Egypt Becomes the Guest of Honor in the 2017 China-Arab States Expo

YINCHUAN, China, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Egypt is the Guest of Honor Country at the 2017 China-Arab States Expo to be held from September 6-9, 2017 in Ningxia, China. A very high-level Egyptian official delegation with a large number of business members will participate at the Expo, according to the Expo organizer. To foster closer trade and investment cooperation, the Egyptian and Chinese sides will jointly organize a series of business promotion activities, including Egyptian national exhibition hall of 1000 square meters, investment projects and tourism promotion and B2B meetings.

The Guest of Honor Country is the mechanism to encourage more active participation and one Arab country is invited to co-host each session of the China-Arab States Expo for larger exposure to develop more business between China and Arab states. So far, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Jordan have successfully joined the Expo as the Guest of Honor Countries in previous sessions.

The China-Arab States Expo has played an important role in promoting business relations between China and Arab states in line with the development of "One Belt and One Road" Initiative. There were 12 Chinese and foreign dignitaries, 143 Chinese and foreign ministerial-level officials and more than 80 countries, regions and international institutions participating in the previous two sessions. About 321 business agreements have been signed with total contract value of RMB 132.87 billion for cooperation in the fields of science & technology, finance, energy, agriculture, healthcare, tourism, culture and education.

At present China and Arab states have become the important partners in economic cooperation with each other. According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, China has become the second largest trade partner with Arab states, while Arab states are China's largest supplier of crude oil, the eighth largest trade partner, and the important engineering and overseas investment market. In 2016, China-Arab states trade volume reached USD 171.14 billion, the contract amount of contract work newly singed was USD 40.37 billion, an increase of 40.8%. China's non-financial direct investment in the Arab states is USD 1.15 billion, an increase of 75%.

The China-Arab Expo has also helped to promote industrial cooperation between China and Arab states.The China-Oman (Duqm) Industrial Park was initiated at the Expo and groundbreaking ceremony was held on April 19^th this year. More than 10 Chinese companies are now already operating in the park being the largest project of the single country in the Oman Special Economic Zone. Joint venture is also under negotiation to set up China-Saudi (Jazan) Industrial Park in Saudi Arabia. More industrial cooperation are initiated and field visits has been concluded to Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone in Egypt, Jebel Ali Free Zone in UAE and Irbid Hassan Industrial in Jordan for capacity and equipment manufacturing cooperation between China and the Arab world.

The organizers of the Expo are confident in development with more Arab states and business for mutual beneficial cooperation to co-build the "One Belt and One Road" Initiative.