India continues to be an important market for Huawei: says sr exec Jay Chen

The company’s vice president for the Asia-Pacific region, Jay Chen, stated that based on encouraging engagement with the Indian government, the company was confident that Huawei would be welcomed in the country.

Chen made the comments during a virtual roundtable conference with journalists from around the world today.  (REUTERS)

Huawei on Wednesday said that India would continue to be an important market for the company, and that it hoped the government would take a decision that was beneficial for the country. 

The company's vice president for the Asia-Pacific region, Jay Chen, stated that based on encouraging engagement with the Indian government, the company was confident that Huawei would be welcomed in the country.

The Department of Telecom recently introduced a new policy that instructed Indian telecom operators to add only government-approved ‘gear' for their network equipment. The move is likely to hurt Chinese telecom giants such as Huawei and ZTE, as there are fears that they might not be included as part of the ‘trusted sources' for network equipment.

Responding to a question whether Huawei will make the cut, Chen said “We think about what is (the) logic and what is possible. We don't think Huawei will be blocked. We think this benefits the Indian market and is the right decision,” according to ET Telecom. 

Chen made the comments during a virtual roundtable conference with journalists from around the world today. He also touched upon Huawei's 5G prospects in India.

“India's 5G is very important for Huawei. Not only 5G, but India as a market is equally important. We entered this market around 20 years ago and we have the full operation functions in India. We have also put up our international business centre here such as our Network Services Center — serving customers in almost 40 countries,” he said.

The company also revealed its plans for smartphones in the future, stating that the Asia Pacific region would continue to see smartphones from the brand and that the company had made a “concerted effort” with its Android-based Harmony OS and its replacement for Google services called Huawei Mobile Services. The company now has 2.3 million registered developers and more than 1,20,000 applications as part of the Huawei mobile ecosystem, the company stated.

Earlier, Huawei reported a dip in quarterly earnings for the first time owing to the US sanctions that forced the company to seek alternative sources of income.