Chinese telecom solution provider Huawei
Technologies plans to make a five-year investment worth US$500 million in
R&D operations in India, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily
News report on January 11. At the same time, the Chinese company is also
mulling options of manufacturing telecom equipment in India.
The US$500 million investment is expected to be
spent on reinforcing Huawei's R&D center in Bengaluru, southern India, and the
company expects to boost its Indian work force by 5,000 in five years.
Moreover, in order to avoid the Indian government's anti-dumping duties on SDH (Synchronous
Digital Hierarchy) transmission equipment, Huawei is going over possibilities
of starting manufacturing operations in India. Options include setting up its
own facility or forming contract manufacturing partnerships with the local
companies. Huawei has approached the state-owned telecom equipment manufacturer
ITI (Indian Telephone Industries), which began inviting bids at year-end 2009
for stakes in three of its plants. Huawei, however, has not finalized its
decision on whether or not to enter into collaboration with ITI.