File photo: Huawei

Huawei Technologies is bullish about its business growth prospects in the Persian Gulf region despite facing intensifying attack from the US government, betting on the region's rapid 5G development in the coming years.

According to a report from the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), there were nearly 500,000 5G mobile users in the Gulf countries in 2019. And, by the end of 2023, that number will reach 21.86 million, accounting for 21.2 percent of all mobile users in the region.

By 2025, more than 16 percent of communications data within member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is expected to be transmitted through 5G networks, the report said.

GCC member states are rolling out 5G networks on a large scale and have begun its commercial use. Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE have actively participated in the initiative.

5G technology has greatly aided Gulf countries in their efforts to prevent and control COVID-19 pandemic. Huawei has donated multiple technology solutions based on its 5G technology, artificial intelligence and cloud technology to Medina, a city in western Saudi Arabia. It also helped install temperature monitoring cameras at many hospitals and key universities there. Multiple artificial intelligence cameras are used to monitor flows of people and prevent people from gathering.

Relying on high-speed transmission, high reliability and low latency characteristics of 5G technology, many countries in the Gulf region have established innovative public emergency response platforms based on cloud technology and big data, according to a report jointly released by Deloitte and Huawei. It noted that the platforms will provide basic conditions for innovation in multiple technical fields and business models.

In a July open media roundtable hosted virtually by 10 countries in the Middle East, Charles Yang, president of Huawei Middle East, stressed the firm's focus in the region.

Huawei is now facing an intensified US crackdown, and has been forced to diversify and expand its businesses to more regions around the world including the Middle East, analysts said. The company, which has more than 100 retail stores in the GCC, will open its biggest experience center in the UAE's Dubai Mall at the end of this year, according to media reports.

In 2019, Huawei announced it would build a "5G & IoT Joint OpenLab" in Dubai in partnership with the UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. Construction is expected to be completed at the end of the year.

Global Times