With a pair of wooden candleholders that have the label of "Made in China" in hands, Mohamed with his wife and daughter chose gifts at Alfa market in the southern suburb of Cairo for their friends as New Year holiday is coming.

 

Pointing to the wooden candleholders in the gift box, Mohamed said "these are made in China and they have very good quality."

 

"Just like any kind of goods by any country, you can have good or bad quality," Mohamed said. "You have to choose by yourself."

 

As the New Year and Christmas is coming, shopping windows of the Alfa market were dotted with colorful decorations. A special zone for Christmas gifts is full of Christmas trees and neon lights with most of the items being made in China.

 

A staff member of the supermarket, who gave his name as Ashraf, said most of the toys in the supermarket were also made in China, adding "it sells very well."

 

As time went on, Egyptian people found that Chinese goods have become part of their daily life, which is the result of increasing bilateral trade between Egypt and China in recent years.

 

According to Chinese statistics, bilateral trade between China and Egypt reached 3.2 billion US dollars in 2006, a 48.9-percent jump from a year earlier.

 

Sayed Gad, owner of a car audio player shop, told Xinhua that most of his products in the store are from China.

 

Compared with the audio brands from Western countries and Japan, Chinese products are relatively cheaper with the same quality, which can be more acceptable by Egyptian consumers since the country is still developing, he said.

 

Gad said he also has a mobile phone made by Chinese producer. "It's cheap and the quality is OK," said the young man, showing his mobile phone in black.

 

Nahed Hussein, who works for an investment company doing business with Chinese, said Egyptians are more and more relying on Chinese goods in their daily life.

 

Hussein said she likes to buy Chinese products such as electric cooker because it's very convenient in the kitchen and not expensive.

 

Talking about the phenomenon several months ago that some businessmen imported Chinese goods with bad quality into the Egyptian market, Hussein said it does harm to the benefits of both sides.

 

Of course, "it's not good for the image of Chinese goods and the rights of Egyptian consumers," but "fortunately the two governments have paid much attention to the abnormal tendency and taken positive measures to stop that," said the lady.

 

In late July, the Egyptian government issued regulations on import, stipulating that all goods imported into the Egyptian market must meet the rules of the World Trade Organization in a bid to ensure the quality and specification of imported products.

 

China also took some active moves on quality control, promising to provide safe products to the world market.

 

In late November, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi asked the country's quality watchdogs to beef up quality checks of food and toy exports ahead of the coming Christmas and New Year holidays.

 

Hussein said, "As the standard of living of the Egyptian people becomes higher, we need more products from China with excellent quality."

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 21, 2007)