Belt and Road trade conference to be held during China-Arab expo

Photo taken on Aug. 22, 2021 shows the clean energy and new materials exhibition area of the fifth China-Arab States Expo in Yinchuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Feng Kaihua)

YINCHUAN, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Belt and Road Trade and Investment Promotion conference will take place during the sixth China-Arab States Expo, which will run from Sept. 21 to 24 in Yinchuan, the capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, said local authorities Tuesday.

Starting on Sept. 21, the two-day conference will be committed to creating conditions for exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and Arab enterprises, focussing on deepening economic and trade cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, said the region's government.

The conference includes four parallel forums, namely, the Multinationals' Economic and Trade Cooperation Meeting in Ningxia, the Cross-border e-commerce Innovation and Development Summit, the Investment Promotion Conference for Overseas Industrial Parks of Countries Jointly Pursuing Belt and Road Initiatives, the China-Saudi Arabia (Jazan) Industrial Park, and the Matchmaking Meeting of Trade and Investment in Specialty Industries.

First held in 2013, the China-Arab States Expo has become a significant platform for China and Arab states to promote pragmatic cooperation and advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

Over the past ten years, the China-Arab States Expo has attracted over 400,000 participants and 6,000 enterprises from 112 countries and regions, signing more than 1,200 cooperation projects in modern agriculture, high technologies, and biomedicine.

China is now the Arab states' largest trading partner. China-Arab trade volume almost doubled from 2012 to 431.4 billion U.S. dollars last year. In the first half of this year, trade between China and the Arab states reached 199.9 billion dollars.