Huawei rotating chairman Guo Ping said in an annual internal New Year’s message that the vendor’s carrier business remained stable and its enterprise segment booked solid growth last year.
However, the company’s total revenue for full 2021 was expected to decline by 28.9% year-on-year to CNY634 billion ($99.9 billion), as the ongoing restrictions imposed by the U.S. government continue to impact Huawei’s business.
“We worked more closely with our customers and partners, and our global operations are business as usual. Our transformation initiatives and strategic investments have progressed in good order, and our overall performance was in line with our forecasts,” Guo said.
“The digital economy has become a major engine of global economic growth. Green and low-carbon technologies have become new drivers for sustainable development. This combination of digital transformation and green development presents the information and communication technology industry with incredible new opportunities. At the same time, an unpredictable business environment, the politicization of technology, and a growing deglobalization movement all present serious challenges. Against this backdrop, we need to stick to our strategy and respond rationally to external forces that are beyond our control,” the executive added.
He also noted that in terms of strategy, Huawei will continue its focus on ICT infrastructure and smart devices. “While leveraging the strengths of our broader platform, we are breaking new ground with domain-specific subsidiaries and integrated teams to shorten management chains, responding more nimbly to our customers’ needs, and creating greater business and social value than ever before.”
The executive also noted that the vendor will build a software ecosystem centered on EulerOS for digital infrastructure and a device ecosystem centered on HarmonyOS. “These two ecosystems will adhere to an open source strategy, allowing all software developers to use them, contribute to them, and benefit from them.”
“2022 will come with its fair share of challenges, but we will keep working closely with our global partners to overcome the difficulties we face, improve business performance, and strengthen our foundations. We will continue investing in the future and creating value for our customers and partners. In the end we will not only survive, but do so sustainably,” Guo said.
In February last year, Huawei’s representatives had said that that the company was not expecting the Biden administration to remove the company from the Entity List. In May 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce added Huawei to its Entity List, a decision that effectively banned the company from buying parts and components from U.S. companies without U.S. government approval. Under the order, Huawei needs a U.S. government license to buy components from U.S. suppliers.
The U.S. government included Huawei in the Department of Commerce’s Entity List due to security concerns, as Washington believes that the Chinese government uses Huawei’s equipment for spying purposes.
