Container ships dock in Qingdao Port, Shandong province, on Jan 24, 2022. [Photo/IC]

Many Qingdao enterprises have entered the distant continent of Africa to tap into the opportunities in unexploited areas.

According to official data, by the end of 2019, there were about 2,000 enterprises in Qingdao doing business with Africa, and more than 20 of them had opened entities in Africa.

In 2002, Chen Song, chairman of Qingdao Yewhing Import and Export Co, saw a development opportunity in Africa. In his opinion, with the improvement of the living standards in Africa, the demand for furniture, household appliances and other products are on the rise, which is why Yewhing opened a large home business center in Angola.

Over the past 20 years, Yewhing has opened 10 shopping centers in Angola called Mundo DaCasa (MDC), which sells furniture, home appliances and office supplies, and has become one of the largest local chain brands in Angola.

Currently Yewhing employs over 2,000 local employees, while MDC alone employs nearly 1,000 local employees, and 10 percent of the management team is Angolan.

A number of large-scale infrastructure projects are also in full swing in Africa, which offers opportunities to many enterprises from Qingdao to export their vehicles, machines and equipment to Africa.