the spirit of the Belt and Road Initiative,” Qian said in the same press conference.
China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) vice chairman Wang Jingzhen, for his part, said China has organized 32 economic and trade delegations that visited Arab countries in 2016.
“CCPIT has always emphasized on conducting institutional collaborations with Arab business circles,” Wang said.
The CCPIT official said Arab countries, on the other hand, are invited to participate in the exhibition in countries along the Belt and Road.
During China-Arab States Expo 2017, guests from China and Arab countries will be invited to deliver speeches during opening ceremony while business delegates will discuss topics including Belt and Road development and economic and trade cooperation.