Technology & IT | Sunday 6 January, 2019 10:40 am |

Huawei Tech Investment Saudi Arabia announced the inauguration of its first ever store in the Kingdom which opened at Riyadh Park Mall in the capital city Riyadh, and is the largest store in the Middle East and Africa region. The official opening was attended by His Excellency Deputy Governor of investments for the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority Mr. Sultan Mufti, His Excellency Mr. Li Huaxin, Chinese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and C-level Executives from Huawei and members of the media. 

His Excellency the Deputy Governor of investments for the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, Mr. Sultan Mofti praised HUAWEI’s commitment towards investing in the Kingdom and all they provide to local businesses and individuals: “HUAWEI is a great example to all foreign companies investing in the Kingdom. They have exhausted many efforts towards providing the best that information technology and communications services has to offer, as well as contribute towards the development of the ICT infrastructure in accordance to the highest global standards for quality and security. They also work to develop our local Saudi talent through their training initiatives like the ‘STEP- Program for enabling Saudi Talent’ which aims to train 10 thousand male and female candidates by the year 2020.” 

He continued: “HUAWEI is the first Chinese company to be granted a 100% foreign ownership trading license in 2016. They were also recently awarded the first Prize of King Khalid Award for Responsible Competitiveness. We at the SAGIA appreciate the role foreign investment plays and the importance of developing the ICT sector in the kingdom through global partnerships like the partnership we have with HUAWEI. We will continue to provide them with all that is necessary to assist them in their work.” 

On this regard, His Excellency the Chinese Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Mr. Li Huaxin expressed his congratulations on the successful opening of Huawei's first store in the Kingdom: "This opening today proves Huawei’s commitment to continue providing the highest level of services to the people of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Chinese companies abroad are interested today in linking their strategy to the development of the markets they operate in. It also takes care of their social responsibility, for example, in sharing technology expertise and adopting local talent, and Huawei is certainly one of them."

On this opening, Mr. Bill Yu, Vice President of Huawei Tech Investment Saudi Arabia said: “We are honoured to open Huawei’s first flagship store in the Kingdom, which is our way of demonstrating our commitment to the Saudi market and our appreciation for the consumers here in Saudi. This flagship store launches at a time in which consumers here are asking for more innovative flagship products from Huawei. We are confident they also want to learn more about these products that swept the global market and competed fiercely to be the best.”

He added: "In order to provide an advanced and classy shopping experience for our customers in Saudi Arabia, we have brought and adopted the latest retail systems in our stores in Saudi Arabia, which will provide a new experience that includes intelligent storage, online ordering, home delivery and off-site payment as well as a slew of other services which will take our customer service experience to the next level."

And for Huawei's belief in the importance of developing and training Saudi cadres and creating job opportunities for them, Huawei's new retail system will create around 100 job opportunities and training for Saudis over the next five years. It will also hold training courses in multiple technology areas that will benefit more than 360 people a year. At the same time, it will invest over 6 million USD in the new retail system in Saudi Arabia over the next five years and will collaborate with its partners in the Kingdom to enhance the experience associated with retail sales in the Saudi market, ensuring joint success for Huawei and its partners in Saudi Arabia. 

Bill Yu pointed out that: “The HUAWEI store will be run by highly trained Saudi youth, both male and female. Huawei has full confidence that the Saudi market’s appreciation of the Huawei brand will increase with the energy, passion and determination of such young talents. This is a unique store for our users to enjoy amazing experiences when visiting, in which they will be advised not just by a sales team, but by highly skilled and trained Saudi consultants in addition to a state-of-the-art retail system which will provide a great shopping experience.”

The Kingdom is currently undergoing a rapid digital transformation striving to achieve the goals set by Vision 2030 and the National transformation 2020 plan which are expected to provide ample opportunities across various sectors, that in turn will benefit from the markets technological advancements in order to create efficient, state-of-the-art services. This places HUAWEI as the ideal partner to push the wheel of transformation into the digital age as it operates three main groups within the HUAWEI umbrella: The HUAWEI Carrier Network Business Group, HUAWEI Enterprise Business Group, and the HUAWEI Consumer Business Group. This means HUAWEI is fully involved in all technologies, products, solutions and services that are needed by various sectors to develop their industry.