Since China proposed the "Belt and Road" initiative in 2013, in the past 10 years, 15 Middle Eastern countries have signed cooperation documents with China to jointly build the "Belt and Road". In the past 10 years, Zhejiang's import and export of foreign trade with the Middle East has developed in an
all-round way, with a total of 2.92 trillion yuan of imports and exports, including 2.08 trillion yuan of exports and 847.26 billion yuan of imports.
The Middle East become the largest source of imports in Zhejiang
Since 2018, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have firmly ranked the top two in Zhejiang's import and export to the Middle East.
In 2022, Zhejiang's imports and exports to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia will be 133.81 billion yuan and 131.80 billion yuan respectively, which together account for 48.8% of Zhejiang's total import and export value to the Middle East during the same period.
Optimization of import and export commodity structure
Trade complementarity is obvious
As the economic and trade cooperation between China and the Middle East countries continues to deepen, the trade complementarity between Zhejiang and the Middle East is becoming more and more obvious. In 2022, Zhejiang's export of electromechanical products to the Middle East will account for 43.6% of the total export value, an increase of 5.4 percentage points from 2013; exports of labor-intensive products will account for 32.5%, a decrease of 10.8 percentage points from 2013. During the same period, the export of automobiles, paper, luggage and solar cells increased by 1.7 times, 56.8%, 69.8% and 56.5% respectively.
As a dominant product in the Middle East, energy products have largely met Zhejiang’s import and economic development needs. In 2022, Zhejiang’s imports of crude oil and refined oil from the Middle East will be 162.47 billion yuan and 9.81 billion yuan, an increase of 92.5% and 2.0 times respectively, accounted for 71.0%. During the same period, imported plastics in primary shapes were 19.93 billion yuan, accounting for 8.2%.
