Huawei announces plans to develop plant in Brazil

World Today

Chinese tech giant Huawei has announced plans to invest $800 million in Brazil. The money will fund a plant to build smartphones.

Check out this story by Bandeirantes TV reporter Marcela Terra, reported by CGTN’s Paulo Cabral.

There’s a growing presence of Chinese technology in the Brazilian market. Huawei, for example, has been in the country for 21 years. Even though Huawei only recently became a household name in Brazil it’s already one of the main IT companies providing telecom equipment for the internet.

“About 50% of the networks in Brazil use some kind of Huawei equipment. So, over 50% of internet traffic in Brazil, at some point, will go through Huawei gear and that’s very important,” said Juelinton Silveira the Communications and Institutional Relations Director for Huawei.

Huawei’s plant in the town of Sorocaba, in the state of Sao Paulo, manufactures equipment for fiber optic networks, modems and antennae. Three hundred people work here and Huawei is among Sorocaba’s main businesses.

“Having Huawei here helps us to take to Sorocaba brand beyond our borders. We have businesses that come to us, because they know that if Huawei is in town, we have a skilled workforce. So, nowadays, the Huawei brand is an important postcard for our city,” said Robson Coivo the Economic Development Secretary of Sorocaba.

In just over two decades in Brazil, Huawei already trained about 30 thousand workers. Local authorities say it’s among Sorocaba’s top twenty taxpayers.