Ambassador Yang Yanyi, Head of the Chinese Mission to the EU, delivers a speech at Huawei's Chinese New Year reception in Brussels on  Feb 17, 2016. [Photo by Gao Shuang/chinadaily.com.cn]

Huawei is determined to enhance its innovative capacity and deepen cooperation with its European partners for a better-connected world, its top executive said in Brussels on Wednesday.

Speaking at Huawei's Chinese New Year reception, Chen Lifang, Senior Vice President of Huawei, said that the company had invested between 10 percent and 15 percent of its annual revenue in research and development every year with over 36.5 billion dollars to date.

She said that through the Huawei Innovation Research Program, Huawei has established numerous partnerships with universities and research institutes across Europe.

"Over the next 20 years, we will use new technologies to build a Better Connected World. This will present us with huge opportunities. We will continue to invest heavily in areas such as 4K and 2K HD video, 4G mobile technologies, and cloud services," said Chen.

She said Huawei held its first European Academia Salon in London just a few days ago where participants from the information computer technology sector shared their perspectives and ideas and learned from each other.

Chen believed that it was a vital platform for more open partnerships across the industry.

"We will work with our global partners, especially those in Europe, to grow the industry and jointly reap the benefits of the digital economy. Digital transformation will create a huge market, and it should not be the exclusive domain of just a few companies," said Chen.

She said that Huawei has extended its patent cross-licensing agreement with Ericsson, where both companies can now use each other's standard patents and technologies worldwide.

Chen said Huawei has already signed similar agreements with other major patent holders and she believes such open collaboration will not only drive the industry forward but also makes access to more advanced information services much easier for consumers.

Ambassador Yang Yanyi, Head of the China Mission to the European Union, said that as a global ICT leader, Huawei embraces globalization with open-mindedness and international agreement, and it works closely with its global partners and value chain players, especially these in Europe, to promote the ICT industry as well as the digital economy.

"Huawei's success not only lies in the improvement and advancement of its operation, but most importantly in showcasing China's approach to development, namely innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development," said Yang.

After 29 years, Huawei nowadays provides ICT products and services to operators, enterprises, and consumers in over 170 countries and regions, and serves over one-third of the world's population.

Its revenue was around 60 billion US dollars in 2015. In the next few years, Huawei's revenue is expected to exceed to 100 billion US dollars.

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