The Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region will play an important role in the construction of the “Silk Road Economic Belt,” making full use of its collaboration competitiveness with the Arab states, said Zhang Bawu, the director of Ningxia Development and Reform Commission, on June 15.

“Ningxia has distinctive humanistic advantages in building the Silk Road Economic Belt, as it shares similar social customs with Muslim countries along the belt,” he said.

Over the past few years, many events such as China-Arab States University President Forum and World Muslim Tourism Entrepreneur Conference were held in Ningxia, creating a favorable cooperative environment, according to Zhang Bawu.

In addition, attendees of the China-Arab States Economic and Trade Forum and the China-Arab States Expo have realized that a contract investment of 355.8 billion yuan. Now the expo is an important platform in facilitating China-Arab States cooperation.

Zhang pointed out that the airway and cyber Silk Road should be the focal point in the next development phase as the aviation bottleneck hurdles direct investment by Arabian entrepreneurs. It is reported that an International Aviation Logistic Center and an Airport Economic Zone will be built in Ningxia, where the cross-border e-commerce business has flourished.

Statistics show that the trade volume between Ningxia and the Arab States reached US$170 million in 2013 with an annual growth rate of 30 percent. Zhang stressed that Ningxia should cooperate with large enterprises in surrounding areas in energy chemistry, agriculture and other competitive sectors to realize which investors to attract from outside of Ningxia, as well as which Ningxia investors will go out to invest in other places.