Jobs boost for Athlone with Huawei investment

It is hoped that this week's announcement of a €70 million investment into Irish research and development by Chinese telecommunications giant, Huawei, will result in an economic spin off for Athlone, which houses one of its three Irish bases.

Although the location of their Athlone base is not known, Huawei are believed to currently employ up to ten software engineers at a research hub in the Midlands town, and local Fine Gael TD, Denis Naughten, says he will continue to put pressure on Huawei executives to “substantially increase” their workforce in light of the €70 million investment plan.

Deputy Naughten confirmed that he had “numerous discussions” with Huawei in his role as Minister for Communicationsand in the run-up to this week's announcement, and he has plans to meet with the Chinese Ambassador to follow up on job opportunities for Athlone and the Midlands region.

“Per capita, Athlone now has more people employed in the software sector than anywhere else in Europe” said Deputy Naughten “and we need to continue to build and capitalise on that so that we reach a stage where the software developers end up starting up their own businesses in the region.”

The €70 million investment into research and development announced by Huawei will see a doubling of its investment in Ireland over the next three years across its three sites in Dublin, Cork and Athlone and will focus mainly on developments in video, cloud computing, artifical intelligence and site-reliability engineering.

Speaking at the announcement in Shenzhen, China, Mr. Guo Ping, Huawei Rotating Chairman, said Ireland has outstanding talent and some of the best researchers in the world, and has “a great opportunity to continue to grow as an economy and become a technological hub.”

CEO of Huawei Ireland, Mr. Jijay Shen, said the company's focus is on “long-term investment and building positive relationships with key partners in Ireland” and he added that the €70 million investment over three years will help the company to “drive innovation and collaboration” with its Irish partners.

“There is no doubt that Athlone will get a portion of the €70 million, but it is my hope that this announcement will lead to a much greater jobs dividend for Athlone and the greater Midlands region over the coming years” said Deputy Naughten.