On September 24, the 6th China-Arab States Expo came to an end in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The four-day expo further highlighted the new potential of China-Arab cooperation through a series of activities.
This year’s expo bore a total of 403 cooperation projects, with a planned investment and trade of 170.97 billion yuan. All these projects involved modern agriculture, clean energy, medical health and the like, among which were 50 cooperative projects, including release of the 2022 Annual Report on the Development Process of China-Arab Economic and Trade Relations, along with the China-Arab Economic and Trade Cooperation Report under the High-Quality Joint Construction of the Belt and Road, and 218 investment projects, with an amount of 157.1 billion yuan, including 33 projects implemented abroad (overseas), with an amount of 45.83 billion yuan, as well as 185 projects implemented domestically, with an amount of 111.27 billion yuan.
In addition, 135 trade projects in all with a total amount of 13.87 billion yuan was signed during the 6th CAS expo, embodying 25 projects implemented overseas (overseas) with a total amount of 6.99 billion yuan, and 110 projects implemented domestically with a total amount of 6.88 billion yuan.
The total number of attendees and exhibitors at the 2023 expo exceeded 11,200, which is a new record for this event. Attendees and exhibitors included scholars, institution, as well as enterprise representatives.
As the Guest Country of Honor at the 2023 expo, Saudi Arabia sent a delegation of more than 150 economic and trade representatives, by whom concluded 15 cooperation projects, worth a total of 12.4 billion yuan.
This expo covered an area of nearly 40,000 square meters, attracting almost a thousand domestic and foreign companies, with more than 12,000 products to draw audience’s attention. Speaking of unprecedented highlights, it featured central enterprise exhibition, smart weather exhibition, equipment manufacturing and technology exhibition for the first time to further demonstrate the advantages of China-Arab cooperation in the fields of economy and trade, energy, infrastructure, and so on.
First held in 2013, the CAS expo has become an indispensable platform for China and Arab states to promote pragmatic cooperation and accelerate high-quality Belt and Road collaboration.
At present, China is the Arab states’ largest trading partner, characterized by the bilateral trade volume almost doubled from the 2012 level to 431.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. In the first half of 2023, trade between China and the Arab states reached 199.9 billion dollars.
