Chinese ICT firm Huawei bullish on PHL

Global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider Huawei is bullish about its prospects in the Philippines, where bulk of its revenues come from its core carrier business. “We have a localized strategy in the Philippines and we want to bring value in every country we operate in. It’s not just sell and take,” said Scott Sykes, vice president and head of Huawei's International Media Affairs.   The company supplies fixed and wireless network equipment to local telecom providers Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), Smart Communications Inc., Globe Telecom Inc. and Bayan Telecommunications Inc.   In the next half decade, Huawei expects 75 percent of its Philippine revenues to still come from its carrier business, while 20 percent will come from its smart devices (phones and tablets for the consumer market), and 5 percent from its newest business - enterprise solutions, which include managed services and cloud computing.   Sykes said they are not bothered by being the world’s third largest supplier of smartphones only after Apple and Samsung, “We don’t care about numbers,” he said. “We are not in the business to take market share. We just want to create products that consumers love and we want to do it profitably.”   Last year, Huawei raked in a total of $35.3 billion in revenues, an 8 percent increase from 2011, and posted $3.2 billion in operating profits. It also shipped out 127 million smart devices, including 32 million smartphones — a 60 percent growth year-on-year. The company has more than 12,000 employees in the region. In the Philippines, it has directly hired over 400 of its approximately 1,000 workforce.  — KBK, GMA News