The public hall in Yinchuan, which is designed to improve administrative services and to help investors, companies and the public. Zou Hong / China Daily

The city has a development foundation for the IT industry, is home to many Arabic-speaking graduates and a popular place to set up large data centers due to its cheap electricity and favorable climate.

"A cross-border online trade pilot has been put into operation to promote service outsourcing and e-commerce toward Arab states," Xu said.

The city government has also planned an international science and education city in Binhe New Area to attract Arab colleges and universities. It plans to build a healthcare city by introducing advanced medical teams from South Korea and Serbia.

Based on the city's comprehensive tax-free zone, Yinchuan plans to establish a commercial and industrial park to attract funds, technology and projects from Arab states and to facilitate their trade and investments with Chinese companies. The Yuehaiwan Central Business District will also be developed into a new platform for financial cooperation between the two sides.

The city plans to improve its investment environment by reducing administrative approval procedures. "We set up a related service bureau and a city hall to help investors, companies and the public," Xu said.

Yinchuan has witnessed tremendous economic and social progress since China's reform and opening-up in the late 1970s, but its economy is still underdeveloped.

"Light and heavy industries are developing in an unbalanced way in Yinchuan. To solve the problem, we plan to build an ecological textile park to help reduce the proportion of light and heavy industries from 83:17 to 70:30 and to form an industry chain ranging from coal to coal chemicals and modern textiles," Xu said.

"We will highlight the development of emerging and high-end industries, such as big data, e-commerce, general aviation and headquarter economy to upgrade the city's industrial structure," he added.

Yinchuan has rich natural resources, but its ecological environment is fragile. "We have included rivers, lakes, wetlands and forests into a list of permanent protection resources by legislation to protect the local environment. We also built the Binhe New Area to expand the development space of the city," Xu said.

Living in an economically underdeveloped area, residents in Yinchuan are most concerned about how to increase their income and narrow the gap with the developed areas.

"We have issued plans to help increase the income and made more efforts to increase the employment rate and launched some preferential policies for college students to start new businesses," Xu said.

"Yinchuan now faces multiple development opportunities, and I believe the city will have stronger industrial strength and become more open, harmonious and people-oriented," he added.

Contact the writers through haonan@chinadaily.com.cn