Sino-Arabic economic relations are standing at a new starting point after more than 2,000 years of trading history since the Silk Road, as China is trying to strengthen bilateral ties with a new high ranking economic forum in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

China invited more than 6,000 government officials and business people from 66 countries, regions and international organizations to the fifth China Investment and Trade Fair and the first China-Arab States Economic and Trade Forum, held from Sunday to Thursday in Yinchuan, the regional capital of Ningxia, home to more than 10 percent of the China's 20 million Muslims.

The two sides should intensify efforts to promote trade cooperation, and try to make the China-Arab trade volume reach or exceed 200 billion U.S. dollars within three to five years, Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said at the summit meeting of the five-day event.

The experience of both China and Arab countries showed that only cooperation can lead to development. The two sides should jointly fight against any forms of trade protectionism, cut down unnecessary trade remedies and restrictive measures, and dismiss possible trade frictions through efficient communications, Chen said.

His view was echoed by Jamal Al-Khawlani, head of the capital Branch of the General People's Congress Party of the Republic of Yemen.

"It is a good idea to build a free trade zone and it is easy to have a free trade zone between Arab nations and China," Jamal Al-Khawlani said.

"Nowadays, being together is the strategy of all nations. You cannot do business alone; you cannot make your work from far away. You have to be with groups and remove all the walls between contacts," Jamal Al-Khawlani said.

On the first day of the forum, Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Rashid Mohammed Rashid and Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong signed a memorandum of understanding in Cairo to expand and improve bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

Rashid told a Xinhua reporter in Cairo that he hoped the new agreement would pave the way for more cooperation in different industry sectors, including manufacturing of auto components, textiles, petrochemicals, electronic products.

"This agreement includes the process of sharing technology and increasing investment in the industrial sector and training workers, as well as helping Egyptian companies to market their products in the Chinese market," Rashid said.

The agreement also includes the formation of an Egyptian-Chinese task force. It takes the responsibility of sharing information and experiments in the industrial sectors and encouraging Egyptian and Chinese firms to establish joint ventures in different areas of cooperation.

Rashid expected that Egyptian-Chinese cooperation would witness a great progress in all aspects, particularly economic and trade relations, through exchanges at the economic and political levels.

At the same time, the forum in Ningxia, with the keynote featuring "pass on friendship, push forward cooperation and seek common development," attracted government officials and business people to communicate and exchange ideas.

Jamal Al-Khawlani said China has become the number one partner of many Arab nations and had been cooperating well with Yemen in many fields, including clothing, furniture, automobiles, food and petroleum.

"But, I think you still have better opportunities and you didn't take advantage of all opportunities found in our country, for example, in mining."

Hbibi Ould Ham, Commissioner of the Promotion of Investments of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, also suggested expanding Mauritania-China cooperation to mining.

"Our county is full of many kinds of ores. We should like to open these resources to China," he said.

The bilateral trade between China and the Arab States has been increasing rapidly. The China-Arab trade volume reached 107.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, six times more that the same period in 2000. In the first half of this year, the two-way trade volume hit 69.1 billion U.S. dollars, up 52 percent from the same period last year.

The economic and trade cooperation has been increasingly expanded. Chinese investors have made direct investments in Arab states totaling 3.78 billion U.S. dollars by June this year.

The actual investment in China by investors from Arab states has reached 2.15 billion U.S. dollars, involving sectors such as petrochemicals, real estate, food and light industries.

In recent years, some new fields have become energized between the two sides, such as finance, tourism, aviation and new energy.

"I found there are many business opportunities while attending the Hui Merchants Convention last year. And then I went to the Islamic countries to investigate the market. I saw great potential in Sino-Islamic trade," said Ma Lan, president of Ningxia Daluqiao Islamic International Trading Co. Ltd.

Ma Lan's company is one of the 923 companies from 29 countries that had been looking for new business opportunities at the fair held in Yinchuan. Her company is doing foreign trade in commodities for Muslims.

Ma said her company's business had expanded to many Islamic countries and the company's business volume had exceeded 1 million yuan (about 147,059 U.S. dollars) since it began operation last September.

As of Tuesday, more than 190 contracts have been signed during the fair and forum, involving more than 203.56 billion yuan in terms of investments. Most of the investments were concentrated on in energy and petrochemical projects, but investments in other fields, including new energy, logistics, agriculture and equipment manufacturing are growing, according to the event organizers.

"I think we already have a bridge between China and Arab countries. What we need is to upgrade it more and more," said Jamal Al-Khawlani.

"We need more contact, more communication. We need more forums like this to learn more about each other," he said.