HAIKOU /China/, September 18. /TASS/. A delegation from the southern Chinese province of Hainan traveled to the UAE from September 13-15 to strengthen trade, economic, scientific and cultural ties and promote the island's free trade port. This was reported by the Hainan Daily newspaper.

The paper said that during the visit, the provincial delegation held a series of events aimed at promoting the province's free trade port, fostering economic, trade and cultural exchanges, developing practical cooperation in trade and economy, industry, culture and tourism, science and technology between Hainan and the UAE, as well as aimed at jointly promoting the One Belt, One Road initiative.

The newspaper notes that Hainan representatives made a presentation on the island's free trade port. There were also meetings between the delegation and representatives of the UAE Ministry of Economy, the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, the World Free Zone Organization (World FZO), the Chinese Embassy in the UAE, the Chinese Consulate General in Dubai, as well as Chinese enterprises operating in the UAE. The Hainan delegation visited Jebel Ali Free Zone, Abu Dhabi port and airport, Dubai airport duty-free store, according to the article. Representatives of the province also visited such enterprises as G42, the Abu Dhabi-based technology company, UAE port operator Dubai Ports World and a number of others.

In recent years, the strategic partnership between the PRC and the UAE has shown a tendency of development; the parties maintain close contacts at a high level, and practical cooperation between the countries has achieved significant results. As a result, there has been a significant growth in bilateral trade, the newspaper said. For example, the volume of trade between the PRC and the UAE in the first half of 2023 has already exceeded the volume of trade between the two countries for the whole of 2021.