Huawei closely monitoring India policy environment: Chen

Chinese firm Huawei, which did not make it to the Indian government’s trusted sources list for supplying telecom equipment, on Tuesday said it is closely monitoring the policy environment here as the market offers a huge opportunity for growth.

“Huawei always had a long term strategy for India…that means we understand the situation sometimes change, but our strategy however remains unchanged,” Jay Chen, vice-president for the Asia-Pacific region, Huawei said during a media roundtable on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress.

He added that Huawei still had confidence in the India market as it had a huge requirement, and huge space for further growth and development. “The India market is very big, not only for Huawei but also other players. This market has huge potential and huge space to grow.

“We are very closely monitoring the India market with regards to policy, current environment, and developments in the industry," Mr. Chen, who was earlier heading the Indian market for Huawei, added.

Replying to a query on the company’s plan to invest in the India market under its Spark programme that was announced last year, Mr. Chen said, “This year, the 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 start-ups from India.”

Under the programme, Huawei plans to invest $100 million in the Asia-Pacific start-up ecosystem over three years.

He added that the company is also focusing on the development of ICT skills in India so that the company can contribute in terms of the talent