Muscat: Li Lingbing, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China, has valued the role of the Sultanate of Oman based on maintaining peace, moderation and balanced foreign policy under the leadership of His Majesty Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik.
“We highly appreciate Oman's long-term peaceful, moderate and balanced foreign policy. It is always playing an unique role to promote dialogue and consensus among parties in conflict, and made positive contributions to regional and world peace,” said Li Lingbing in an interview to Oman News Agency (ONA).
The ambassador added Oman enjoys enormous advantages in rich resources, great security environment and outstanding geographical location. It is an important partner of China's "Belt and Road" initiative. The key areas and cooperation models involved in the "Belt and Road" initiative have a high degree of compatibility with the "Oman Vision 2040" and the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" proposed by the Omani government. There is a huge potential for the two sides in strategic coordination and development cooperation.
“China and Oman have always been good partners for mutual benefit and good brothers sharing weal and woe,” said the ambassador, adding that, through this strategic partnership, the two countries strive to continue cooperating about all international issues, deepening understanding and mutual support. “We are willing to continue to strengthen communication and cooperation on international occasions and global issues, further deepen mutual understanding and mutual support, and jointly play a constructive role for world peace and regional stability,” the ambassador added.
“Oman is China's fourth largest trading partner in the Arab region. Over the past 40 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the economic and trade cooperation between the two sides has developed rapidly, involving many fields such as energy, telecommunication, infrastructure, fishery and commerce, which has achieved many outstanding results,” the ambassador further said.
“It is believed that as the friendly and cooperative relations between the two sides continue to deepen, the pragmatic cooperation between in the fields of trade, investment, engineering, finance, and human resources will achieve more results and achieve greater development in the future,” the Chinese ambassador added.
About commercial exchange between the two countries, Li Lingbing said that Oman is an important economic and trade partner of China in the Gulf region. “According to data from the Ministry of Commerce of China, in 2020, the bilateral trade volume between China and Oman is USD18.643 billion. Among them, China imported USD15.552 billion and exported USD3.091 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2.33%.”
The Ambassador said that the two countries will work together to expand cooperation in non-oil fields. “In the next step, in addition to further promoting traditional crude oil trade, we would like to further encourage companies from both sides to actively explore and promote trade cooperation in non-oil fields by participating in various exhibitions and activities held in both countries.”
The Chinese Ambassador commended the legal and procedural steps taken by the Sultanate to improve investment environment, saying, “We are glad to see that the Omani government has taken active measures to further improve the investment environment and attract investment over the years.”
This, she noted, will contribute to economic diversification and encourage the private sector and investors to increase participation in economic growth.
Speaking about Chinese participation in projects in the Special Economic Zone in Duqm (SEZAD), Li Lingbing said, “The Chinese side attaches a great importance to the development of the Industrial Park project in Duqm, and greatly values the unique location advantages of Duqm. We are willing to follow the principles of "enterprise as the entity, market orientation, commercial operation, and international practice" to encourage more Chinese companies come to Oman and invest in Duqm. Since 2019, some Chinese companies involved in petrochemicals, metallurgy, logistics, building materials, fisheries and other fields have expressed a strong interest in Duqm, some of which are already conducting feasibility studies and have contacted relevant Omani departments . At present, Hongtong Pipe Co., Ltd. has established a factory in the industrial park and will be put into production soon.”
The Ambassador also spoke about the recent visit of Yi Wang, State Councilor and Foreign Minister, to the Sultanate, saying that his visit was an opportunity to meet and hold direct talks with senior Omani officials, besides reviewing the friendship march and explore vistas of cooperation and development reviews.
The ambassador said, “Looking back on this visit, there are mainly four important achievements:
One is the continuous deepening of strategic mutual trust.” This is besides exchanging visions about regional security and stability, cementing cultural ties between the two nations, signing visa waiver agreements and memoranda of understanding about cooperation in the fields of culture, health and media.
Li Lingbing spoke in detail about the role of the Omani-Chinese Friendship Association established in 2010. She described the support accorded to the Association as an incentive to expand partnership in many economic, commercial, tourist and cultural spheres. --ONA
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