Huawei Vice-President of Global Public Affairs David Harmon is invited to deliver a speech on the company's successful experience in Belgium on Oct 31 during the Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel's visit to China.

Harmon will share such experiences as Huawei's integration into Belgian society, its contribution to the local economy and telecom development, and the importance of Europe and Belgium to the company's global strategy.

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has been investing heavily in research and development in Belgium since 2008 when it first tapped into the local market.

It now has three R&D facilities in the European country, each having a unique innovation direction.

In Ghent, Huawei engineers are working on silicon photonics, a technology that is expected to revolutionize optical communications. In Louvain-la-Neuve, the company's research team is focusing on software development. In Leuven, Huawei established a European Research Institute in 2015 for chipset development, which was recently nominated by Flanders Investment and Trade as the "Best Investor of the Year". The institute has more than 1,200 engineers from 18 R&D sites in eight European countries.

Belgium is famous for its high-quality universities, so Huawei is committed to investing in local talent. A leading-edge wireless technology pilot initiative jointly carried out by Huawei and Proximus, the largest telecommunications company in Belgium, at the University of Brussels has allowed local students to benefit from the latest evolution of technology.

Moreover, the "Seeds for the Future" program, which was Huawei's contribution to the European Pact for Youth, an educational initiative under the patronage of Belgium's King Philippe, has enabled 40 students from five Belgian universities to gain firsthand working experience at Huawei's Shenzhen headquarters over the past two years.

In Belgium, Huawei has also developed a strong partner eco-system over the past eight years. Its partners include BKM, Data Unit, Prodata Systems and Infradata. Through its solid partner network, Huawei supports many local companies in dealing with their digital challenges, such as smart city initiatives, increased mobility in public transport and the Internet of Things, in a bid to build a more digitized community.

Huawei's strategy is also aligned with the "Digital Agenda for Belgium", a government-led initiative to strengthen the country's digital economy as a driver of growth, as well as the employment and well-being of its citizens.

In addition, Huawei works with Belgium's leading telecom providers, helping them to build future-proof network infrastructure projects that support the digital transformation of the society. Its efforts of putting affordable state-of-the-art mobile devices in the hands of subscribers also make mobile communication more accessible to local consumers.

Over the past three years, Huawei-brand smartphones have become one of the top three best-selling devices in Belgium.

In the future, Huawei will further strengthen its ties with the Belgian authorities, business partners, customers and consumers to build a "Better Connected Belgium", Harmon said.

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(China Daily 10/29/2016 page19)