Huawei seeks to expand operations in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES - Argentinean President Mauricio Macri on Thursday met with the chairwoman of Chinese telecoms giant, Huawei, Sun Yafang, who expressed her decision to expand Huawei's footprint in the country.

In a statement, the president's office said "Huawei is evaluating more investments in the country and is planning to open a training center."

During the meeting with the president and a number of advisers, Sun stated that "Huawei is evaluating moving part of its operations center to the Technological District (in Buenos Aires), created during Macri's time as mayor of the city," read the statement.

In the statement, Horacio Reyser, the president's advisor on foreign investment, said that Huawei is also seeking to open in Argentina a regional training center, which will seek to train over 500 employees, local partners and industry collaborators in its first phase.

In a second phase, the Argentinean government hopes Huawei will build a full-blown research and development center to offer a range of services across Latin America. Huawei has 8 such centers in Germany, Sweden, the UK, France, Italy, Russia, India and China.

"This is important, not only in terms of jobs, but also for the high level of expertise needed to run such program and for the great horizon this opens for technological innovation and the creation of new products and solutions," added Reyser.

Sun also invited Macri to visit Huawei's principal research center in Hangzhou, China, when the head of state visits the city in September for a G20 Summit.