An Arab research center, one of the regional and national study bases under the Ministry of Education, opened in the Ningxia University on March 26.

The center will build an open international platform for Sino-Arab joint researches and promote connections between China and the Arab world to a deeper extent, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region's vice chairman Li Rui said during the launching ceremony.

Last September, the university founded the country's first school of Arabic language and was granted to build an Arab research center on this basis in January 2012.

As one of China's five autonomous regions, Ningxia is home to the country's largest Muslim community and thus has an inbuilt advantage in exchanges and collaboration with Islamic states, Li said.