French plant sign of Huawei's commitment

Huawei Technologies Co's planned factory in France shows its commitment to serve the European market with openness despite challenges and geopolitical uncertainties, experts said.

The comments came after Zhang Minggang, deputy general manager of Huawei France, said in a video interview with France Inter, a major French public radio channel and part of Radio France, that the plant, with an investment of 200 million euros ($215 million), is expected to be operational by the end of 2025.

Zhang said the plant, located in the city of Brumath in France's Northeast Grand-Est region, will create 500 local jobs.

Huawei said in a statement in 2020 that the factory, its first overseas plant, aims to produce a billion euros worth of mobile network technology solutions for the Chinese telecom equipment maker's European customers annually.

Dong Yifan, an assistant research fellow at the Institute of European Studies at the Beijing-based China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said Huawei has been facing increasing pressure from the United States and some of its allies in Europe, due to so-called national security concerns.

However, no factual evidence to back such concerns has been displayed, Dong said, adding that building a factory in France shows Huawei's openness and its commitment to serving the European market.

The plant will also have a demo center, showcasing the wireless base station production, software loading and testing process. The center will be open to carriers, governments and related authorities, demonstrating Huawei's positive stance on Europe's call for digital sovereignty, Huawei has said previously.

Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Information Consumption Alliance, a telecom industry association, said Europe is an important market for Huawei and it is seen by founder Ren Zhengfei as a second home for the company.

The plant, which will be highly automated and intelligent, can help drive the technical competitiveness of the European industry and boost the resilience of local supply chains as well as infrastructure, Xiang said.

The factory is part of Huawei's broader plan to invest in France, where it has been present since 2003.

Huawei has also announced other projects, such as a research center in Paris, to support digital transformation in the country and the development of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and 6G.