By NNN-WAM
Sharjah : The UAE and China have set an example of what true friendship means. Peaceful co-operation and economic progress have remained key words in the relations,” a UAE daily paper reported Wednesday.
“An old friend of the Chinese leadership and people” — That’s how Chinese President Hu Jintao hailed Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who’s on a four-day official visit to that country,” wrote The Gulf Today in its editorial on Wednesday.
The comment, the sharjah-based paper said, highlights the bond and bonhomie that prevails between progressive UAE and the Asian economic giant.
”The UAE established diplomatic relations with China on Nov.1, 1984. Since then, the political, economic and trade relations between the two countries have made stupendous progress.
”As per available figures, the UAE has become China’s second biggest trading partner in the Gulf and the biggest buyer of Chinese products. Trade between China and Dubai jumped to $19.4 billion in 2007, almost all of it in imports from Beijing. This is 41 per cent more than the preceding year, ”the paper indicated.
”Gigantic shopping centre Dragon Mart is touted as the biggest outside China. Some 2,000 Chinese firms operate in the UAE, and about 200,000 Chinese nationals work in the country, primarily in the construction sector.
”Signifying the intimacy between the two nations, the Ministry of Foreign Trade has issued a comprehensive foreign investor directory in the Chinese language. The ministry will distribute the directory to Chinese investors, businessmen and CEOs during the UAE-China trade forum which will get underway in Shanghai on Wednesday.
”A first of its kind initiative, the directory provides detailed reliable information and statistics on political systems, federal ministries, demographic transformation, economic development, business and trade legislations, labour, health, education, water and electricity, aviation, privatisation programmes, telecommunications, transport and free zones.
”During a historic visit to China, late Sheikh Zayed had provided donations to China for the establishment of the UAE Arabic Teaching and Arabic Islam Research Centre in Beijing Foreign Studies University. The Yuehua Offset Printing Factory of China Islam Association in Dachang County in North China’s Hebei Province was also built with these donations.
”It is said that truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget. The UAE and China have set an example of what true friendship means. Peaceful co-operation and economic progress have remained key words in the relations.
”Beijing has declared that it will work with the UAE to further increase high-level exchanges and make full use of relevant mechanisms to co-ordinate in a timely way on bilateral relations and other major issues of common concern.
”Sheikh Mohammed, on his part, has made it clear that the UAE would continue to make efforts to cement and advance the friendship and promote co-operation with China in various areas. And what Sheikh Mohammed says, he does,” the paper concluded.