China's industrial proposal for Middle East unprecedented: expert

ALGIERS -- China's forthcoming industrial investment strategy in the Arab region, outlined by President Xi Jinping when addressing the Arab League in Cairo on Thursday, is an unprecedented economic proposal ever made by a foreign nation in this particular region, experts said.

Xi, who is on a three-nation visit in the Middle East that includes Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran, stressed China's support of industrialization in the Middle East and cooperation in infrastructure and production capacity.

China's competitive production capacity and the human resources in the Middle East, when combined, will deliver more and better job opportunities for the region, Xi said.

The Chinese president a 15-billion-U.S.-dollar special loan for production capacity cooperation and infrastructure construction, 10 billion dollars of commercial loan to support production capacity cooperation, and 10 billion dollars of concessional loans.

"It is the most important financial proposal that has ever been made by a foreign nation to this particular region," said Ferhat Ait Ali, an Algerian financial analyst and political expert.

Ferhat said China's economic proposal could not be clearer: While the rest industrial powers offer limited and targeted grants and loans to cyclical or permanent allies with political conditions, China proposes an industrial emergence plan for the region as part of a partnership with all Arab nations.

The policy is not an end in itself, Ferhat said, but rather a "starting point for a cycle which will encourage China to invest more in the economies of Arab countries."

China also proposes 10,000 scholarships for students in the region, as part of this new vision. "This would not only strengthen rapprochement between the two cultures through setting better mutual understanding of elites, but also would offer a batch of real economic help that will train potential local builders of this forthcoming intense cooperation," Ferhat said.