Huawei expects high growth potential in Middle East

China's biggest provider of information and communication technology (ICT) Huawei said on Wednesday it expected its business for the Middle East region a growth of 36 percent per year until 2018.

Speaking at a conference and networking day organized for Huawei resellers and business partners, Huawei enterprise business Middle East president Dong Wu said he expected for the Middle East a growth of 36 percent per year until 2018.

"For Saudi Arabia, we see the highest growth potential of 47 percent per annum, said Dong. Sales revenues in the oil-rich kingdom increased from 20 million dollars in 2003 to a projected one billion dollars in 2014, he said.

He added that Huawei became the leading provider of ICT solutions in the region and that Huawei smartphones, storage solutions and telecom services became accepted tools for businesses and private consumers alike.

Sales revenues increased from 1.25 billion dollars in 2009 to 2. 740 billion dollars in 2013, said Dong who encouraged the over 300 attending delegates from various enterprises across the Middle East to join forces in upgrading Huawei solutions and services through permanent feedback and cooperation.

The section enterprise business became the driving force for Huawei Middle East which for the Chinese ICT giant the second biggest market in relation to market share and revenues, said Dong.

As a key segment for the future, Dong identified ICT convergence as a future driver, meaning the combination of big data, virtualization, security, collaboration and networking.