Recently, Huawei’s director and senior vice president Yan Lida said at a forum themed “Canada as an investment destination” that despite faces the challenges, Huawei still plans to increase investment in Canada and hire more employees.
Yan Lida pointed out that in the difficult period of fighting the epidemic, Huawei’s R&D investment in Canada still increased by 30% year-on-year. Although Huawei faces challenges in many other parts of the world, the Chinese company attaches great importance to a fair and transparent business environment in the Canadian market. “All Huawei products sold to Canada have been inspected by a third party and are 100% qualified. Huawei has been operating in Canada for 12 years and there has been no cybersecurity incident of any kind during this period.”
The Canadian government has not officially announced whether it will follow the example of its allies and prohibit Huawei from participating in its 5G network construction. A representative of Huawei Canada Office stated, “We support and respect the independent review of 5G suppliers by the Canadian Federal Government and evidence-based conclusions. Huawei firmly supports global industrial cooperation.”
Currently, Huawei has 7 R&D centers and 1,100 engineers in Canada, of which more than 90% are local employees. In 2019, Huawei’s R&D investment in Canada exceeded 260 million Canadian dollars (approximately US$198.4 million), and it hired about 200 high-end R&D technicians. The representative said, “Canada has a broad prospect for 5G, and 5G will become an artificial intelligence development tool.”
