Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei on Tuesday said it is closely monitoring the situation in India and the government’s regulations for its businesses .
India is not only a big market, but also for other multi-national companies as there lies a ‘huge opportunity’ for everyone, Huawei further added.
“We understand the current situation and its possible that sometimes the situation might change, our strategy however remains unchanged and we have our confidence in this market…this market currently has a huge requirement, and it has ample for further growth and development. As this is something that will not change,” Jay Chen, Vice-President for the Asia-Pacific region, Huawei told BusinessLine on the sidelines of an event when asked about the recent income tax raids at Huawei offices in India and not getting any go ahead from the government for 5G tests.
Indian market, right now, has a huge requirement for growth in the ICT space, he said adding that “Huawei is a technology leader, and we will continue to offer our technology and knowhow to help India’s industries and its ecosystem.”
Spark programme
Chen said that Huawei’s India investment is part of already announced (August 2021) $100 million in Asia Pacific startup ecosystem over three years under the ‘Spark Programme’. He added that $50 million investment was for ICT talent growth in the region.
“This year, the SPARK programme will go to more countries in the region and of course India is also covered under this programme…we hope to get more applications from startups from India. This Spark programme is being copied to other regions of Huawei global landscape such as Latin America and Middle East (West Asia),” he said.
Skill development
Meanwhile, he said, under the current situation, the company would focus more around training people in the industry. “Under the current situation as we are in India, we put more focus around the ICT skill development so that we can contribute more on the talent pool,” Chen added.
The Department of Telecommunications, last year, had amended the licence conditions, mandating service providers procuring telecom equipment only from ‘trusted sources’ as defined by the government, leaving Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE with little chance on new projects.
The government’s move, mandate all telecom service providers to take permission from the National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC) for upgradation of existing networks utilising equipment not designated as trusted products.
Recently, the Income-Tax Department had raided the Huawei’s Bengaluru, Delhi and Gurugram offices probing records, as part of tax evasion investigation.
Published on
March 01, 2022
