China’s Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that heads of state from Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates will visit China on state visits and attend the 10th Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum opening ceremony from Tuesday to Saturday.

It is anticipated that the forum will open up new avenues for China and Arab nations to strengthen their trade and economic relations. Experts stated that strengthening connections in the fields of traditional energy, emerging industries, technology, and financial cooperation has a lot of promise.

The meeting holds considerable importance in strengthening China-Arab commercial and economic relations. Chen Fengying, an economist and former head of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations’ Institute of World Economic Studies, told the Global Times on Tuesday that there is a high level of economic complementarity.

Chen noted the wide area and promising future for cooperation. The Arab world has a demand for China’s technology and market, while China has a demand for the energy resources of Arab countries.

The China-Arab Research Institute of Ningxia University’s executive director, Niu Xinchun, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the event is intended to increase collaboration in fields like energy.

China is strategically important for the expansion of Aramco’s enterprises in Asia, according to a note sent to the Global Times on Tuesday by Mohammed Y. Al Qahtani, president of Aramco Downstream, a Saudi energy organization.

“To address the need for refined goods, chemicals, and lubricants, we anticipate increased investments and an enhanced presence in line with Saudi Vision 2030 and China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Along with other investment areas, this also entails forming new alliances in supply chains, procurement, and logistics,” he stated.

Numerous sectors of cooperation in cutting-edge industries like nuclear power, aviation, new energy, artificial intelligence, and big data are flourishing as the China-Arab partnership grows stronger. According to Niu, we have also witnessed Arab nations increasing their investments in specific Chinese industries in recent years.

With a total market value of 11.29 billion yuan ($1.56 billion) as of the end of the first quarter, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority owned substantial interests in 27 A-share firms, a rise of more than 1 billion yuan from the end of 2023.

Financial data source Wind Information states that the Kuwait Investment Authority, with a total market value of 4.52 billion yuan, was included among the top 10 shareholders in 30 A-share businesses.

Over the last three years, China has seen a significant influx of Arab capital mostly into two sectors: rising technology and downstream companies associated with traditional energy. According to Niu, these two industries are the main forces behind the economic change of Arab nations.

China-Arab economic cooperation is booming, with more and more sectors offering chances for investment and collaboration driven by complementary demands.

Thirty commercial and trade agreements worth over 70 billion yuan were inked by China and Arab nations during the 10th Arab-China Business Conference in June 2023, which was hosted in Saudi Arabia.

The two sides reached 403 cooperation agreements worth a total of 170.97 billion yuan at the sixth China-Arab States Expo, which took place in September 2023 in Yinchuan, the capital of Northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The agreements covered a variety of topics, including modern agriculture, clean energy, healthcare, the digital economy, and tourism cooperation.

According to Chen, as Arab nations look for a more varied energy supply, the two sides will intensify their collaboration in the development of electric vehicles and solar (PV) technology in desert regions. They will especially focus on leveraging PV power generation and lithium battery technology.

China is capable of technology and research, whereas Arab nations have wealth and demand. Chen said that the two parties might collaborate on technical cooperation, cooperative study and improvement, and professional training staff exchanges.

Arab nations now deal with China more than any other country; bilateral trade grew from $36.7 billion in 2004 to $398 billion in 2023. According to the People’s Daily, the total value of direct investments made by China and Arab nations has surpassed $30 billion.