More than 100 Muslim people from both China and Iran gathered in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Sunday for promoting discussions on economic, trade and tourism cooperation between China and Middle East countries.

The delegates of Muslims were here to attend the First China Tourism and Economic Cooperation Conference for Muslims, which is organized jointly by the Ningxia Regional Academy of Social Sciences and the Iranian embassy to China. The conference will end October 11.

"For a long time, Ningxia has enjoyed a relationship of broad cooperation with the Arabic countries in the Middle East," said Kuang Jingbang, a counselor for the Ningxia regional government, at the conference.

Ningxia, dubbed as "the Province of Muslims," is China's only autonomous region of Hui ethnicity with the largest Muslim community in the country.

Statistics show that the ethnic Hui group accounts for one third of the total 5.9 million population in the region.

"As the autonomous region of the Hui ethnicity, Ningxia has much in common with Iran," said Mohammad Javad Aghajeri, cultural counselor at the Iranian embassy in Beijing, at the conference.

The two sides have had relatively more business cooperation but less exchanges in tourism and culture in the past. "Therefore, Ningxia and Iran enjoy a huge potential for cooperation," he acknowledged.

He said Iran will hold an exhibition in Ningxia in April next year to introduce and promote Iranian culture and products among the Ningxia people.

According to Kuang, Ningxia and Iran have both sent inspection groups to each other's country to plan for the opening of new travel routes.

Source: Xinhua