Walking together on the new Silk Road

The Chinese president was responding to an invitation, which coincided with the celebration of the UAE-China Week, (July 17-24). But it is also an opportunity to promote further an initiative that has met enthusiasm in the Arab world. The region of the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) is key to the Belt and Road. China has set up several strategic partnerships with some countries that have supported the Belt and Road Initiative, noticeably by funding the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. They started walking together on the new Silk Road, consulting, developing, and sharing ideas and material products.

The facts are there to tell us the story about how well-guided men and women try to find solutions to their problems together, no matter the differences between them. The story of China-UAE relations is part of a bigger one - that of China and the Arabs in this century.

Here are some of the facts:

●China’s outbound direct investment in the Belt and Road Initiative will reach $300 billion by 2030, according to the chief economist of the Bank of China.

●China is investing heavily in a number of countries as part of the initiative to build roads, railways, ports, and oil and gas pipelines.

●The Middle East is currently China’s second-largest supplier of crude oil and seventh-largest trading partner.

●Trade between Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and China reached $92 billion in 2010 and is projected to hit $350–550 billion by 2020.

●To hit that target, China envisions a “1+2+3” development of economic relations with the region. The core will continue to be energy cooperation. Infrastructure construction, trade and investment will be layered on top, and nuclear energy, space exploration, and new types of energy will be the third phase.

●The Belt and Road Initiative wraps up all three of these areas. We are talking about a $1 trillion infrastructure development project that will span East Asia to North Africa.

●In the UAE, Chinese companies are involved in the construction of a terminal at Khalifa Port and in the development of oil and gas fields in Abu Dhabi.

●China’s top four banks are represented in the UAE, and there are over 100 flights a week between the two countries.

●In 2017, Chinese visitors to the UAE surged to over 1 million, and about 3.5 million Chinese tourists transited through the country, while in January, the UAE became the 11th country to have mutual visa exemptions with China for ordinary passport holders.

●Since December 2015 Mubadala Investment Company, China Development Bank Capital and China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange have launched the UAE-China Joint Investment Cooperation Fund, which will deploy capital in jointly-approved investments in the UAE and China. This initiative is funded equally by the UAE and Chinese governments. Mubadala with its partners in China committed $1 billion towards about 10 opportunities as part of the $10 billion joint investment plan between Abu Dhabi and Beijing, in line with the emirate's plans to diversify the economy away from the hydrocarbons sector.

●The UAE is currently home to 200,000 Chinese citizens and 4,000 trading companies, and the number of Chinese tourists rose 26%, according to published data.

●According to UAE government statistics, the annual trade volume between the UAE and China has exceeded $50 billion, with the UAE representing 23% of Arab trade with China, and the China Foreign Trade Center expects bilateral trade to reach $80 billion by 2020.

●According to Xinhua, bilateral trade stood at $41 billion in 2017, a 1.06 percent increase from the previous year.

As said above, this is just a glimpse of a big story. Similar examples from other countries of the region could be cited that emphasize the rising tide. And nothing may prevent or hamper the wave. But let’s assume that reason and wisdom will prevail.

The author is a academic adviser at the Center for China and Globalization.