Huawei continues investing in Thailand
PHOTO: Huawei president for SE Asia, James Wu during media conference at MWC 2019 in Barcelona, Spain.
by Somluck Srimalee, The Nation
Chinese tech giant Huawei Group has set aside an investment budget of US$81 million (2.5 billion baht) for Southeast Asia towards ICT enablement from 2019-21, focusing on OpenLabs, enabling cloud developers and cultivating ICT talent, James Wu, said.
James Wu, the group’s president for Southeast Asia, was speaking in Barcelona, Spain, during the Mobile World Congress 2019 (MWC 2019) on Sunday.
“Southeast Asia has always been an important market for Huawei. We have been continuously investing in this market, and bringing in the world’s leading and innovative technologies. We have established our regional HQ in Thailand. We invested $15 million to build the OpenLab in Thailand in 2017,” Wu said.
“Last year, our global cloud service centre was built in the EEC (Eastern Economic Corridor)”.
“At the end of last year, we worked together with the Thai government to build a 5G test lab to improve the 5G ecosystem. We have invested $5 million in 5G testing. All these show that we have been continuously investing in this market, and we believe it will be one of the most important markets in innovation,” Wu added.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Huawei Southeast Asia.
“We’re trying our best to bring leading, secure and reliable products to this region. I think with the efforts of Huawei and the support of telcos and partners, we can help these countries to achieve their digital vision,” Wu said.
Currently, Huawei’s Southeast Asia region covers 1.7 billion people, including the markets of Thailand, India, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
In the future, Huawei’s market share will be further consolidated,” Wu said.
In the Thailand market, Huawei’s local procurement was worth $180 million last year.
Wu said the company continues to be confident about expanding investments in Thailand although the country may see a new government after the elections in March this year.
“We don’t want to comment on politics. However, we believe that no matter how the policies change, for Thailand, as a digital hub of the region, the digitalisation and intelligent transformation will remain. As the leader of the industry, we will surely increase investments in Thailand, and hope Thai people realise their dreams.
SOURCE: The Nation
