News
Last year Huawei invested over £100m in research and development initiatives in the UK, with that figure set to increase this year
Huawei is set to increase its global research and development budget by 20 per cent to $18 billion, following a strong set of financials for the first half of 2019.
Speaking to Total Telecom at a press event in London on Tuesday, Huawei’s president for Global Government Affairs, Victor Zhang, said that the company would look to increase its R&D head count and spend in the UK.
“Our R&D budget for this year will be $18 billion, which is a really significant increase. Last year, we invested $15 billion. We rank as the fifth biggest company for research and development, according to a report by the European Commission.
“That’s good news for the UK. Our commitment to investment and our ongoing activities in the UK will not change. We are committed to the UK on 5G but also in terms of the country’s fibre network rollout,” he said.
Huawei has R&D cooperation agreements with a number of universities and research institutions across the country, and Zhang said that Huawei would be looking to develop and expand those partnerships.
“Last year we invested £112 million in the UK and we remain committed to that. While we don’t have the exact figure available at the moment, we believe that figure will increase next year, as our R&D partners have already increased the number of projects that they are working on.
“We also want to increase the number of people we employ in research and development [here in the UK]. We now have 400 R&D engineers here in the UK, compared with around 300 last year,” he explained.
Also in the news:
Huawei: We are fighting for survival while simultaneously seeking growth
UK government passes up the opportunity to ban Huawei fron its 5G networks
