NSW Premier Mike Baird and Global Rotating CEO of Huawei Mr Ken Hu have today attended the inauguration of Huawei’s $30million National Training and Innovation Centre at their Chatswood based head office.
The National Training and Innovation Centre will showcase the best of Huawei’s technology from their Carrier, Enterprise and Consumer Devices divisions as well as provide world-class training for partners, students, staff and customers in a local facility. Huawei will also be able to focus on local development in their on-site Innovation lab.
Visiting Australia and the facility, Mr Hu said that the facility has the capacity to train over 2,000 people each year. Mr Hu said:
Innovation has become part of our DNA. That’s why we invest at least 10% of our revenue each year in R&D since its founding in 1987. Just like capital and technology, talent is a key success factor for innovation.
Huawei has a very strong record in research and development, having invested USD$6.6 billion in R&D in 2014 and more than US$30 billion in the last 10 years. These investments have lead them to the #1 position in global patent applications on such diverse technologies as 5G and the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) market.
The opening of this centre represents a further investment by Huawei, expanding on their existing 16 R&D centers and 28 Joint Innovation Centres around the world.
The NSW Premier Mr Mike Baird was also present to open the doors on the facility with Mr Hu, and welcomes the new innovation centre and Huawei’s investment in training local TAFE and university students as part of Huawei’s Seeds for the Future program.
Mr Baird referenced NSW and China’s Guandong province which he said shared a ‘Sister State relationship that spans 36 years’.
The facility contains state of the art equipment, with 48 racks of ICT products powering the centre with 12 additional racks filled with the latest Cloud, Fixed Fibre and Wireless equipment. There’s over 7.5 kilometres of cabling within the centre and over 4,000 man hours went into the commissioning and installation of the fixtures.
Didn’t these guys get banned from participating in the NBN build?
There’s a world of difference between opening up an ‘innovation centre’ and being involved in the building of the nation’s communications infrastructure.
It’s certainly good to see that Huawei don’t appear to be holding a grudge.