China, UAE embrace broader prospect in economic, trade cooperation with burgeoning new opportunities

Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, Sept. 12, 2024. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)

With bilateral trade flourishing across various sectors, China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are making concerted efforts to explore new paths for cooperation, aiming for further win-win outcomes and strengthening their comprehensive strategic partnership.

This focus was underscored during Chinese Premier Li Qiang's visit to the UAE, which concluded on Friday. In meetings with UAE leaders and business representatives, both sides expressed a strong will and offered valuable suggestions to enhance economic and trade collaboration while marking 40 years of diplomatic relations.

While meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Thursday, Li noted that China is willing to further expand the scale of bilateral trade with the UAE and explore cooperation in new energy, electric vehicles, high-end manufacturing, biomedicine, digital economy and other fields.

He hoped that the two countries could jointly make a forward-looking layout of emerging and future industries to cultivate more new economic growth points.

For his part, Mohamed said the UAE looks forward to closer exchanges at all levels with China, giving full play to the mechanism of the high-level committee on China-UAE investment and cooperation, deepening practical cooperation in economy, trade, investment, energy, health, education, and other fields.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang holds talks with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Sept. 12, 2024. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)

During talks with the UAE's Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Li pointed out that China and the UAE are good partners on the path of common development. It is in the fundamental interests of both sides to strengthen cooperation and help each other succeed.

Li said China is willing to share development opportunities with the UAE for better mutual benefit, welcoming more UAE investment in China and encouraging Chinese enterprises to invest and do business in the UAE.

Also on the premier's visit agenda was the UAE-China Business Forum, which was held in Dubai on Thursday. Over 200 representatives from the governments, chambers of commerce, and businesses of both countries attended.

While addressing the forum, Li said bilateral ties have matured over the past 40 years, and economic and trade cooperation has yielded strong results.

China has been the UAE's largest trading partner for many years. The UAE is China's largest export market and second-largest trading partner in the Middle East.

Official data showed bilateral trade between China and the UAE reached 94.98 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. In the first half of 2024, the figure reached nearly 50.11 billion dollars.

Behind such success lies a profound inevitability, Li noted. As China-UAE economic and trade exchanges have spanned over a millennium, both countries have actively embraced economic globalization and worked together to create development miracles through opening-up.

The premier called on enterprises from both countries to seize the new opportunities of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and identify more areas of shared interests and opportunities for collaboration from the intersection of their strategic priorities.

He also urged both sides to jointly seize the burgeoning opportunities in technological and industrial innovation, and harness innovation as a driving force.

UAE business representatives spoke highly of China's development dynamism and market potential at the forum, expressing their eagerness to increase investment in China and expand cooperation with their Chinese partners.

In his speech, Chairman of Dubai Chambers Abdul Aziz Abdulla Al Ghurair hailed China as a crucial market for the UAE business community and a preferred partner for UAE enterprises.

Recognizing the growing significance of the Chinese market, the Dubai International Chamber has opened three overseas offices in China: Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong, the highest number of offices in any single country.

UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri shared recent data highlighting the vibrancy of economic exchanges: The UAE is now home to about 15,500 Chinese businesses, and the number of flights between the two countries operated by the UAE's national carriers has reached 44 per week, he noted.

The minister invited Chinese enterprises to fully explore the growing opportunities brought by the UAE's increasingly favorable business environment to scale up investments, particularly in emerging industries.

"We are confident that our shared visions and strategies to expand cooperation into new economic sectors will further strengthen and elevate our economic and investment relations," Al Marri said.