I am quite honored to be invited to Abu Dhabi Economic Forum; here I would like to avail ourselves of this opportunity to give a brief introduction of China’s economy and Sino-UAE Trade and Economic cooperations.

China is widely and correctly regarded as one of the great economic success stories of the past two decades. So impressive has the country’s performance been in a range of areas – absolute size of GDP, real GDP growth rate, export performance, accumulation of foreign-exchange reserves, poverty reduction – that several economists have gone so far as to conclude that China has become the world’s most dynamic economy; Though as a developing country with more than 30 provinces, China has 1.3 billion population and there is great economic unbalance between South and West, still China need the assistance from different sides and should devote itself to undergo a long way to reach the common wealth.

Since it inaugurated reform and opening-up in 1978, China's economy has seen a remarkable achievement, enjoying an average annual growth rate of 7%--8%. For much of the past two decades, China achieved double-digit economic growth without major inflation. In 2006, China’s GDP grew10.7%, reached USD 2.7 trillion,　the growth rate was the highest during these 10 years. It is estimated that China’s economy will keep sustainable growth next year.

By the end of 2006, China’s foreign exchange reserve reached 1.06 trillion U.S. dollars. Over the past few years, China's foreign investment in-flow has maintained its upward momentum. Foreign direct investment (FDI) used in China in 2006 topped USD 69.4 billion with 41485 newly established enterprises. China would make effective use of foreign funds and make the service sector a key area to attract foreign investment. China has become the largest foreign direct investment recipient in the world in the past consecutive years. While receiving large amounts of FDI, Chinese companies have been actively investing overseas, in 2006, the overseas investment of Chinese multinationals totaled 16.1 billion U.S. dollars, up 32 percent year-on-year.

In 2006, according to the statistics of General Administration of Customs of China, China’s trade in goods reached 1.76 trillion US dollars with 23.8% increase. Exports stood at USD 969 billion, an appreciation of 27.2% over 2005; Imports USD791.6 billion, an increase of 20%.

In 2006, the trade value between China and GCC countries reached USD 44.9 billion, with export USD 18.3 billion and imports 26.5 billion respectively.

The following chart No.1 shows that the China-GCC trade is contributing greatly to the trade cooperation between China and Arab countries.

China has been enjoying sound economic & trade co-operational relationship with U.A.E. In the past decade, the trade between China and UAE has witnessed significant upward growth by virtue of mutual attention paid by their leadership and governments. Among gulf countries, UAE is raking No.1 Chinese products destination. Last year, the trade between China and UAE got to USD14.2 billion, 6 times more than the figure in 2000 and with an increase of 31.8% over last year, among which export stood at USD 11.4 billion and import USD2,8 billion. It is estimated the trade between China and UAE will reach USD18 billion in 2007.

I would like to take the great opportunity of this golden period to expand the trade and economic co-operations with UAE in overall spheres including technology, manufacture industry, medicine etc. It is well-known that due to  the high revenue of oil export, currently the construction industry in Gulf countries especially UAE is booming, some people call this phase as “golden period”  and it is expected to last more than 10 -20 years. Our government tries to encourage eligible Chinese companies to go out and undertake the projects in UAE, and thus enhance their competence and competitiveness.

I believe that the on-going Abu Dhabi Economic Forum will largely accelerate UAE economic cooperations with the outside countries, especially further enhance the economic development in Abu Dhabi, and I also hope through this forum, China-UAE cooperation potentials will be further tapped.

Finally, I wish the complete success of the Forum!