17.07.07 17:01 Age: 17 yrs

Gulf Investor Announces US$5 billion Plan for Beijing Oil Center

Beijing, China - July 17, 2007

A Bahrain-based developer announced a US$5 billion plan (approximately RMB38 billion yuan) to build a business center for the oil industry in the eastern suburb of Beijing, highlighting China's growing ties to the Middle East and its booming energy market.

The project, which requires Chinese government approval, could become the biggest Middle Eastern investment in China, said Esam Yousif Janahi, chief executive officer of Gulf Finance House, its main backer.

China's Mideast ties are growing as Beijing boosts oil imports to fuel its booming economy. Gulf investors, flush with revenues from high oil prices, are looking to China and other thriving Asian economies for new opportunities.

"We are here to share the prosperity of this great country," Janahi said.

The oil center, dubbed the International Energy City and located in Sanhe, a city on the Chinese capital's eastern outskirts, aims to attract foreign and Chinese oil companies with a business park, a Chinese-Arab business school, laboratories and executive housing, Janahi said. He said it could be completed within five years.

(Source: Associated Press) - click here for more.