China's Huawei Technologies and US security software maker Symantec Corp. won approval from the European Union (EU) on Wednesday to establish a joint venture in China.

The European Commission, the EU's antitrust watchdog, gave its green light to the deal under a simplified review procedure, after a preliminary investigation found no competition concern from the merger.

Earlier this year, Huawei and Symantec agreed to form a joint venture which will develop security and storage appliances for telecommunications carriers.

The new company, to be named Huawei-Symantec Inc. and based in Chengdu in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, will be 51 percent owned by Huawei and 49 percent by Symantec.

The joint venture will be able to take advantage of Huawei's R&D resources, manufacturing and engineering capacities, and Symantec will provide US$150 million for its operation.

The new firm, hopefully to be established within this year, would enable Huawei to compete with technology giants like Hewlett-Packard and IBM. It will also provide fresh boost for Symantec's security and data management business.

(Xinhua News Agency December 21, 2007)