China picks Dubai as new trade centre

Dubai: China has set a target of a 20 to 30 per cent increase in exports to the Middle East this year and has said it will use Dubai as the hub to achieve this, a senior government spokesman said on Thursday.

Two-way trade between China and the Middle East has tripled in the past five years to $107 billion in 2009.

With free trade talks under way between the Gulf nations and China, trade is expected to more than triple to at least $350 billion by 2020, consultancy McKinsey said.

Sun Xi Min, Deputy Secretary of China's Textile Ministry, told Gulf News that, to start with, China was expected to invest Dh100 million in infrastructure in Dubai to manage growing demand for products from its Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The investment would include a sales complex and representative office near Al Maktoum Road in Deira.

A 19-member delegation of Chinese government officials and business leaders is currently touring the GCC states.

China has deepened its relationship with the UAE in recent years, the latest example being the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China offering to provide financing and export credit for the UAE's $11 billion Union Railway project.

In May, China's Railways Ministry signed a deal with the UAE to plan, develop and build the railway network.

Saudi Aramco and Sin-opec have built a $5 billion oil refinery in Fujian province and are looking at a similar project in Qingdao. And Saudi chemicals company Sabic is building a $3 billion petrochemicals complex in Tianjin.