Spanning Hanggin Banner, Dalad Banner, and Juungar Banner in the city of Ordos in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Kubuqi Desert ranks as the seventh-largest desert in China.

For over 30 years, the country has been carrying out a series of key afforestation and desert control projects, encouraging enterprises to industrialize desert control, and mobilizing private capital to support desert control efforts.

According to the Kubuqi Ecological Wealth Assessment Report released in September 2017 during the 13th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Kubuqi Desert had by that year restored and afforested 6,253 square kilometers of desert, creating ecological wealth in excess of 500 billion yuan ($71.33 billion), and lifting 102,000 local residents out of poverty.

It has achieved a historic shift from "sand advancing and human retreating" to "green advancing and sand retreating".

Kubuqi Desert has become the world's only desert that has been comprehensively treated. Not only have its ecological resources gradually increased and its regional ecology significantly improved, but the desert region's economy has also continued to grow.

Moreover, the Kubuqi Model has successfully established a four-pronged approach driven by governmental policy support, investment in industrial enterprises, market participation of farmers and herders, and continuous technological innovation.

During the 13th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in 2017, more than 240 ministers and representatives from various countries visited and inspected Kubuqi Desert.

They recognized the desert control practices in Kubuqi and the Kubuqi Model, hoping to replicate and promote it in other parts of the world.

Today, with the impetus of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Kubuqi Model has extended its reach to countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, contributing Chinese wisdom to global desertification prevention and control.

From Dec 7 to 10, 2022, the first China-Arab States Expo was held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The National Center for Vegetation Development and Desertification Control of Saudi Arabia (NCVC) and China's leading desert control enterprise, the Elion Resources Group, signed a strategic cooperation agreement, introducing Elion's Kubuqi desert control technology services to assist Saudi Arabia in implementing its national green initiative.

Ye Guangtao, vice chairman of Elion International Investment Co, said Elion has already promoted Kubuqi desert control technology services in Saudi Arabia and exported specialized technology licenses to the country, collaborating on technology localization.

In the future, Elion will also provide automation and digital technology in areas such as intelligent tree-planting robots, modern nurseries, germplasm resource technology, satellite remote sensing monitoring and data analysis platforms, blockchain carbon footprint technology, and photovoltaic desert control.

This is all aimed at assisting Saudi Arabia in realizing its national green initiatives, conserving its precious water resources, and building a low-carbon economy.