Huawei announced new R&D center in UK

Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd said it will invest $200 million and build up a new research and development center in the United Kingdom, according to Ren Zhengfei, the company's founder and chief executive officer.

In a company press release, Huawei made a rare move to disclose its founder's daily activities. The company said Ren met with UK chancellor George Osborne, who paid a visit to Huawei's Shenzhen headquarters on Wednesday.

Ren said the new R&D center will be founded on basis of the current Ipswich research office, which now owns about 80 staff. By 2017, the new R&D center will have a senior researcher number of more than 300. The exact location of the new R&D center has yet been decided.

The center will focus on areas of optoelectronics, terminal design and software development. Huawei will apply its research progress to serve clients in 140 markets worldwide, said the company.

The Chinese company said in September 2012 that it will invest 650 million pounds and spend a further 650 million pounds on procurement in the UK over the next five years. It plans to nearly double the number of its UK employees to 1,500 by 2017.

Osborne said that despite other western countries making it difficult for Huawei to do business abroad, such as the United States, Britain will remain open to investment from the Chinese networking giant.

Accompanying with Osborne, a delegation of 20 UK high-tech companies also conducted a trip to Huawei Shenzhen headquarters. They held negations with different Huawei departments and hoped to explore potential business opportunities, the press release said.