BEIJING // The present-day trade links between the UAE and China have been hailed as a modern silk road as they deepen through a series of initiatives.
As China's economy develops, trade with the UAE is predicted to grow, with analysts saying it could reach $100 billion (Dh367bn) annually by 2015, almost five times the 2009 figure of $21bn, much of it from the export of Chinese products to the Emirates.
Maj Gen Omar al Bitar, the UAE's ambassador to China, said the trade bonds will spur cooperation and exchange in a number of fields, like the ancient silk road between Europe, Africa, China and the Middle East a millennia ago which not only carried goods, but also aided the spread of ideas.
"Relations with China are growing as fast as China is growing," said Maj Gen al Bitar. "It's the modern silk road. The ties are being enhanced by the day."
While celebrations were taking place this week for "UAE pavilion day" at the World Expo in Shanghai, with the striking UAE pavilion hosting a range of activities, the plastics company Borouge, part-owned by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, launched a sales and marketing company in Beijing.
At the same time, cultural links are strengthening through, for example, the Abu Dhabi-funded refurbishment of an Arabic teaching centre in the Chinese capital.
"China is coming towards us. There's a solid infrastructure in the [UAE]. The regulations are so favourable. It embraces all businesses and people from the world," said Maj Gen al Bitar.
He added the UAE was host to more Chinese companies, thought to be more than 1,000, and more Chinese citizens, estimated at about 200,000, than any other Middle East country. The UAE pavilion at Expo 2010 has attracted 1.2 million visitors so far, and two million are expected to have passed though it by the time the event finishes at the end of October.
With a golden sand dune designed by the British architect Lord Foster, the pavilion has wowed the crowds with its hi-tech films portraying the UAE's history and modern development.
As traditional dances and an art show were held at the expo for UAE pavilion day, Borouge, which has its manufacturing headquarters in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, launched a company in Beijing to increase its plastics sales in China. The company produces plastics such as those used to make car components including body panels.
Highlighting the UAE's interest in developing ties with China, the director general of the UAE Ministry of Foreign Trade, Abdullah bin Ahmed al Saleh, was a keynote speaker at the weekend at a China Arab States Economic and Trade Forum in Ningxia Hui autonomous region, an area in north central China where 36 per cent of the 6.2 million population is Muslim.
"The UAE's infrastructure projects and China's rapid economic growth have been opening up projects across a wide range of sectors," Mr al Saleh said. Mr al Saleh said Chinese companies were heavily involved in a range of sectors in the UAE, including construction, manufacturing and retailing. "A quick look at the projects in the UAE will show a growing presence, a highly skilled presence," he said.
The Court of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, who is also the Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, is this year funding the $2.8m refurbishment of the UAE Centre for the Study of Islamic Culture and the Teaching of the Arabic Language at Beijing Foreign Studies University.
The centre is being renamed The Sheikh Zayed Centre for Islamic and Arabic Studies. In January this year, Sheikh Mohammed officially opened a Chinese school and kindergarten in Abu Dhabi.
dbardsley@thenational.ae
