Since the beginning of 2000, the longstanding China-UAE friendship has been strengthened, together with more booming economic and trade relations. That period witnessed frequent mutual exchanges in political circle, trade and economy, and business fields, and active bilateral trade and investment. However, the same period also witnessed the sluggish global economic growth in 2001, the financial crisis in 2008, and other shocks. That being said, all those did not affect UAE's trade with China.
Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China
According to data of the National Bureau of Statistics of China, in 2000-2013, the total trade volume between China and the UAE reached nearly 265 billion U.S. dollars, with an average annual increase rate of about 25 percent. During this period, the structure of China's export to the UAE has shifted from light industrial goods, mechanical equipment, and farm produce to electronic products, furniture, vehicles and ships, and other heavy industrial goods, while import goods were dominated by oil, minerals, chemicals, and jewelry.
While the continuous surge of oil price brought development opportunities for Gulf States, the construction spree of infrastructure entailed abundant foreign labor force. In 2007, China and the UAE signed the memorandum of understanding on bilateral labor cooperation, which has played an active role in regulating and promoting bilateral labor cooperation. During that period, the project contracting and labor cooperation of Chinese enterprises entered a stage of fast development. A host of infrastructure projects completed, such as Abu Shagara bridge, Abu Dhabi's Al Reem Island coast project, UAE Ajman dock project, and Habshan-Fujairah pipeline project, covering real estate, port, business, and industrial infrastructure.
During this period, the fast growth of China-UAE trade volume should be attributed to the following factors: the first was the upgrade of trade structure, which shifted from simple trade in goods to trade in services, transformation of trade in technology, and the diversifying and high-end oriented trade in goods. Second, during that period, China-UAE trade featured being complementary. In the bilateral trade structure, China's exports were dominated by industrial products while the UAE mainly exported primary goods and raw materials to China. Third, the trade growth reflected the fast economic growth in the two countries.
A single purchase
