BEIJING - China and
Saudi Arabia have signed a protocol to work
together in petroleum, natural gas and minerals,
in a fresh move to expand the substantial
cooperation between the two countries.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and visiting
Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz attended the
signing ceremony on Monday after their
talks. The two countries also
signed documents on economic cooperation and
professional training.
China and Saudi
Arabia have made remarkable achievements in
economic, trade and energy cooperation, Hu said
during the talks, adding that Saudi Arabia has
become China's biggest trade partner between West
Asia and North Africa.
Hu proposed that
the two countries strengthen energy cooperation
for mutual benefit so as to further bilateral
relations and substantial cooperation in various
fields.
China will make joint efforts with
Saudi Arabia to conduct multidimensional
cooperation in the energy field and improve the
bilateral energy dialogue mechanism and mode of
working together, Hu said.
Abdullah said
Saudi Arabia will advance bilateral reciprocal
cooperation in economy, energy and infrastructure,
and encourage cultural exchanges with China.
The Saudi king arrived in Beijing on
Sunday for a three-day state visit as Hu's guest.
It is the first visit of a Saudi king to China
since the two countries established diplomatic
relations in 1990. It is also the first official
visit of Abdullah to another country since he came
to the throne last year.
According to
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan,
trade between China and Saudi Arabia has been
growing rapidly in recent years. In the first 11
months of 2005, two-way trade reached US$14.5
billion, up 59% year-on-year.
This is "an
astonishing growth" that is higher than the
average 23% growth of China's foreign trade for
the same period, Kong said.
China imported
more than 20 million tons of crude oil from Saudi
Arabia in the first 11 months of 2005, said the
spokesman.
According to incoming Saudi
Ambassador to China Saleh Alhegeian, his nation
exports to China about 450,000 barrels of oil
daily, which accounts for 14% of China's oil
import.
Describing the visit of the Saudi
king as a new milestone in the friendly relations
between Saudi Arabia and China, he said, "We are
looking forward to more and more cooperation
between the two nations."
Wu Chunhua,
Chinese ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said China and
Saudi Arabia are strongly supplementary in economy
and have broad prospects for trade and economic
cooperation.
China is now Saudi Arabia's
fourth-largest importer and fifth-largest
exporter, while Saudi Arabia is China's
tenth-largest importer and biggest oil supplier,
he said.
China and Saudi Arabia have
conducted large-scale energy cooperation since
2003, and witnessed a sound momentum of mutual
investment in the energy sector. An oil-refining
project jointly invested in by Chinese and Saudi
companies has been put into production in China,
and negotiations are under way for more projects.
Wu highly evaluated the significance of
the Saudi king's visit to China, saying it will
push the Sino-Saudi cooperation to a new level.
Meanwhile, it was reported that several
member states of the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC), including Saudi Arabia
and Kuwait, intend to build a greenfield (new)
refinery in Guangzhou, the capital of southern
China's Guangdong province, involving a total
investment of US$8 billion.
It has been
learned that during the 2006-10 period, Guangdong
province will invest 180 billion yuan ($22.3
million) to build five petrochemical bases, namely
Dayawan, Maoming-Zhanjiang, Guangzhou, Yamenkou
and Shantou-Chaozhou-Jieyang.
As well,
five refining expansion and new refining projects,
five ethylene projects and some downstream
chemical projects are to be built during the same
period.
