SHANGHAI, Dec 14 Reuters The stock exchange in China39;s city of Shenzhen and the Abu Dhabi securities exchange agreed to promote crossborder investment and listings in the latest flurry of cooperation between institutions in countries looking to cut reliance on the West.

It comes days after a similar pact between the Shenzhen exchange and the Saudi exchange, and less than a month after another between the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Dubai Financial Market.

What we39;re seeing is that international investment flows are shifting, said Mike Wardle, chief executive of think tank ZYen Group, which is based in London.

A lot of investments are starting to flow into China from the Middle East and vice versa, he added, even as some global investors are leaving China for Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam or Malaysia.

The signing of the memorandum of understanding between the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in the southern Chinese city and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange ADX in the United Arab Emirates was announced late on Wednesday.

Chineseruled Hong Kong has also been deepening ties with the Middle East, with the recent launch of the AsiaPacific region39;s first exchangetraded fund ETF tracking Saudi Arabian equities.

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, is boosting its investment to roughly 200 million in China39;s eWTP Capital, which targets innovative startups, the government said in a statement this month.

The Middle East has grown…