Upgraded Sino-Saudi collaboration benefits both

Saudi Arabia has called for strengthened cooperation with China in digital technology such as 5G and cloud computing, in a bid to better harmonize the kingdom's Vision 2030 with China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

"We (China and Saudi Arabia) are the two civilizations that have unleashed innovations to many fields. Today China stands as our number one bilateral partner with more than $116 billion, and growing year over year 30 percent, projected to be hands-down and continue to be the number one bilateral partner," said the Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah al-Swaha, at the Saudi Night event held in Beijing on Tuesday.

The minister said in partnership with China and the BRI, the two countries have celebrated a lot of achievements.

"We have grown as a tech sector from 150,000 to 340,000 in 5 years by doubly not only in terms of quantity, but in terms of quality. Women participation in tech and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) have jumped from 7 percent to 33 percent."

Key areas of collaboration with China include data, AI and building digital economy are the areas that the kingdom is keen to strike partnerships on.

"This is once in a lifetime unique opportunity for both nations to join hands, to empower people, safeguard the planet and foster new frontiers."

The minister visited Hong Kong and met with the city's Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu before he began his tour in the Chinese mainland.

Saleh Khabti, deputy minister of the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia, called for closer ties between China and Saudi Arabia.

"The similarities between the Saudi Arabian culture and Chinese has deep rooted in the history. Thousands of years of trade history has connected the two regions," he said, adding that despite that the BRI is a 10-year-old initiative, it's naturally occurrence that happened over the years, due to valuable trade that happened between the Arab world and China.

"We'll work closely ... to bring this history of 40 years of growth from China, and the lessons learned to adapt in our growth path for the coming years to achieve our Vision 2030."

The event was co-hosted by the Saudi Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, eWTP Arabia Capital and Saudi Arabia China Entrepreneurs Association.