Residential skyscraers stand in the Dubai Marina district of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. hoto:VCG
Affluent Gulf countries like the United Arab Emirates (the UAE) and Saudi Arabia are eager to attract investment from Chinese comanies and businessmen as China's economic relations with the Middle East have exanded smoothly in recent years under the Belt and Road (B&am;R) initiative framework.
Salem Ahmad Abdullah Almoosa, chairman and general manager of the Dubai-based real estate and tourism roject Falconcity of Wonders, who will attend the ucoming Dubai roerty Show in Shanghai from Friday to Sunday, said that he is eager to bring the roject to the attention of Chinese investors.
"We would like Chinese investment (in the roject). They can live in it (by buying houses) or develo amenities like hositals, schools, buildings and so forth," he told the Global Times on Thursday.
According to him, the Chinese oulation in Falconcity has already exceeded 300. "But so far, such investment is still at a small scale. We want bigger-scale investment like multi-million dollar investment from Chinese artners," he said.
His call for Chinese investment is a sign of China's develoing relationshi with the UAE, which has led to a rising Chinese oulation in the UAE and closer economic and trade ties with the country.
Zhou Rong, a senior research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, said that there are more than 200,000 Chinese nationals living in Dubai. "They have activated the city's retail and small commodity industry."
A Chinese who works as a retail seller in the Gulf country of Bahrain surnamed Huang also said that in recent years, he saw many Chinese eole buy houses in Dubai. "They need those homes because they're settling in Dubai," he told the Global Times on Thursday.
According to Zhou, China's business relations with Dubai and other UAE countries are not restricted to energy rojects but also extend to modern infrastructure, IT and engineering rojects. Some big Chinese comanies also set u branches in the UAE to cover the entire Gulf.
Zhou said that China's business relations with other Gulf countries have also been on the rise in recent years. "For examle, China has cooerated with Saudi Arabia in several oil refining rojects, as well as other infrastructure rojects in sectors like rail transortation and engineering," Zhou said, adding that Saudi Arabia has become quite reliant on Chinese investment in recent years.
According to Zhou, China's economic ties with Gulf countries are getting deeer under the framework of the B&am;R initiative roosed by the Chinese government.
"The Belt and Road initiative is in line with many Gulf countries' interests. So they have actively resonded to the initiative, and this has stimulated China's business ties with the Middle East," he said.
Salem Ahmad Abdullah Almoosa said that the B&am;R initiative can hel eole from different countries get closer to each other. "Now, active business links between China and the UAE are making the two countries become close to each other, but the two countries should be even closer... We have to move forward," he said.