Huawei Saudi Arabia has seen a double-digit growth annually in the Kingdom, where it has more than 900 employees with over 70 percent of them recruited locally, according to James Wu, CEO of Huawei KSA.
“In terms of knowledge transfer, Huawei has invested heavily in manpower training to help its engineers in the ICT field, stressing that Saudi Arabia is one of the most dynamic ICT markets in the region today,” Wu told Abdul Hannan Tago of Arab News in an exclusive interview in Riyadh.
The information and communication technology (ICT) company with 150,000 employees around the globe announced in January this year that its global sales revenues in 2012 was expected to reach $ 35.5 billion and eight percent year-on-year increase, with a net profit of $ 2.4 billion.
What are the major achievements of Huawei Saudi Arabia on the telecommunications front over the past few years, and what role has your company played in the transfer of technology to the Kingdom as part of the agreements with local operators?
Huawei has had a long-time presence in the Kingdom collaborating with local operators, government bodies and many other public and private entities to encourage the advancement of the local telecommunications sector. Some of our most recent milestones include deployment of 4G LTE mobile networks with all three of the country’s operators in 2011 and implementation of the Middle East’s first commercial service delivery platform (SDP) with Mobily in 2012. It has also been successfully providing telecom assurance service for STC during Haj for the past eight years. Saudi Arabia is doubtlessly one of the most dynamic ICT markets in the region today, and we are proud to have supported operators and the government in developing telecom infrastructure over the past decade.
How many jobs have you created under such deals, especially for Saudis?
Today, Huawei has three main offices in Saudi Arabia with our operations headquartered out of Riyadh. This is in addition to 20 technical assistance centers we have throughout the country. As of the start of this year Huawei Saudi Arabia employed more than 900 staff, over 70 percent of them recruited locally. In terms of knowledge transfer (KT), our Huawei Training Center in Saudi Arabia supports local talent by offering a broad range of management and technical programs coordinated through the global Huawei University. Our dedicated KT Program even includes courses designed for professionals in Saudi Arabia already working in ICT and who wish to further advance their skills.
Huawei Device is committed to creating smart devices by providing a user-friendly mobile Internet experience. Which products have seen a notable success in the Saudi market?
Our operations have been moving quite rapidly. Last year, Huawei embarked on its biggest ever expansion in the Saudi consumer device market. This push involved several major releases for the Huawei brand both within the open retail market and in partnership with leading operators in the Kingdom. On the smartphone front, we launched several landmark devices including the Huawei Ascend D1 Quad XL — our first and most powerful quad-core smart phone in the region — as well as the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE, the first Huawei 4G device in the world and ideally suited to leverage the incredible capacity of 4G LTE mobile networks in the Kingdom.
Looking ahead, what new products do you foresee as Saudi Arabia is gearing up for a high-tech future to prepare its youth for the 21st century?
Whether surfing the net at home or attending a university lecture in Saudi Arabia, we believe that the era of high-speed broadband connectivity has the potential to be a decisive underpinning of the overall socioeconomic advancement of the Kingdom. This is no more visible than in the field of education where new broadband platforms such as fiber and 4G LTE are already laying the foundation to meet the country’s increasing requirements for more collaborative, creative and powerful communication services. In this context, Huawei sees a huge local demand for consumer devices which will enable more people across the Kingdom to tap into these services. Smart phone and tablets will undoubtedly lead the market in the short term, but even those segments are becoming more diverse. Consumers today are, for example, keen to experiment beyond the traditional 4-inch smart phones and 8-inch tablet sizes to look at new product categories — perhaps even a “phablet” device like the Huawei Ascend Mate, which has just been released in select countries at a market first of 6.1-inch screen. It’s not all about hardware though, with the promise of multi-use devices ever more popular among local consumers. Research suggests that people today want to have a greater diversity of capabilities at their disposal without having to carry — or learn to operate -several different machines. Mobile devices that make it easier to share ideas, process office-like applications, and link with premium content hubs will find themselves on top of the competition.
What is Huawei’s strategic plan to face the top competition among major brands, especially smart phones?
Huawei has already proven to be a pioneer in the industry by launching numerous firsts in the market and outpacing global growth rates in the smart phone sector. In fact, as of the end of 2012 research firm IDC noted that Huawei was one of the top three global smart phone vendors — surpassing many other well-known brands. Despite this recent success, we know that we still have a long way to go in letting consumers in Saudi Arabia know who we are. Building strong distributor partnerships, maintaining alliances with leading telecom operators, and investing heavily in creative branding and local marketing activities will all prove the key to success in reaching an increasingly larger consumer audience.
At the recent MWC, Huawei announced some major agreements for the region. Can you highlight those and how will they impact the regional telecom market?
During MWC 2013 Huawei outlined a series of new mobile ICT solutions which we anticipate will reshape the world’s telecommunications landscape. With "Make It Possible" as its theme for the event, Huawei underscored its ability to provide ubiquitous broadband in the mobile era. These include signing a new global agreement in which we will support Etisalat Group by focusing on the enhancement of its broadband and digital services, plans to launch a first of its kind Joint Innovation Center in collaboration with Zain Kuwait, and partnerships with groups like Wataniya for 2G/3G network upgrades as well as the deployment of its advanced 4G network. Our discussions with such customers not only touch on the present but also the future. To that end, Huawei will continue to develop solutions that create a sound industry ecosystem in the Kingdom and also propel our partners forward.
