Photo: Courtesy of Emirates

The construction of the Emirates engineering complex at Dubai South, undertaken by China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), kicked off on Monday local time, the Chinese firm told the Global Times on Tuesday, marking another example of growing China-UAE cooperation.  

Located in the Dubai World Central area, the project has a total construction area of approximately 1.21 million square meters, with a total investment of over $5 billion, and is scheduled for completion in 2030, according to CRCC. 

Once completed, the project will become one of the world's largest civil aviation maintenance hangar clusters, featuring the highest technical standards, the most complex system integration, and the greatest construction difficulty, CRCC said in a release sent to the Global Times on Tuesday. 

The project includes eight large maintenance hangars, two specialized painting hangars, and related auxiliary facilities. Upon completion, it will be able to provide full-process services for 28 wide-body aircraft simultaneously, including airframe inspections, engine maintenance, and aircraft painting.

Dai Hegen, chairman of CRRC, said that this cooperation is an important practice for deepening China-UAE friendship and pragmatic cooperation, and promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. It is also a demonstration project of "China Construction" serving the building of the China-UAE community with a shared future, Dai added, according to the press release.

China-UAE cooperation has continuously deepened in recent years. China has been the UAE's largest trading partner for ten consecutive years, with bilateral trade reaching $108 billion in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 6 percent, according to the website of the Chinese Embassy in the UAE. 

Meanwhile, this year marks the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Arab states, with bilateral practical cooperation in such fields as energy, digital economy, aerospace and culture continuously yielding fruitful results, the Xinhua News Agency reported on May 13.

For example, the Yanbu Refinery in Saudi Arabia, a joint venture between Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), has boosted the local economy and advanced Saudi petrochemical upgrading since its commissioning in 2016, according to Xinhua.

A second-phase expansion is now underway to further enhance high-end petrochemical production capacity, making the project a landmark of deepened China-Saudi energy cooperation and the alignment between the Belt and Road Initiative and Saudi Vision 2030, per Xinhua. 

Chinese companies, including Huawei and Alibaba, have established regional centers in Riyadh, Dubai, and Cairo, supporting local 5G networks, data centers, and cloud platforms, Xinhua reported.

Global Times