"Thanks to the huge market potential in the Indian market, we are to continue to enhance our investment there," Huawei Technologies Spokesman Fu Jun told China Daily.

He said that the company started its investment in India almost two years ago and has so far established a research centre in Bangalore, India's "Silicon Valley."

"In the coming years, we will invest up to US$100 million in the Indian market," he said, dismissing a report last week that the US$100 million will be used merely to establish a manufacturing and processing plant in India.

"We will also focus there on research and development as well as manufacturing and processing," he said.

Huawei has so far recruited about 800 employees in India, with this figure expected to reach 1,000 by the end of this year, he said.

More than 90 per cent of the staff are local people, he said.

Company sources said Huawei is trying to consolidate its business performance in the Indian market as the South Asian nation is developing into one of the world's fastest growing markets.

Huawei is part of a business delegation to India accompanying Premier Wen Jiabao on his visit to the nation, which starts tomorrow.

The company aims to explore increased business opportunities there.

Huawei began its global expansion several years ago and experienced growth in its international market sales of 156 per cent in 2001, 68 per cent in 2002, 90 per cent in 2003 and 117 per cent in 2004.

Huawei made sales of 46.2 billion yuan (US$5.56 billion) last year. Overseas sales stood at US$2.28 billion.

The company aims to double its international sales revenues over the next three years.

In fact, the Indian market has become a hot spot for almost every one of the world's major telecom operators and telecom equipment providers.

ZTE Corp, one of Huawei Technologies' major rivals, also announced that it will start its localization in India by establishing a telecom equipment factory there.

The factory is to tap local operators' demand for differentiated and localized services, said ZTE South Asian Region General Manager Zhang Renjun.

The first phase of the factory, in Haryana, has been completed, which is able to produce a total of 3 million lines of CDMA (code division multiple access) system equipment.

(China Daily April 8, 2005)