China, Arab states join hands to boost digital economy

This photo taken on Sept. 21, 2023 shows an exterior view of the venue for the sixth China-Arab States Expo in Yinchuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.(Xinhua/ Feng Kaihua)

YINCHUAN, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Mamdouh Nasef Abouelfetouh Elmasry, dean of the Faculty of Arts at Tanta University in Egypt, said he was deeply impressed by China's digital economy progress during his visit to the 6th China-Arab States Expo, which opened Thursday in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

"China has world-leading capabilities in the fields of the digital economy and artificial intelligence, allowing it to share more experience with us," the professor said.

Mamdouh Nasef is among the guests from more than 50 countries who are participating in the four-day event. This year's expo features trade fairs and forums on modern agriculture, trade and investment, cross-border trade, cultural tourism, health, water resource utilization, and meteorological cooperation.

In recent years, economic and trade cooperation between China and the Arab states has expanded from traditional areas to new frontiers such as aviation, aerospace, and the digital economy.

Mamdouh Nasef said that cooperation in cloud computing, 5G communication, artificial intelligence applications, and e-commerce services will help Arab countries release their great potential in these sectors.

Since 2016, China and the Arab states have been building a cooperation mechanism on the Digital Silk Road in Ningxia to keep up with digital transformation trends.

The project involves strengthening internet cooperation, cross-border e-commerce trade, smart city construction, and talent training.

A number of Chinese companies, such as Huawei and ZTE, have launched projects on smart cities, artificial intelligence applications, and international communication in Saudi Arabia and Mauritania.

Sherif Youssef Ahmed Saleh, Egypt's deputy minister of education, said during the expo that Egypt has established a digital platform and welcomes China to share its technical expertise in e-commerce, government digitalization, telemedicine and digital education.

While the ancient Silk Road broadened people's worldviews and enriched their lives, we must adapt new, similar cooperation to the digital era, he added.

"In the field of cross-border e-commerce, digital services are playing an increasingly diverse role, enabling immersive shopping experiences and supply chain transparency, among other things," digital economist Yu Jianing said at the event. "This contributes to the promotion of online trade between China and the Arab states."

China is now the largest trading partner of the Arab states, with last year's trade volume almost doubling from the 2012 level to 431.4 billion U.S. dollars. In the first half of this year, trade between China and the Arab states totaled 199.9 billion dollars, according to the Ministry of Commerce.