Saudi- COCC: Enterprises achieving great success

(MENAFN- Arab News) More than 600 years ago, Zheng He, the most important Chinese adventurer and one of the world's greatest sailors, led a huge fleet to the Western Seas (Southeast Asia and beyond) seven times. He successfully landed on the Arabian Peninsula, traveled far and wide to Makkah and so on. His friendly and peaceful exchanges there marked the most prosperous voyage of the world. Zheng He's fleet consisted of more than 200 ships with over 20,000 soldiers and crew members. The great undertaking by Zheng He's fleet was the kind that no individual ship could have been able to accomplish. Nowadays the enterprises are telling the same story - enterprises, if allied together, could be a powerful fleet that can ride on the crest of waves and make rapid progress. According to Chen Xifu, chairman, Contact Office of Chinese Companies in Saudi Arabia (COCC), there are almost 100 Chinese enterprises at present and more than 20,000 Chinese people working in Saudi Arabia. COCC was set up in Saudi Arabia in March 2010 with the leadership of the Commercial Counselor's Office of the Embassy. It already boasts 60 members, which include the biggest, the most powerful and the most successful China enterprises in Saudi Arabia, including two enterprises ranking in the top 10 among the World Top 500 Enterprises, together with other world leading enterprises in petrochemical, communication, railway construction as well as cement plant construction industries. China enterprises in Saudi Arabia have achieved great successes in the past decade, which contributed to the outcome that Saudi Arabia stands as the number one trade partner of China in West Asia and North Africa in 9 consecutive years and China as the number one trade partner of Saudi Arabia in Asia, Xifu said. COCC is internally devoted to the promotion of communication, cooperation and balanced development of China enterprises, and externally devoted to the communication, understanding and cooperation with Saudi enterprises, he added. It bridges Chinese and Saudi enterprises to facilitate closer cooperation between Chinese enterprises themselves as well as that between them and their Saudi counterparts, fueling the economic relationship and trade between the two countries, Xifu said. The COCC website aims to provide a platform for multilateral cooperation between Chinese and Saudi enterprises, looking forward to participation, comments and advice, he added.