Huawei Photo: VCG

A Huawei executive on Friday vowed the company would build up its long-term competitive edge in fields like operating systems in 2022 to embrace industry opportunities despite its annual revenue expected to drop nearly 29 percent in 2021 amid political crackdown by the US government.

Guo Ping, rotating chairman of Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies, admitted the company experienced a tough year in 2021 in a New Year's message released on Friday.

Huawei is expected to report a revenue of 634 billion yuan ($99.41 billion) in 2021, Guo said in the message. This represents a fall of 28.9 percent from 2020's revenue of 891.4 billion yuan.

The US government officially cut off Huawei from all suppliers whose products contain US technologies in September 2020, severely impacting Huawei's consumer business in 2021, according to analysts. 

Guo said he was satisfied with Huawei's 2021 business performance and vowed to maintain strategic determination and increase investments in promising areas to cope with a series of challenges in 2022, including politicization of technology and other external factors.

"We still face a series of challenges in 2022…We will increase production, strengthen our foundation and continue to invest the future," read Guo's message.

Elaborating on the company's development plans, Guo noted that Huawei's software offerings would revolve around EulerOS while its device portfolio would be driven by HarmonyOS. 

To maintain a long-term competitive edge, Huawei will increase investment in HarmonyOS and EulerOS, building a foundation for the digital world's basic software, providing the world with a second option, Guo said.

Global Times