The two-way trade exchange between China and Jordan has rebounded significantly, reaching 2.004 billion US dollars in the first two quarters, a year-on-year increase of 21.4 percent, Chinese ambassador in Amman Chen Chuandong said on Sunday.
In a wide ranging interview with the Jordan News Agency (Petra), Chen noted that that Jordan’s exports to China in the first six months of the current year were 235 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 14.1 percent despite a raging pandemic, under-recovered demand and surging global shipping costs.
He stressed that economic and trade cooperation is part and parcel of China-Jordan relations and an important driving force for the bilateral relations, adding : “Since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1977, China and Jordan have always regarded each other as true friends and good partners. Benefiting from the care and guidance of leaders of our two countries, China and Jordan have enjoyed enhanced mutual trust and deepening friendship, and practical cooperation in various fields has yielded fruitful results.”
Chen further said: “This year marks the 100thanniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and Centenary of statehood of Jordan, for which His Excellency President Xi Jinping and His Majesty King Abdullah II exchanged congratulatory messages, charting the course for future development of bilateral relations.”
The ambassador underscored that Jordan is strategically located and has been a vital gateway for commerce in the Middle East since ancient times and it is a “renowned oasis of stability” in the region, adding that the economies of China and Jordan are highly complementary with a huge potential for cooperation, which has developed rapidly in recent years.
According to Chen, China has become Jordan’s third largest trading partner and second largest source of imports, and Chinese companies are actively investing in Jordan, undertaking large-scale engineering projects, making significant progress.
“I believe that with guidance and support of our governments and concerted efforts of various sectors, China-Jordan economic and trade cooperation will continue to grow in scope and depth bringing greater benefits to the people,” the ambassador underlined.
However, he indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit both ends of supply and demand and impacted global trade immensely and noted that China-Jordan bilateral trade has also been significantly affected.
In the early stage of the outbreak of pandemic in 2020, disruption of production suffered by Chinese manufactures upended supply chains. Jordan strengthened quarantine of cargo ships at ports and ordered complete lock-downs for some time. Under such circumstances, bilateral economic and trade exchanges were met with considerable difficulties.
“The pandemic’s impact on China-Jordan economic and trade cooperation, I am convinced, is only temporary,” Chen said, explaining that the “fundamentals of economic and trade cooperation between our two countries remain unchanged. The political will of our governments in boosting economic and trade ties remains unchanged. The enthusiasm of our business communities for economic and trade cooperation remains undiminished.”
The ambassador further said: “And economic globalization, albeit with headwinds, remains an irreversible trend of our times. In an op-ed in April 2020, His Majesty King Abdullah II called for return of globalization. At the opening ceremony of the 2021 annual Boao Forum for Asia, President Xi Jinping pointed out that in the era of economic globalization, openness and integration is an unstoppable historical trend.”
“As long as we stay true to multilateralism, strengthen our confidence in globalization and our belief in win-win cooperation, taking advantage of high-quality development of Belt and Road cooperation, we will be able to overcome the impact of the pandemic and bring our economic and trade exchanges back to normal and achieve greater growth by tapping potentials for collaboration in such areas as infrastructure development, industrial capacity, telecommunications and new energy,” Chen emphasized.
Source: Jordan News Agency