The friendly relations between China and Arab countries will have an optimistic future, said Feng Zuoku, vice president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) on Thursday.

Feng was in Syria for the second China-Arab Friendship Conference which ended on Wednesday with adoption of an action plan calling for further boosting China-Arab exchanges and cooperation in various fields.

During an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Feng said the conference, as an important mechanism of non-governmental exchanges, has played a positive role in pushing forward the non-governmental cooperation between China and Arab countries.

Through two conferences in Sudan and Syria respectively, the Arab countries have showed increasing interest in conducting cooperation with China, reflecting an optimistic prospect of the development of China-Arab friendly ties, he said.

In the past two years, Feng continued, China and Arab nations have maintained regular exchanges of visits and the two sides have organized a number of activities to enhance the cohesion of the conference.

The two sides have set up five pairs of sister cities or provinces, including friendship ties between Egypt's Cairo Province and China's Shaanxi Province, and Qatar's capital Doha and China's Beijing, with the efforts of China-Arab Friendship Association (CAFA), he noted.

The second China-Arab Friendship Conference opened in the Syrian capital Damascus on Tuesday, with attendance of a CAFA delegation and representatives from 20 Arab countries as well as the Arab League (AL).

When asked to comment on the just-concluded conference, Feng said it was a successful and pragmatic meeting, noting that both sides vowed to conduct cooperation, especially in economy and trade, culture, education and between local governments.

As an important achievement of the conference, the representatives have elected members of the executive committee of Arab-China Friendship Association, a permanent organization based in Sudan, Feng said.

This marks the formal establishment of the organization, which will give further impetus to the non-governmental exchanges between China and Arab countries, he added.

"Some officials from China's local government have also attended the meeting in which they made acquaintance and initial discussion with the Arab side on further promoting possible cooperation," Feng said.

According to the 2008-2010 China-Arab Non-governmental Action Plan, China will send two delegations of local government officials to visit Arab countries in the following two years, in an effort to step up cooperation between local governments and establish more sister cities from China and Arab countries.

Besides, a symposium between Chinese and Arab scholars and meetings between entrepreneurs of both sides were also held on the sidelines of the conference.

Feng said the scholars have reached consensus on stepping up dialogue and cooperation between Chinese and Arab universities and that they also made proposals on ways of further developing the China-Arab relations.

In the meantime, Feng underlined some problems in the bilateral exchanges. One of the vital problems is that the friendship associations of Arab countries lack enough support from the government, thus they have not yet had broad influence, he said.

However, Feng said the AL has decided to make efforts to help the local organizations to obtain support from respective government, which is a key step to overcome the difficulties.

The conference showed China is gaining an important role in the world arena and the Arab sides believed that China will play an even bigger role in the current world financial crisis so they are in urgent wishes to cement the friendly exchanges and cooperation with China, Feng said.

Co-sponsored by the China-Arab Friendship Association and the AL, the second China-Arab Friendship Conference was held in accordance with the action plan of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum held in Bahrain this May.

The two-day conference gave an opportunity to China and Arab countries to keep on the momentum of development, as the action plan said both sides decided to continue their regular exchanges of visits with an aim to maintain friendly relations and cooperation.

China will invite 20 or so delegations from Arab countries to visit China and will send two or three goodwill delegations to Arab countries in the next two years, the action plan said.

Both sides will continue to facilitate their economic and trade cooperation, and China will send two delegations of entrepreneurs to relevant Arab countries to explore business opportunities.

The action plan also called for promoting cultural exchanges, including organizing visits between art performing troupes, scholars and journalists of the two sides.

The third China-Arab Friendship conference will be inaugurated in Libya in 2010, according to the action plan.

(Xinhua News Agency October 31, 2008)