“We are dedicated to improving services to our customers. This partnership with Systemsgroup can allow us to do that: to innovate and meet the most stringent requirements,” says Sujun Fu, President of Huawei Symantec Europe, a joint venture of Chinese telecom solutions provider, Huawei ,and American software providers, Symantec. By collaborating, the companies will focus on the support, marketing and maintenance of storage products and blade servers from Huawei-Symantec in the Luxembourg market, in what is the first such agreement between Huawei and a European company, which represents something of a coup for both Systemsgroup, for which P&T Luxembourg is the major shareholder, and the Luxembourg ICT sector as a whole. John Rollinger, of Systemsgroup believes the partnership can lead to “unprecedented results for corporate clients in Luxembourg with regard to their IT needs.” Not only can Systemsgroup provide end-to-end solutions through their subsidiaries, Netcore and Computersystems, but now they will be at the cutting edge of the data storage provision and security market, which in spite of the crisis is growing at a very quick rate.

The result of intense negotiation

“This is a great honour for Luxembourg, and will hopefully be a great story for both Systemsgroup and Huawei,” says Jeannot Krecké, Minister for the Economy and Foreign Trade. He emphasises that Huawei is “one of the major players in IT worldwide, and signing this contract marks the end of a very long negotiation,” also pointing out that he has visited Huawei’s operation in Shenzen on two separate occasions, while the Ministry’s representative in Shanghai made no fewer than five visits to the company’s offices. “These things take time,” admits Krecké, “and a wide range of efforts are required to bring two companies together: let us hope that this will be an enduring collaboration.” China’s ambassador to Luxembourg, Ma Zhixue, praises the “cooperation between Luxembourg and China, and the efforts of Minister Krecké to strengthen it,” as well as stating that “despite the crisis, Luxembourg continues to promote itself as a strong player in international cooperation and that is to be admired.” He also spoke in warm terms about Huawei, and wished both it and Systemsgroup every success for the future.

Once links had been established with Luxembourg, following on from Krecké’s visit in March 2008, Huawei did not waste time in establishing a presence in this country: as Mario Fan, Managing Director of Huawei Benelux, points out, the Kirchberg office was opened in December 2008. Huawei Benelux currently employs over 150 people, while the company expects staff in Luxembourg to number 30 by the close of 2009.