Egypt seeks to attract Chinese mobile companies fleeing India

29 November 2022

Egypt is trying to take advantage of the crisis between Chinese smartphone companies and India by providing incentives to such companies to lure them into investing in the Egyptian market.

Egypt is trying to take advantage of the escalating crisis between China’s mobile smartphone companies and India by providing facilities that would encourage these companies to invest in the Egyptian market.

On Sept. 13, Cairo signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer Oppo under which the Chinese company will establish a mobile phone factory in Egypt, with a production capacity of 4.5 million units per year at a cost of $20 million.

In an article published Sept. 14, the Chinese English-language newspaper Global Times quoted an India-based Chinese executive as saying that the deal to establish a factory in Egypt “may herald an exodus of Chinese mobile phone firms from India amid the country's escalating crackdown on Chinese companies.”

The source, who requested anonymity, added to the paper, “The management in Chinese smartphone brands in India felt a palpable sense of being squeezed by the Indian government's crackdown and its [protectionist] actions to improve domestic companies' capability to make sophisticated electronics such as smartphones.”

“Chinese smartphone brands are also looking at Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nigeria as replacements for India,” the report said.

The crisis between India and Chinese smartphone companies has reached its peak in recent months as Indian authorities escalated their crackdown against these companies, most notably Oppo, under the pretext of tax evasion.

Read more: AL-MONITOR


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