An AI cooperation blueprint for the Global South

China and Arab countries have moved from R&D toward its practical use, pioneering a people-centered path

China’s engagement with Arab states started 70 years ago with the establishment of diplomatic relations with Egypt. Since then, China-Arab cooperation has steadily expanded beyond trade in energy to infrastructure development, industrial investment and technological innovation. Today, as the digital economy expands and technological transformation accelerates, artificial intelligence is emerging as a new engine for China-Arab cooperation, creating fresh opportunities for collaboration in advanced technologies.

Many Arab states have incorporated digital transformation and artificial intelligence into their national development strategies. Policy frameworks such as Egypt’s National AI Strategy, Saudi Arabia’s National Strategy for Data and AI, the United Arab Emirates’ National Strategy for AI 2031, and Qatar’s Digital Agenda 2030 all identify AI as a key catalyst for economic diversification, more effective public services, and growth in future-oriented industries.

Meanwhile, China is fostering new quality productive forces and accelerating the integration of AI into the real economy. It has also accumulated substantial experience in AI research and development, industrial applications and digital infrastructure.

As important actors of the Global South, China and Arab countries share common objectives: advancing economic transformation, cultivating emerging industries and accelerating digitalization. Against this backdrop, AI has become a promising new pillar of cooperation to drive digital transformation and innovation for both sides.

More importantly, China-Arab cooperation in AI is guided by a people-centered vision that seeks to ensure AI serves economic and social development while improving people’s well-being.

This vision is reflected in three closely connected areas: promoting localized innovation, expanding AI applications in public services, and strengthening local talent development. Together, these efforts demonstrate how China and Arab countries are translating AI cooperation into practical development outcomes.

Localized innovation is essential for making AI more inclusive. This goal extends beyond technological advancement and calls for equitable participation of diverse linguistic and cultural groups in the digital age.

Much of the current global AI landscape has been built on English-language data. The relative scarcity of Arabic-language digital resources has limited the development and deployment of AI technologies across the Arab world.

In 2023, Chinese and Saudi researchers jointly released AceGPT, an open-source large language model specifically optimized for Arabic-language applications. Compared with more general-purpose models, AceGPT has demonstrated strong performance in Arabic-language understanding and generation tasks.

This collaboration has enriched the Arabic AI ecosystem, expanded access to AI technologies for Arabic-speaking communities and provided valuable insights into the development of AI in diverse linguistic environments. By prioritizing language adaptation and locally grounded innovation, China-Arab cooperation is helping ensure that AI technologies are better adapted to local needs and development priorities.

In recent years, China-Arab cooperation in AI has moved beyond research and development to practical applications in areas closely related to public services and daily life, including healthcare, tourism and urban governance.

In healthcare, the Chinese company Synyi AI has partnered with Saudi Arabia’s Almoosa Health Group to launch “Dr Hua”, an AI-powered clinical assistant. The system currently focuses on around 30 common respiratory conditions and supports patient consultations in English and Arabic, generating preliminary diagnostic reports and treatment suggestions for human doctors to review. In tourism, China’s Baidu AI Cloud has collaborated with the Saudi Tourism Authority to enhance visitor experiences through large language models, intelligent translation services and digital human technologies. The cooperation aims to improve multilingual tourism services and visitor experiences. In urban governance, Chinese companies have participated in smart city initiatives across the Arab world, contributing to projects in intelligent transportation systems, smart buildings and digital urban management. In Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu Industrial City, for example, Huawei helped deploy an AI-enabled traffic management system using 256 HD cameras across 16 major intersections, which reportedly reduced monthly traffic violations from about 5,000 to 2,000.

The growth of the AI sector depends on a continuous supply of skilled talent. For many Arab countries, developing local digital expertise and strengthening innovation capacity are critical to achieving successful digital transformation. Expanded cooperation between China and Arab states in this area reflects a shared recognition that technological progress requires sustained investment in people as much as in technology.

In 2024, SenseTime Middle East and Africa signed a memorandum of understanding with the King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (Mawhiba) to provide AI training programs for young Saudi students. In 2025, Huawei launched an AI education initiative in partnership with several Egyptian universities, offering online courses and certification programs for more than 25,000 students. Huawei has also launched a skills development center in Saudi Arabia, in partnership with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, aiming to train 25,000 local talents by 2030.

As AI becomes increasingly integrated into economic and social development, developing countries face a common challenge: how to harness AI in ways that advance their own development priorities rather than simply following technological pathways shaped elsewhere.

China-Arab cooperation in AI offers one practical response to this challenge. Rather than pursuing AI as an abstract technological race, the two sides have focused on areas closely related to economic transformation and social needs. From developing Arabic large language models and expanding AI applications in healthcare, tourism and urban governance to fostering local digital talent, the cooperation between the two sides has centered on localized innovation, practical applications and capacity building tailored to local needs.

This experience shows that AI can generate tangible development outcomes when it is rooted in local realities. Looking ahead, China and Arab countries are well-positioned to deepen their innovation partnerships and expand knowledge exchanges. By doing so, they can not only generate new momentum for their own digital development but also provide practical experience for other developing countries seeking AI strategies suited to their own linguistic, social and development conditions.

The author is an associate research fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Fudan University.

The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.