The meeting follows the initial Arab-China Summit’s success in 2022, enabling bilateral ties and practical collaboration between China and the Arab Nations.
The 10th Arab-China Business Conference commenced on Sunday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and is known as the most significant business meeting between China and Arab nations. At this event, cooperation between China and Arabs is supposed to increase further.
The theme of the conference is “Collaborating For Prosperity” to support and promote partnerships in areas like the economy, trade, and investment to achieve solutions of common interest for both China and the Arab countries through strategic alliances, according to the official website. More than 3,000 guests and 150 panelists, including government officials, investors, and business executives from 16 industries, are participating in the summit.
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Growth of Arab-China trade
According to Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, China is the greatest trading partner of Arab nations, and business between the two sides reached $430 billion in 2022, an increase of 31% from 2021.
He added that Saudi Arab-China trade, which accounts for around 25% of the overall volume of trade exchange between China and Arab nations, increased by 30% from 2021 to $106.1 billion in 2022.
Saudi Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih declared that Arab nations would cooperate with China to take advantage of chances for further economic integration between the two parties.
He noted that although China’s outbound foreign direct investment has increased by 20% annually over the previous ten years, there is still room for growth in the other way to capitalize on China’s sizable and thriving market.
According to figures from Chinese customs, Saudi Arabia exported 87.49 million tonnes of crude to China in 2022, or 1.75 million barrels per day. Also, Saudi Arab-China have rapidly advanced their energy cooperation in recent years.
$10bn deals signed between Arab-China
The Saudi Investment Ministry announced that the event marked its first day with the signing of $10 billion in investment agreements, the vast majority of which are for projects in Saudi Arabia or by Saudi companies and government bodies.
Including a $5.6 billion Memorandum of Understanding between the Saudi Investment Ministry and Human Horizons, a Chinese manufacturer of electric and self-driven automobiles.
In addition to a separate “cooperation agreement” and a “framework agreement” involving other businesses, the memorandum of understanding contains more than half of the entire amount, according to the statement. It included agreements for a range of industries, including technology, agriculture, renewable energy, real estate, the environment, and tourism.
Also, AMR ALuwlaa Company and Zhonghuan International Group (Hong Kong) reached an agreement worth $533 million for building an iron factory in Saudi Arabia.
A $500 million collaboration deal on copper mining in the kingdom was signed by the Saudi ASK Group and the China National Geological & Mining Corp, according to the announcement.
Arab-China relations bother the US
The energy minister of Saudi Arabia said the other day that his country wants to cooperate with China rather than compete and that he “ignored” Western concerns over their expanding ties.
The United States, a longtime ally of Saudi Arabia, criticized Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the world’s largest exporter of crude oil in December.
Since Saudi Arabia is the top oil exporter, hydrocarbon linkages are the foundation of its bilateral relationship with the largest energy consumer in the world. However, amid the strengthening of political ties, a collaboration between Riyadh and Beijing has also increased in security and sensitive tech, much to the worry of the United States.
Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman responded when asked about the criticism from the US: “I actually ignore it.” Business people, he continued, “will go where opportunity comes your way.”
The meeting, which took place days after American Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit, has drawn a large number of Chinese businesspeople and investors to Riyadh. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that Washington was “not asking anyone to choose between the United States and China” during his trip to Riyadh.
