Egyptians buy into Chinese products

"Guangzhou" was written in large blue Arabic letters on the storefront sign of a mobile phone shop in a populous neighborhood south of the Egyptian capital Cairo.

"I chose to name my store as Guangzhou because all smartphone accessories come from China's big city of Guangzhou, including screens, screen protectors, covers and others," said Ali Mandour, the store owner.

Meanwhile, Adel Muawad, a driver in his 50s, was taking a look through the storefront before he came in with a Huawei mobile phone and asked to change its screen protector.

"The good thing about Huawei phones is that they are very practical and they have configurations that can fit both businessmen and ordinary users. I believe 99 percent of the products in Egypt now are made in China," Muawad said.

Sayyid Mohamed, a 44-year-old carpenter who was having a cup of tea at the opposite coffee shop, said he prefers Oppo mobile phones because of their "very high configurations and the very good speed provided by their processors."

In Huawei Developer Conference 2019, held earlier in August in Dongguan city of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, the company said 100 million active users outside China enjoy its mobile services.

The nearby Xiaomi store even displays several other products including laptops, laptop bags, power banks, headsets, computer accessories and electric scooters.

Abdel-Rahman Amer from the Xiaomi marketing team noted that Xiaomi has about 15 branches across Egypt, highlighting Xiaomi's belief that marketing through the satisfaction of current customers is much more important than advertisement and publicity.

"We're working on opening five other branches this year and we also have 2,000 authorized distributors in all Egyptian provinces," Amer said.

The growing popularity of Chinese products in Egypt is not restricted to mobile phones and their accessories, as proven by the large number of customers seen at Miniso store in City Stars mall.

Miniso sells more than 12 different products, including bags, caps, socks, toys, sunglasses, car phone-holders and other accessories. They are all made in China.

"The Chinese products are becoming more popular in Egypt with a very good reputation. I have no problem at all buying a Chinese product, and I know many friends who own Huawei and Oppo mobile phones," said Maria Mamdouh, a young woman in her late 20s, while shopping at Miniso.

"The Chinese products have various attractive designs, with high quality and affordable prices," she added.

China's leading TV manufacturer Konka Group announced in early August the inauguration of its LED TV factory in Egypt's Beni Suef Province south of Cairo.

"Economic cooperation between China and Egypt has a rapid growth in the past five years. Last year, we have $13.8 billion of bilateral trade," said Han Bing, minister counselor for economic affairs at the Chinese embassy in Egypt, during the ceremony.

Meanwhile, Khaled Mostafa, secretary-general of Cairo Chamber of Commerce, praised the Chinese products exported to Egypt, saying they started to gain the trust of Egyptian consumers.

"Konka is a new Chinese respectful brand and a new plus for Chinese products in Egypt," Mostafa said.

"Throughout history, Egypt and China have always been close friends, which facilitates a lot of economic and commercial affairs between them," he said.

Xinhua