China-Arab States Expo yields fruitful results

This photo taken on Sept. 21, 2023 shows the signing ceremony of the Multinationals' Economic and Trade Cooperation Meeting in Ningxia of the sixth China-Arab States Expo in Yinchuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.(Xinhua/Li Xulun)

YINCHUAN, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Economic and trade cooperation has been highlighted at the four-day 6th China-Arab States Expo, held in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, with over 400 cooperation projects signed.

Planned investment and trade for these projects will amount to 170.97 billion yuan (about 23.43 billion U.S. dollars).

The total number of attendees and exhibitors at the expo this year exceeded 11,200, which is a new record for this event. Attendees and exhibitors included scholars and institution and enterprise representatives.

As the Guest Country of Honor at this expo, Saudi Arabia sent a delegation of over 150 economic and trade representatives to attend and exhibit. They concluded 15 cooperation projects, worth a total of 12.4 billion yuan.

This year's expo featured trade fairs and forums on trade and investment, modern agriculture, cross-border trade, cultural tourism, health, water resources utilization, and meteorological cooperation.

The offline exhibition area at the expo was nearly 40,000 square meters, and nearly 1,000 domestic and foreign enterprises participated in the exhibition.

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

China is now the Arab states' largest trading partner. China-Arab trade volume almost doubled from the 2012 level 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.