It added that banks were predicting that GCC states would invest as much as US$250 billion in Asia over the next five years, mainly in China.

In March, Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil firm Aramco announced it was undertaking two joint ventures in China worth about US$5 billion, alongside fellow oil giants Exxon Mobil and Sinopec.

And in April two Chinese companies signed a framework agreement to build two aluminium processing plants and related facilities worth nearly US$5 billion dollars in Saudi Arabia.

Nasser Saidi, chief economist at DIFC, said that he also believes that more needs to be done to bridge the cultural gap between the Middle East and China.

"These are very early days and there is a discovery process on both sides," Saidi told delegates. He urged governments to sponsor more cultural exchanges and encourage business figures to attend more joint trade fairs and conferences.

Sager said the Middle East should rely less on the West in economic and cultural terms and look more to China, which is home to millions of Muslims and has no recent history of interference in the region's political affairs.