The Shanghai city government is encouraging local enterprises to elbow their way into the Middle Eastern market by grasping the opportunity presented by the post-war reconstruction of Iraq.

The Shanghai Foreign Economic and Trade Commission yesterday held a seminar attended by 87 companies to discuss how to enter that market.

"It's huge, with great potential,'' said Xu Yibo, the commission's deputy director.

He added that many Arab countries want to develop favourable economic and trade relations with China.

Shanghai used to attach great importance to the markets in Europe, the United States, Japan and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, with less stress on trade with the Middle East.

Between January and May this year, the city exported only US$320 million worth of goods to the Middle East market, up 41 per cent compared with the same period last year but still far below the US$1.1 billion worth of exports achieved by neighbouring Zhejiang Province. Zhejiang's export figure accounted for 20 per cent of China's exports to the Middle East.

Xu said: "Rebuilding Iraq will help revive the whole Middle East market and be a good chance for Shanghai enterprises.''

His words were echoed by Zhou Hangwei, general manager of the Shanghai ACE Webbing Co Ltd, which has shown strong interest in the Middle East market.

"We don't know the market and have never done business with it but we are eager to do so,'' she said.

"If possible, we will meet the challenge while consolidating our original markets in Japan, South Korea and the United States,'' Zhou added.

Insiders have estimated that Iraq will need at least US$250 billion of foreign direct investment over the next 10 years if its gross domestic product is to grow by at least 10 per cent a year.

Twice that amount of foreign direct investment will be needed to enable Iraq's GDP to grow by 13 per cent a year.

United States energy and construction moguls have monopolized the heavily invested infrastructure projects in Iraq. But Professor Pan Guang from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences said: "Chinese companies still have a chance to get a bite of what is a big cake.''

According to Yu Qinyong, deputy general manager of the Shanghai International Advertising and Exhibition Co Ltd, Shanghai enterprises will establish a sales network in the countries neighbouring Iraq such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria.

"Goods can be sold to Iraq through the network, which can avoid the threat to individuals and reduce the risks of trade,'' Yu said.

China's Ministry of Commerce and the Shanghai city government will jointly organize the Saudi China Products Fair 2003 in Saudi Arabia from December 14 to 18 in a firm effort to help Chinese enterprises gain a presence in the market there.

"More Shanghai companies are expected to enter the Saudi market through the fair and then expand into the (wider) Middle East market,'' Yu said.

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