Jia Qinglin calls for further economic, trade ties with Arabic countries

Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said enhancing Sino-Arabic cooperation and achieving common development would contribute to world peace and development.

Jia vowed to enhance economic and trade ties with Arabic countries when he made the remarks at the first China-Arab entrepreneurs' conference held in Beijing on Wednesday.

"It's our common task to develop our economies, enhance our comprehensive strength and improve the people's living standards," Jia said.

"In recent years, China and Arabia witnessed sound development of bilateral ties and their complementarity in fund, technology, resource and market scale emerged markedly," he said.

Trade between China and the 22 members of the League of Arab States (LAS) surged by ten times in the last decade to hit 36.7 billion US dollars in 2004, according to Chinese statistics. They also had fruitful cooperation in two-way investment, project contrast, economic and technological cooperation and human source training.

Jia said China would enhance political, economic and cultural ties and cooperation on international affairs with Arabic countries, as mandated by Chinese President Hu Jintao.

"It's a key aspect of the China-Arab cooperation forum and of their new partnership to strengthen economic and trade cooperation, " Jia said.

About 1,000 Chinese and Arabian entrepreneurs attended the conference started on Tuesday to discuss business opportunities in mining, construction, finance, machinery manufacturing, telecommunications, chemical, medical, trade and textile industries.

The plan for this entrepreneurs' conference was set during Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to the League of Arab States ( LAS) headquarters in January 2004.