Huawei Technologies Co Ltd will step up efforts to offer public cloud services, as the telecom giant promotes a strategy to help companies accelerate their digital transformation, rotating CEO Xu Zhijun said on Tuesday.

"Starting from this year, Huawei will focus on public cloud services," Xu said in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. "We will invest heavily in building an open and trusted public cloud platform, which will be the foundation of a Huawei Cloud Family."

His comments followed the Shenzhen-based group's establishment of a cloud business unit this year, underlining that cloud computing will be one of its strategic priorities in the coming years. Huawei declined to disclose the specific investment size.

Xu said his company would develop public cloud platforms with telecom operators.

"Huawei has a sprawling partner network of telecom operators. We also have an extensive offline presence to directly serve corporate customers. That's our biggest edge," Xu said.

Founded in 1987, Huawei has emerged as China's largest telecom equipment maker and the world's third-biggest smartphone vendor.

But it is a relative newcomer to the cloud computing sector, where Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc are locked in a race to dominate the nascent industry.

"Microsoft and Amazon Web Services have a strong presence in developed countries. But by teaming up with telecom operators in Europe, we can provide localized, secure and reliable public cloud services, which will help lure corporate customers," Xu said.

Huawei's partners include Deutsche Telekom AG, Spanish telecom carrier Telefonica SA and French telecom company Orange SA, which are helping it expand its overseas presence, said Zheng Yelai, president of Huawei's cloud business unit.

[email protected]

Tech giant to invest $200m in open labs

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd said it will invest $200 million over the next three years to build more open labs - platforms for the company and its partners to pool their resources - to strengthen its cooperation with industrial partners in the research and development.

Ryan Ding, president of products and solutions at Huawei, said: "We will build six more open labs this year. They will be located in cities such as London and Paris where developers abound and industries are booming."

The company said it has so far built 13 open labs. One of them was set up with Vodafone Group Plc to promote R&D of internet of things technology.

The move is part of the company's broad efforts to build an ecosystem, in which industrial partners and software and cloud-computing related developers can thrive.