China- Arab Trade Exchange Records $400 Billion

Khaled Hanafy, Secretary General at Union of Arab Chambers (UAC) confirmed the depth of relations between the Arab countries and the People's Republic of China, where the volume of trade exchange between China and the Arab region reached about $400 billion.

This came during his participation in the Global Summit to Promote Trade and Investment 2023, which was held in China, both physically and virtually, and was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister of China, and with the massive participation of heads of state, ministers and heads of a number of international economic institutions, namely the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as businessmen from China and Arab and foreign countries. 

The secretary general stressed that despite this tremendous progress in the volume of trade exchange, there is a need to transform this relationship from its current traditional reality based on import and export into a strategic partnership, given the great competitive economic potential that both sides enjoy.

Hanafy stressed that China is a great economic partner for the Arab countries, pointing to the importance of the "Silk Road" initiative launched by China several years ago, considering that China has strategic ports, as is the case with some Arab countries, and China can, through the Belt and Road initiative, build strategic ports in a number of Arab countries that have strategic maritime outlets, whether in Egypt, Morocco, the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, in a way that helps open the Arab and Chinese markets towards more global markets, especially in the continent of Africa, Europe and Latin America.