Huawei to Invest $2 Billion in India

Source: Wall Street Journal By Dhanya Ann Thoppil

BANGALORE—Huawei Telecommunications India, the local unit of China's Huawei Technologies Co., said Tuesday it will invest about $2 billion over the next five years to set up a new research and development center and expand its presence in the South Asian nation.

The company plans to set up the center in the southern city of Bangalore where it has a research facility that employs 2,000 engineers. The new center will expand the current capacity to about 3,000 engineers, the marketing and services arm of Huawei said in a statement.

Huawei's India expansion plan comes at a time when Chinese equipment makers have made progress in the Indian telecom market, offering products and services which are about a third cheaper than global competitors. India adds more than 15 million wireless subscribers a month and is the second-largest market after China for wireless services with more than 670 million users.

The company is competing with other Chinese vendors like ZTE Corp. and several European equipment makers including Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent for a share of the world's fastest-growing telecom market.

With India introducing third-generation mobile services, the demand for telecom equipment is further expected to increase.

Huawei currently has operations in 19 major regions in India and employs over 6,000 technical and professional staff across the country. The company's research and development center in India is the biggest outside China.

The company said the five-year plan will focus on local manufacturing and technology cooperation with Indian information technology service companies, as well as local sourcing, among other things.

Huawei recently started its first phase of local manufacturing in the southern Indian city of Chennai. The company said it is further exploring other forms of cooperation in local manufacturing.

The research and development and manufacturing centers in India are being set up to support the company's export plans as well as serve the local industry, it said.

The investments also include developing key technical skills through Huawei's local training centers and joint research and development with local partners and leading institutes in India, the company added.

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