The Saudi Ministry of Education chose the China Railway-15 Bureau Group Corporation in a competitive tender against several other international firms. The new schools are a centerpiece of Saudi King Abdullah’s Project for the Development of General Education which aims to raise standards of education in the kingdom.
"The region was going through a construction boom but now all the projects are concentrated in Saudi Arabia," Shafquat Ali, a senior editor at the Saudi newspaper Arab News, told The Media Line.
Ali said the Chinese company had been selected ahead of local conglomerates including the Saudi Bin Laden Group.
"I’m sure they have done their homework," he said. "It goes again to prove the Chinese-Saudi relationship."
A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Saudi Ministry of Education and the China Railway-15 Bureau Group Corp in 2008. In the past, similar projects have been awarded to local Saudi companies, but an Education Ministry official told the Saudi Press Agency that on too many occasions the Saudi firms did not adhere to the timetable or ended work before the project was completed.
The ministry is currently undertaking 3,500 different initiatives at an estimated cost of $5.3 billion as part of King Abdullah’s project to improve education. In addition to upgrading the schools, the project is also investing significant funds in teacher training and development, and in extra-curricular activities.
Relations between China – the world’s second largest oil importer, and Saudi Arabia – the worlds top oil producer, are concentrated mainly on energy cooperation but China hopes to be able to increase bilateral trade from an estimated $15 billion in 2005 to $20 billion in 2010.
Since 2001 China has signed some 3,000 contracts totaling $2.7 billion with the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which includes Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
In 2004 an agreement on Economic, Trade, Investment, and Technological Cooperation was signed between China and the GCC and negotiations for a China-GCC free trade zone were initiated.
Meanwhile, the Chinese broadcasting company China Central TV on Saturday night launched an Arabic language channel for the Middle East and Africa as part of the government’s plans to improve its relations with the Arab and Muslim World. The channel is China Central’s fourth foreign language channel after English, French and Spanish.
"It really goes a long way to show that China is trying to break down the language barrier," Ali said.
Among the competitors of the new Chinese programming will be Al-Hurra, an Arabic language channel established in the United States in 2004 with backing from the U.S. government as part of a public diplomacy campaign.