A Chinese B2B platform is aiming to boost transactions between Chinese and African traders by providing a direct link between importers and exporters from the two lands.
Shenzhen Right Net Tech Group (Kenya)'s team leader Collins Mutoro told Xinhua in Nairobi their website, www.Amanbo.com, provides African importers with savings of up to 10 percent of the cost of acquiring goods from China.
"Our database currently has over 30,000 suppliers of quality Chinese goods at the click of a button," Mutoro said. The website was launched in Kenya in September and has presence in Sierra Leone, Egypt and Cameroon, serving as a platform that contains suppliers of goods from China and Africa.
"Chinese traders will also easily find goods from African suppliers," Mutoro said. He said the platform would boost Sino-Africa trade. "It will reduce the need for traders having to travel long distances to buy products." Purity Muriuki, the secretary for Shenzhen Right Net Tech Group's Kenya Office, said that the firm had created employment opportunities for Kenyans.
"We have learnt a lot of skills which we will utilize to improve our lives," Muriuki said. Muriuki has worked for the online platform for the past one month. "The job has helped me become more confident and learn how to relate with customers with different personalities," she said. The firm's Kenya office currently has 15 local staff and plans to increase the number to 50 by the end of the 2016.
Shenzhen Right Net Tech (Kenya) Chief Executive Officer Fu Ruiqiang said more and more Sino-Africa trade would be conducted online. "We want to encourage more traders to embrace e-commerce due to its numerous advantages over the traditional methods of doing cross-border trade," Fu said.
He said his firm aimed to boost Sino-Africa trade through promoting trust among business communities. "Our digital platform provides a guarantee that buyers will pay for goods delivered and that goods will be of the quality promised by the supplier," he said.
The firm has a showroom in Kenya with samples of goods from Chinese factories. It also has a showroom in China that exhibits goods from Africa such as coffee, tea and wood carvings. Fu said goods from Africa were popular in China.
"Agricultural products are produced naturally and so are healthy for consumers," he said, adding "however Chinese buyers have trouble searching for reliable suppliers." Shenzhen Right Net Tech has been conducting Sino-Africa trade since 2003 and began B2B trade in 2009.
Fu said Amanbo.com was designed to tackle the challenges they have experienced in conducting bilateral trade between the two lands.
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