Chinese telecom manufacturer Huawei announced it was in negotiations with Egypt’s ministry of investment to install smartphones assembly unit around the Suez Canal. Hala Aranda, Huawei’s director for public relations and governmental affairs, said the objective of this plant was to make Egypt a center of production and export of smartphones for Africa and the Middle East.

Since 2014, multiple reports including Ericsson’s which presents Africa as the next major market for smartphones by 2020. With a plant able to meet the continent’s demand, Huawei plans to reinforce its position in an excessively competitive market marked by the presence of giants such as Samsung and Techno.

Re-emerging from these negotiations are the investment commitments previously stated by Huawei’s president Sun Yafang during her last meeting with Egypt’s head of state Abdul Fattah el-Sisi in 2014. She then voiced her group’s desire to deepen cooperation with Egypt in the telecom and ICT sectors. She also said that Egypt, considering its position as a regional cross-road, held a strategic position in the group’s global expansion plans.

In Egypt since 1999, Huawei has numerous assets in the country including its Northern Africa Headquarters, various centers of expertise, training centres for the North Africa and the Middle East, a technical support centre and software-application research base.