Huawei seems to be strengthening its position in Europe as the company announced its plan to invest $3.1 billion in Italy over the course of the next three years. The company’s Italian chief, Thomas Miao further revealed that the new investment will create 1,000 direct jobs in the market by 2021.
Specifically, Huawei plans to invest around $1.2 billion in operations and marketing and another 1.9 billion in direct supplies in the Italian market. An additional $52 million would be spent for R&D activities. This investment comes on the sidelines of a new decree passed by the Italian government that increases the power of the state to intervene in the matters of the private ICT (information and communications technology) sector which includes 5G. The decree reportedly comes as a result of the government’s need to strengthen national security in the country’s strategic sectors.
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According to the decree, Italian companies will be required to inform the government of any purchases in the ICT sector from non-European suppliers. If this decree is passed by the parliament, then the rollout of essential ICT infrastructure networks like 5G will be monitored.
Huawei is currently the world’s largest telecom equipment supplier and a leader in 5G technology. But this decree could give an unfair advantage to European companies like the Finnish Nokia and the Swedish Ericsson who also supply 5G equipment to carriers. So, Huawei’s Miao has urged Italy to make the rules fair for all supplier and not just target non-European companies.
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(Source)
