Potential to tap in the future

Yang Guang, a senior research fellow at and director-general of Institute of West-Asian and African Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

The potential for deeper Sino-Arab cooperation in four fields is immense. First, to improve energy security, the two sides should deepen cooperation in the field of energy. Yet Sino-Arab cooperation is focused on trade. To strengthen the bond in energy, the Arab states have to open up their upstream oil and gas operations to China so it can have access to rich oil and gas, and China should open up its downstream oil and gas operations to Arab investment to allow the Arab enterprises to increase their share in the Chinese market.

Second, deeper cooperation in production capacity can help the Arab states to expedite their industrialization. Some Arab states are in dire need of technology, in which China has a lot to offer. For example, China's labor-intensive technology can help the Arab states reduce the rising unemployment rate, and its high-tech support can boost economic development in the Arab world. In fact, the "1+2+3" cooperation mechanism which President Xi Jinping proposed in 2014 will deepen Sino-Arab cooperation in high-tech, including nuclear energy, aviation satellite and new energy.

Third, the two sides should seek closer cooperation in infrastructure construction, because faster economic development requires good infrastructure support, which many Arab states seem to lack. In fact, China could help the Arab states improve their infrastructure and clear the bottleneck obstructing their economic development.

And fourth, financial cooperation will facilitate the development of the real economy in the Arab world. And deeper Sino-Arab cooperation in the real economy will inevitably create a demand for even deeper financial cooperation.