"Urgent need, huge potential" was the underlying message that emerged from Thursday's forum in Beijing on developing clean energy and energy interconnectivity among Arab countries.

The forum gathered government officials, diplomats, representatives of energy companies and experts from China and Arab nations.

"One of the most important things we are looking at this time is how we can make use of huge resources we have in the Arab world," said Mahmoud H. Elamin, ambassador of the Mission of the League of Arab States in Beijing. 

"We have been trying to avoid all the bad results from the fuel, normal and traditional energy in polluting our skies and our air in the area." 

The forum agreed that senior energy experts from China and Europe will train technical personnel in government and companies of Arab League countries in Cairo in October. 

It called for global efforts to advance clean energy development and grid interconnection in the Arab region. That idea is part of the efforts to build a Global Energy Interconnection or GEI, which China proposed in 2015. It's basically an energy system that's clean-energy dominant, electric-centric and globally interconnected. That concept has been listed included in the Belt and Road Initiative and UN 2030 Agenda.

Liu Zhenya, chairman of the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization, said the GEI is at the beginning stage but the potential is high.

"Arab states have already achieved some cross-border energy interconnection, and there is a huge demand of energy in neighboring Europe and South Asia," he told the forum. "The guideline for building energy interconnection in Arab is paying equal emphasis on domestic balance and electricity trading with neighboring countries and regions."  

Last year, China imported 157 million tons of oil from Arab countries, 37 percent of its total oil import. But China is not only importing oil from the Arab world.

"We have strong renewable production capability, many Arab countries are interested in cooperating with us. Many projects are being discussed. Our solar and wind power equipment is entering the Arab market now," said Li Chengwen, ambassador for China-Arab States Cooperation Forum Affairs of China's Foreign Ministry.

Ambassador Li said that energy cooperation will be one of the major topics during the ministerial meeting of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum in Beijing next month.