China–GCC Trade and Investment Interconnections

Over the past two decades, economic, trade, and energy cooperation between China and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has made remarkable progress. With crude oil and natural gas at its core, bilateral trade flows have grown more than 20-fold since 2002, making China the bloc’s number one trading partner. Chinese investment in GCC countries totals $26 billion, with investments in the energy sector dominating. The GCC and China have also established a solid basis for further cooperation on physical infrastructure (logistics, segments of industrial supply chains, special economic zones) and soft infrastructure (policy, financial, institutional). However, a sustained linear development of economic, trade, and energy cooperation may prove challenging due to emerging global issues such as a slowdown in economic expansion, rising debt levels, trade wars, and geopolitical tensions. Conventional energy is expected to remain at the core of bilateral economic relations between China and the GCC and provide a solid basis for cooperation in other areas. Moreover, there are significant development opportunities in emerging industries such as clean energy and cleantech, biotechnology, and digital solutions.