Huawei eyes 73 pct gain in employees

Huawei Technologies plans to increase hiring by 73 percent, or more than 5,500 employees, in Europe from the current size in the next four or five years, Shanghai Daily learnt yesterday.

The recruitment represents the ambition of China's biggest telecommunications equipment maker to expand overseas.

Huawei Europe will employ a total of 13,000 people in Europe over the period, up from 7,500 now, Bloomberg News reported yesterday, citing Huawei's acting Chief Executive Officer Ken Hu in Paris.

Shenzhen-based Huawei confirmed the plan yesterday.

"If we can be successful in Europe, we can invest more," Hu said.

While Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE accelerate overseas expansion, their counterparts reduce their workforces in Europe.

Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent said it would cut 5,500 jobs while Stockholm-based Ericsson AB, the world's largest maker of mobile networks, announced it would eliminate 1,550 positions in Sweden.