China, Middle East set to unleash enormous cooperation potential

(Xinhua) Updated: 2016-01-23 22:15

Those mechanisms are aimed at facilitating cooperation, which have given priority to boosting interconnectivity between China and the Middle East and propped up efforts to build a cross-regional corridor featuring joint energy development and a network of oil and gas pipelines.

The two sides have been increasingly connected to each other in the energy sector, said Li Shaoxian, director of the China-Arab Research Institute at Ningxia University.

As the global oil prices continue to plummet, a production-supply chain jointly created by China and the Middle East is bound to pull the region out of its slump.

It will allow the region to have a bigger say over the international energy landscape, ensuring a stable environment in the long term for the Middle East to build its own energy development mechanism.

By expanding its chain of the energy industry and upgrading its processing and refining techniques, the Middle East will be able to realize the sustainable development in its energy sector, Wang said.

"BELT AND ROAD" INSPIRES PRODUCTION CAPACITY COOPERATION

Spanning the Eurasian continent, the modern land and maritime Silk Roads reach the Middle East, in which all of the three host nations of Xi's visit, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran, are among the important cooperation partners that have actively participated in the China-proposed strategic vision.

Amid various economic and social problems, these countries have been drafting their own economic development plans to speed up the industrialization process, opening the window for production capacity cooperation with China, former Chinese Ambassador to Turkey Yao Kuangyi said.

The Middle East countries, Yao said, have shown great interest in China's development model and its financial and technological support in light of the Asian giant's rapid economic growth, embarking on a looking-east strategy.

In Saudi Arabia, the oil giant's production capacity cooperation with the world's leading developing economy has already seen early win-win results.

Figures showed that up to 160 Chinese businesses have made investment in Saudi Arabia, covering a slew of areas including railways, housing construction, ports, power stations and telecommunications.

China's strength in production capacity could complement the Middle East in that regard, said Xue Qingguo, director of the Arabic language department at Beijing Foreign Studies University.