LAHORE: Gene Jiao, president of Huawei CBG, Middle East and Africa in an interview with The News shed light on the future expansion plans in Pakistan and abroad.

Q. How does Huawei nurture technology and innovation in Pakistan? A. Pakistan has made a lot of strides in the field of information technology. According to statistics, the 3G/4G

penetration has reached to 56.08 million users in the country.

This suggests that people are adopting smart technology at a growing rate. Even Pakistanis’ adoption of technology rate is over nine percent, more than the Europeans, whose rate is less than 5 percent.

With such a wealth of resources at our disposal, we tap into the market by offering smart devices that have industry-leading technological benchmarks. Q. How do you see the smartphone market in Pakistan?

A. Pakistani smart phone market has been growing tremendously while GSMA intelligence reported that Pakistan is poised to witness 17 million unique mobile phone subscribers till 2020.

This proves that the country has tremendous potential. We plan to utilise this opportunity by introducing next-gen innovative devices.

Additionally, Pakistan users are ahead of India in usage of mid-range smartphones with a price tag of $400-$600, while the African market is the user of entrance level smartphone with a price tag of $100-$200.

However, the market responds well all entry-level, middle, and high-end categories.

Q. How is Huawei empowering public with artificial inelegance (AI) powered devices?

A. The company has been making great technological advancements with its AI-powered Kirin chipsets. Huawei will launch the Kirin 980 system-on-a-chip, which will be the first-ever 7nm SoC in the market.

With the Kirin 980, smartphone performance is expected to increase by 20 percent with a 40 percent increase in power efficiency. The company has also introduced a GPU Turbo Technology, which is being rolled-out on a number of smartphones series’ from August to October, 2018.

This technology vastly improves overall graphics processing efficiency, from quality to performance and power consumption making it 60 percent faster. Huawei is committed to increase the reach of AI to maximum level of users, so it is introducing it in mid-range smartphones too.

Q. What is the focus of Huawei smartphones globally?

A. The company believes in investment, irrespective of making profit or loss. So it invests 10 percent of its total revenue into research and development. The R&D mainly focuses on technology development and induction of new technologies in human life positively.

This strategy has turned Huawei number two, globally. Currently, the company has 15 R&D centres across the world, being the only smartphone manufacturer investing the highest portion of its revenues in R&D.

The company is targeting to be the number one smartphone seller by the end of 2019, as it shipped 95 million smartphones in the first half of 2018.

Q. What is the future plan to introduce new technologies in Pakistan?

A. We plan to continue introducing innovative devices at competitive prices to capture a greater market share, which currently stands at 22.2 percent.

Also, the country’s acceptance to new technology suggests 5G introduction in the near future, and for this Huawei has already started working. 5G depends heavily on carriers, so we can only say that Huawei is capable of introducing 5G phones, on the condition that carriers are supporting 5G. Advancements in technology have given rise to the need of faster internet connectivity.

Therefore, 5G is the future of the internet. It will be commercially available in many countries by 2020, and we believe that it will be a ground-breaking experience for everyone.

Huawei has been exploring 5G since 2009. The company has injected at least $600 million in 5G research and innovation before 2018, achieving breakthroughs in areas such as network architecture, spectrum usage, air interface tech, prototype development, and field verification.

Q. What regulatory measures has Huawei taken to curb illegal import of smartphones?

A. Huawei strictly follows a code of conduct to control illegal import of devices. Firstly, we have laid down stringent qualification and auditing standards for our agents that import our products in any country.

Secondly, we have devised a punishment mechanism for grey stock imports by our agents worldwide. Besides, Huawei never uses sales as a key performance indicator for its employees. The company also acknowledges the developments achieved by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority in the field of information technology.