UAE’s contribution to China’s new Silk Road

Dubai: The UAE will play a prominent role in the new silk road. DP World said in January that they were in talks with the Chinese government on its ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative, with a view to increasing cooperation between the two countries and fulfilling the initiative’s requirements.

China is building six new routes that will connect it to the rest of the world. The 65 countries of the Belt and Road region currently represent 30 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP).

Most of DP World’s ports and land and sea stations, which total 77 ports and stations worldwide, are located on the routes that China is building as part of this initiative.

The official news agency WAM quoted DP World chairman Sultan Ahmad Bin Sulayem as saying that they would be able to provide the best services to Chinese traders using this new network of maritime and land routes.

“We at DP World have developed our business strategies to be able to cater for different logistic and shipping services at all stages,” he had said in January.

China has earmarked $40 billion (Dh146 billion) for a special fund for the scheme, on top of the $100 billion capitalisation for the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).