China and Saudi Arabia should make full use of the opportunities brought about by their development to continuously expand bilateral economic and trade cooperation, a Chinese official said on Monday.

 

Wu Chunhua, China's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, made the remarks at a gathering of more than 100 Chinese and Saudi entrepreneurs Monday at the Chinese embassy in Saudi Arabia.

 

Economic and trade cooperation has always been a bright spot in Sino-Saudi cooperation, said Wu, adding that economic cooperation between the two has surged and Saudi Arabia has been China's biggest trading partner in Western Asia for many years.

 

China and Saudi Arabia have made rapid progress in cooperation in the fields of energy, engineering and telecommunication, according to Wu, who noted that cooperation between the two countries is in the ascendant.

 

China and the Gulf region, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, are viewed as the most economically vigorous regions in the world, Wu said. With their economies being highly complementary, the two should further expand the scope of their economic and trade cooperation for a win-win result, he said.

 

From January to October 2006, bilateral trade reached US$16.544 billion, 26.8 percent up from the same period of the previous year. And trade for the total year was expected to exceed US$20 billion.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2007)