Huawei pledges £1.3bn investment in the UK

Huawei Ceo Ren Zhengfei Announced A £1.3Bn Investment At An Event With Uk Pm David Cameron

Chinese infrastructure vendor Huawei has pledged to invest £1.3bn ($2bn) in the UK, and create 700 more jobs in the country by 2017.

The firm, which already employs over 800 people in the UK, said that it will invest £650m in ten “global centres of technical and financial excellence”, including group-wide research and development facilities. It will also double its procurement  over next five years, by committing to procure £650m on products and services in the country.

Huawei also committed to contributing to the national broadband strategy and the delivery of fibre-based fixed line networks and LTE mobile networks. The firm established a design centre for its handset and tablet devices in London earlier this year.

Huawei made the announcement at an event attended by Prime Minister David Cameron and Lord Green, minister of state for business.

“I welcome this and I want to see more companies invest in the UK as we work to achieve sustainable and balanced growth within our economy,” said Cameron. “The British Government values the important relationship with China, both countries have much to offer each other and the business environment we are creating in the UK allows us to maximise this potential.”

Ren Zhengfei, Huawei founder and CEO added that the UK is a centre of innovation, has a highly skilled workforce, and is respected internationally for the quality of its legal and educational systems.

“It is for these reasons we have selected the UK as the location for a number of our centres of excellence,” he added.