Mega infra project to boost ties with UAE

The Emirates airport maintenance hangar project in Dubai, undertaken by China Railway Construction Corp, and the deepening China-UAE infrastructure and industrial cooperation, will inject new momentum into the local economy and further enhance the bilateral partnership, experts said.

The megaproject, which kicked off in May, is located in the Dubai World Central area. It covers a total construction area of about 1.21 million square meters with a total investment exceeding $5 billion. Scheduled for 2030 completion, it is set to become a major global civil aviation maintenance hangar cluster, featuring top technical standards.

The facility includes eight large maintenance hangars, two specialized painting hangars and related support facilities. Once completed, it will be capable of simultaneously providing full-process services — including airframe overhauls, engine maintenance and aircraft painting — for 28 wide-body aircraft.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and CEO of Emirates Airline, said the commencement of this world-class aviation engineering project marks an important step for Dubai in the future development of its aviation industry. The project will effectively integrate specialized capabilities, such as infrastructure and parts manufacturing, injecting new momentum into the UAE's economic growth, he noted.

Dai Hegen, chairman of CRCC, said that the cooperation between CRCC and Emirates is an important example of deepening good-neighborly friendship, pragmatic cooperation, and the high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative between China and the UAE. It also serves as a demonstration project of "Chinese construction" contributing to the building of a China-UAE community with a shared future.

Relying on the construction of this aviation infrastructure project, Chinese enterprises will further demonstrate their comprehensive strength in engineering technology, construction quality and project management, Dai said. This will promote "Chinese construction" to better enter the high-end infrastructure market in the Middle East, continuously enhance international brand influence and industry competitiveness, and add new vitality to deepening China-UAE cooperation.

In recent years, with the continuous deepening of bilateral cooperation, Chinese enterprises have actively participated in infrastructure construction in the Middle East.

Data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs show fruitful pragmatic cooperation between the two economies. The UAE is China's largest export market and second-largest trading partner in the Middle East. In 2025, bilateral trade value reached $108 billion, with China's exports at $72.88 billion and imports at $35.12 billion.

China mainly exports mechanical and electrical equipment, home appliances, vehicles and their parts, as well as steel and its products to the UAE, while primarily importing crude oil, natural gas, plastics and their products, organic chemicals and copper and its products. The UAE is China's sixth-largest source of crude oil imports, supplying 37.513 million metric tons to China in 2025.

Furthermore, Chinese enterprises are assisting Arab countries in upgrading their local industrial development levels through technology transfers, joint production and the construction of industrial parks. In the UAE, the China-UAE Industrial Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Zone focuses on high-end manufacturing, clean energy and modern logistics, with multiple projects already implemented through joint investments by Chinese and UAE enterprises.

"What we learn is not only products, but also knowledge and capabilities, which will help us achieve long-term sustainable development," said Reem Al Muhairi, an industrial project management official at an enterprise in the UAE.