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2014-December-8

Economic Transformation in Ningxia

Research also revealed that although China had become a world trade giant, its total export-import volume ranking third in the world behind the U.S. and Germany, the proportion of its trade with Muslim countries was miniscule. It was a huge potential market that China could tap into. Muslim countries are rich in natural resources but universally lacking in sufficient industry and in dire need of commodities, labor and technology. Ningxia, with its large Muslim population, hence prioritized cooperation with Arab states.

From 2010 to 2012, Ningxia successfully held three sessions of the China-Arab States Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum. Last year witnessed the First China-Arab States Expo in which 7,300 people from 67 countries, 19 foreign trade committees and 16 domestic ministries and commissions took part, signing investment contracts worth RMB 105.9 billion. The event drew immense local and international attention.

On June 5, 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum. He delivered a speech entitled Carry Forward the Spirit of the Silk Road to Deepen Sino-Arab Cooperation, which highlighted the Western China Development Strategy in the nation’s opening-up policy. As for Arab countries, they look forward to connecting with the East and benefiting from China’s surging economy. This signifies broader prospects of cooperation between China and Arab countries.

 

Silk Road Renewal

Wuzhong City in central Ningxia, a trade town historically known as Lingzhou on the ancient Silk Road, also benefits greatly from the initiative of the Yinchuan Comprehensive Bonded Area. Wuzhong, where 53 percent of the population is of the Hui ethnic minority, is connected geographically and culturally with Islam. To date, Wuzhong has successfully held six sessions of the China Ningxia Chinese Hui Muslim Merchants Convention. Using the platform of the China-Arab States Expo and the Yin-chuan Comprehensive Bonded Area, local enterprises have set up 20 marketing centers in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries, and signed export-import treaties on halal food with the Malaysian Port Klang Free Trade Area.

The business focus of the Yijia Ethnic Costume Company Ltd, an export enterprise in Wuzhong, under the concept of “small commodities, big market,” is on producing and selling Muslim prayer hats, mats and robes. Currently, 90 percent of its products are sold overseas. Since the establishment of the Yinchuan Comprehensive Bonded Area, the company has expanded its trade to 13 countries and regions in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and North Africa, and set up sales outlets in six countries including Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Latit, a Pakistani native, chief engineer of the company, is familiar with Muslim culture. Having lived in China for eight years, he feels a special attachment to China and is fascinated with innovative designs of modern Muslim attire. Helping the company develop its overseas market is a way of realizing his own value.

Enterprises in Ningxia are taking initiatives to develop the Online Silk Road, conceived by the region’s development and reform commission. The first cross-border online retail platform in Ningxia, www.ubuymore.com, now provides services in three languages including Chinese, English and Arabic, and the Arabic platform pays great attention to the Islamic markets. Both imports and exports are trading on this platform.

Xiong Kewei, deputy general manager of Ningxia China-Arab Electronic Commerce Company Ltd, told China Today, “Understanding customers is the most important thing in operating an E-business platform, thus we must know what to do, who to sell to and how to advertise. We have several advantages: Firstly, numerous Arabic translators and interpreters working in Yiwu, a city in central Zhejiang Province famous for its small commodity trade and vibrant free markets, are from Ningxia; secondly, Hui people and overseas Muslims hold common beliefs; and thirdly, sharing the same customs means we share the same mentality.”

According to an overseas market study, www.ubuymore.com focuses its export products on national electrical appliances with China Compulsory Certification, such as Huawei and CITIC mobile phones, Lenovo computers, and Haier and Midea household electrical appliances, which have good reputations and are in great demand. The products are currently sold to 22 countries and regions, 60 percent in Egypt, 20 percent in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, making a breakthrough in the Middle East market.

 

The Circular Economy

Another contribution of the inland open economy is to boost industrial upgrading in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region so as to promote the transformation of development mode and realize sustainable development.

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