Han Ximin ximhan@126.com CHINESE telecom giant Huawei contributed 16.4 billion euros (US$19.4 billion) to Europe’s GDP and supported 224,300 jobs in 2019, according to an Oxford Economics report released Friday, the second day of 2020 Huawei European Innovation Day, which was held in Warsaw, Poland. The report, titled The Economic Impact of Huawei, also said the company generated 6.6 billion euros in tax revenues for European authorities during that same time. Huawei has also played an active role in R&D across Europe. The 2019 EU Industrial Investment Scoreboard ranked Huawei as the world’s fifth largest R&D investor. “Investment in R&D — like that undertaken by Huawei — is crucial to a general increase in the productive capabilities in the European economy,” said Pete Collings, director of Europe and Middle East Economic Impact Consulting at Oxford Economics. According to Abraham Liu, Huawei’s chief representative to the EU Institutions, Huawei’s operations generated a direct contribution of 2.8 billion euros to European GDP, an average growth of 11.4 percent annually over the past five years. “We need to build an ecosystem to train talent that is based on open collaboration and sharing around the world. Talent and ideas both spring forth from meetings of the minds,” said Catherine Chen, Huawei’s corporate senior vice president and director of the board, in her opening speech. The event also marked the 20th anniversary of Huawei in Europe and its long-standing commitment to the digital development of the continent as part of the company’s ‘In Europe for Europe’ strategy. |