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TOM PULLAR-STRECKER

Last updated15:45, March 21 2017

RUBEN SPRICH/REUTERS

Huawei CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei met with Prime Minister Bill English in Wellington to discuss its New Zealand investment plans on Tuesday. Wellington is also where Ren gave his first ever press conference in 2013.

Chinese technology juggernaut Huawei plans to splash out hundreds of millions of dollars in New Zealand after praising the country's approach to global business.

Founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei met with Prime Minister Bill English in Wellington on Tuesdayto discuss its plans, which the company said would see itspend $400 million in New Zealand over the next five years.

Worldwide, Huaweiemploys more than 170,000 staff almost as manyas Apple and Google combined.

Spokesman Andrew Bowater said its spendingplans werein part "aspirational". $250m of the spendingwould be accounted for by itsintentionto source more products and services locally.

But he said the company also intended to build a cloud-computing data centre possibly in connection with a localpartner in New Zealand in about two years, and would expand its research centre in Wellington while opening another in Christchurch.

READ MORE: *Huawei founder's NZ interview carefully chosen *Huawei controversy flares up again

Huaweiemploys about 150 staff in New Zealand.

Ren said in a statement that "New Zealand's open and fair trade environment" and its emphasis on developing new technology had facilitatedHuawei'songoing commitment.

Economic Development Minister Simon Bridges said the investment would"touch many areas of the economy and open up global opportunities for New Zealand".

The expanded Wellingtonresearch lab, based at Victoria University, will investigatetechnologies such as 5G cellphonenetworks, "big data" and the potential of internet-connected devices, or the so-called "internet of things".

Huawei said it would offer 100 undergraduatesthe opportunity to travel to China fortechnologyand cultural exchanges over the next five years, and would also open a regional office in Wellington.

Huaweihas become aposter boyfor China's modernising economy, despite efforts by the United States and Australia to constrain the company's growth in their markets, citingnational securityconcerns.

Those concerns came to a head in 2012 when theUSHouse of Representatives' Intelligence Committee urged American firms to stop doing business with Huawei and fellow Chinese firm ZTE, sayingChinacould use their equipment to spy and for cyber attacks.

The same year, the Australian government barred Huawei from involvement in itsA$37billion National Broadband Network initiative.

Theobstacleshave not been mirrored in New Zealand, where Huawei has been a supplier to Spark, Vodafone and2degrees. It has also suppliedEnable and UltrafastFibre, the companies that are building the ultrafast broadbandnetwork in Christchurch and the lower North Island.

Huawei supplied and partly-financed 2degrees' mobile network.

In 2015,it also provided the technology for Vodafone's$22 million cable broadbandupgrades in Wellington and Christchurch.

Last year, Spark began trials in Christchurch of4.5Gcellsitetechnology using equipment supplied by Huawei. Chorus buys a small amount of Huaweiequipment for its rural networks.

Nor have the overseas blocks stopped Huawei's stellar growth.

Huawei is expected to report its 2016 revenues jumped by almost a third to just underUS$75 billion when it reports its annual results at the end of the month.

The company has set its sights on overtaking Apple to become the world's second-largest smartphone company behind Samsung in 2018.

But it has not all been plain sailing in recent months.

Huawei's smartphone unitis understood to have missed its internalprofit targetfor 2016 despite achieving higher-than-expected sales.

ThatpromptedRento send a memo to staff last month saying the company wouldn't pay for thosewho didn't work hard and who wanted to "just count money in bed".

Huawei is moving into cloud computing, challenging players such as Amazon and Microsoft.

Bowater said the initialfocus of its New Zealand data centre would be toserve the local market, but it could also "be a bit of a regional hub".

"There is an opportunityfor 'NZ Inc' to position itself as a safe haven for data."

The obvious location for the data centre was Auckland but it "could be anywhere", he said.

-Stuff

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Chinese giant Huawei to build cloud computing data centre in NZ - Stuff.co.nz