Mohammed Al Ajlan: 20 years in the WTO, China has shared prosperity and achieved win-win results with the world

China joined the WTO to share prosperity and achieve win-win situation with the world. 

Market opening is one of the most direct changes of China's entry into WTO. Since its accession to the WTO, China has fully fulfilled its commitments, substantially opened up the market, provided more public goods, and fully demonstrated its responsibility in opening-up the market to the world. Foreign companies operating in China have also fully felt the spill over effects of reforming and opening-up of China’s market. 

Ajlan & Bros Holding Group has an history of cooperation with China. In 1990, when China and Saudi Arabia formally established diplomatic relations, the group was the first Saudi company from private sector to enter China market.

"The decision to invest in China was made after conducting research in a number of markets, including South Korea and Japan.  But in the end, we decided to invest and build factories in China.  China is the factory of the world. Most of the products of all countries come from China.  This is the better choice for us in the past, present, and future.  China is a vast country with diverse cultures and ethnic groups. Market demand, high-quality labour, supporting industries and upstream and downstream enterprises can be found everywhere." Mohammed Al-Ajlan, vice chairman of Ajlan & Bros Holding Group and Chairman of the Saudi-China Business Council, told The International Financial News. 

“We started with textile. At that time, China's textile industry was going through a huge leap. Today China's textile industry is very developed and the quality of products is remarkable, few countries can match with that. More importantly, China's textile industry is highly efficient, highly productive, with the advantages of human resources, the supporting industries and factories. and the support from the authorities, both central government and local government."  Mohammed Al-Ajlan said.

For Mohammed, China’s journey to the WTO brought new opportunities for the group’s development in China.  "China's accession to the WTO is good for both China and the world.  Today, China is playing leading roles in many fields in the world, including heavy industry, science and technology, research and development, and innovation. China has become the world leader in innovative R&D.  China's opening-up is conducive to the development of the world economy. It will improve the efficiency of its own economic operation as well as help expand its trade volume with other countries.  It is important for China to become a major power on the international stage." 

As the largest Saudi Arabian private company in China, Ajlan & Bros has always been committed to helping its Chinese partners based on the company’s long-term development in China and its continuous accumulation of commercial strength and advantageous resources, and to further exploring Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and North Africa through new opportunities. The group has established a series of mutually beneficial cooperation with leading Chinese companies such as SF International (logistics), Swiftpass (fintech) and Tencent Games(e-sports) in different fields. 

As for future cooperation space between Chinese and Saudi Arabian enterprises, Mohammed Al Ajlan pointed out that Ajlan & Bros will continue to play the role of “gateway to the Middle East and North Africa,” fully grasp investment opportunities in various fields, and effectively empower more outstanding Chinese companies can enter the Middle East and North Africa region to achieve leading positions.