Saudi Arabia sends delegation to China for World Economic Forum's 'Summer Davos'

Saudi Arabia is sending a 24-person delegation to the World Economic Forum's 'summer Davos' in Tianjin, China, according to the Financial Times. The event, which is due to take place between the 27 and 29 June, will provide an opportunity to strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries.

The 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, the official title of the event, will host over 1,500 participants. It will seek to emphasise that ‘the need for global collaboration remains urgent as various crises continue to impact the global economy’.

The Saudi delegation, which includes six ministers and six deputy ministers, will be led by Minister for Economy and Planning Faisal Al-Ibrahim and Minister for Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha.

Faisal Al-Ibrahim is set to speak at a session entitled the ‘Global Debt Explosion’ on the second day of the conference, and at a session titled ‘Competitive Cooperation in Practice’ on the third day.

Economic cooperation between China and Saudi Arabia has increased remarkably in recent years, as Saudi Arabia seeks help diversifying its economy into new sectors under the Vision 2030 program. Key sectors marked for growth are healthcare, infrastructure, tourism and the digital economy.

On the other hand, the Chinese economy has struggled to restart growth after a prolonged period of economic shutdowns due to the Covid pandemic.

The deepening of cooperation between the two countries was most recently seen in early June when Riyadh held the 10th Arab-China Business Conference, hosting 3,000 participants from across the Middle East and China. The conference saw $10 billion in agreements signed on the first day alone.

It comes as bilateral trade between Saudi Arabia and China reached $116 billion in 2022, up from $87 in 2021, with Saudi Arabia also being one of the major oil suppliers to China.