This photo taken on August 28, 2025 shows a view outside the venue of the seventh China-Arab States Expo in Yinchuan, Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Photo: VCG

The curtains came down on the 7th China-Arab States Expo in Yinchuan, capital of Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, on Sunday, with intended signings exceeding 100 billion yuan ($13.98 billion), CCTV News reported on Sunday, citing the organizers.

The expo hosted more than 40 investment promotion events, resulting in 331 cooperative achievements with intended signings amounting to 107.75 billion yuan. Among these, 28 projects were valued at more than 1 billion yuan each, totaling 78.57 billion yuan and accounting for 72.9 percent of the total intended signings.

The proportion of foreign guests among the opening ceremony attendees reached a record high, and representatives of 75 countries and regions, including more than 7,600 distinguished guests and more than 2,200 business associations and enterprises, attended the event, with the total number of participants exceeding 17,800, setting a new record.

The first-ever Silk Road E-Commerce innovation and development conference, which aims to deepen digital economic cooperation and foster a mutually beneficial global e-commerce market, was an eye-catching event at the fair. 

Zhang Weichao, deputy general manager of Huiyuan Culture Group, was among the beneficiaries of the Expo. He introduced an innovative beverage that blends Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee with Chinese wolfberries from Ningxia Zhongning.

"This product represents not only a breakthrough in beverage innovation but also an extension of the friendly cooperative relationship between China and Ethiopia," Zhang told the Global Times on Saturday.

In his view, the product demonstrates both the warm welcome extended by the Chinese market to African goods and an innovative pathway for Chinese local specialty agricultural products to reach the global stage.

Against the backdrop of deepening China-Arab economic and trade cooperation, an increasing number of cross-border comprehensive services enterprises that focus on the Middle Eastern market are opening new avenues through innovative practices.

Nie Ershuang, chief marketing officer of ET-Global, an e-commerce company in Guangzhou, told the Global Times on Saturday that since its establishment in 2018, the company has set up branches in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, building a comprehensive service system covering supply chain management, e-commerce operations, logistics, and customs clearance.

We have a smart overseas warehouse covering tens of thousands of square meters in Riyadh, complemented by front warehouses in urban areas, providing one-stop services such as storage, allocation, and delivery for cross-border e-commerce, Nie said.

Through its self-developed logistics chain integrated with more than 10 local platforms in the Middle East, the company has helped thousands of Chinese brands expand overseas. 

A view of smart agriculture on display during the 7th China-Arab States Expo held in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, on August 29, 2025. Photo: Zhang Weilan/GT

Experts also said that, amid the global wave of digitalization, cross-border e-commerce, as an emerging form of international trade, is gradually becoming a new engine for driving China-Arab trade growth. Meanwhile, the application of new technologies such as livestreaming and artificial intelligence (AI) product selection is fostering the vigorous development of China-Arab digital trade.

Since the launch in 2013, the China-Arab States Expo has been an important platform for Belt and Road cooperation between China and Arab states, and China stands ready to work with Arab states to carry forward the spirit of China-Arab friendship, and promote the building of a China-Arab community with a shared future, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday.

Spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a regular press conference that this expo is themed "Innovation, Green Development and Prosperity," with a focus on the digital economy, clean energy, AI, modern agriculture, water resources, smart meteorology and other trending topics, and is expected to reach a good number of results, which reflects much about the vigorous trade cooperation between China and Arab states.

Data from the Ministry of Commerce showed that in 2024, China-Arab trade reached $407.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2.3 percent. China's exports to Arab countries reached $206 billion, while imports from Arab countries reached $201.4 billion. China has remained the Arab states' largest trading partner for many consecutive years.