Speech at the Press Conference

Of the State Council Information Office

Li Jinzao, Vice Minister of Commerce

Of the People’s Republic of China

(17 July 2013)

Honorable guests and friends from the media:

Good morning!

First of all, on behalf of the China-Arab States Expo Organization Committee and the Ministry of Commerce, I would like to extend my warm welcome to the honorable guests and friends from the domestic and international media attending this press conference today and thank you heartily for your concern and support for the China-Arab States Expo in the past years!

China and Arab countries are complementary, mutually beneficial and win-win partners. Under the circumstances of economic globalization and regional integration, the economic and trade ties between China and the Arab world are increasingly closer with the rapid rise of bilateral trade. In 2012 the volume of bilateral trade was 222.4 billion US dollars, a 14% growth year on year, reaching a historic high. In breakdown, China’s exports to the Arab countries stood at 91.3 billion US dollars and imports reached 131.1 billion US dollars. The two sides are important trading partners to each other.

Since 2010, the Ministry of Commerce, China Council for Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and the People’s Government of Ningxia have jointly hosted in Yinchuan 3 sessions of China-Arab States Economic and Trade Forum with widespread domestic and international impact as a new platform for promoting China-Arab states economic and trade cooperation, a new channel for friendly exchange and a new vehicle for cultural interaction. In September 2012, the State Council approved the renaming of China-Arab States Economic and Trade Forum to China-Arab States Expo, which underlined its recognition of the tremendous achievements made by the past 3 sessions of China-Arab States Economic and Trade Forum and strategic thinking for building China’s westward opening-up platform and developing a full-dimensional model of opening to the outside world. In the face of the rapid development of economic globalization and regional integration, building China-Arab States Expo into an international platform for cooperation and spearheading the efforts for deeper and broader China-Arab states economic and trade cooperation with various forms of economic and trade cooperation is China-Arab States Expo’s important historical mission.

As one of the hosts, the Ministry of Commerce will work together with the CCPIT and the People’s Government of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region to create an international platform for world-oriented China-Arab states cooperation to further elevate the level, broaden the scope and enhance the effectiveness of such cooperation and make more contributions to promoting China-Arab states exchanges and cooperation.

Dear friends, you are sincerely invited to the Expo to seek opportunities of cooperation and development. In the meantime, it is hoped that the friends from the domestic and international media will give their attention to the Expo with extensive coverage and reports so as to enable more friends from China and the world to learn about and participate in the event.

Lastly, I would like to wish the China-Arab States Expo 2013 a complete success.

Thank you.