As Huawei marks 20 years in Ireland, it’s time to take stock of what has led to success in the country’s tech economy and what’s next.
Last week (29 May), Huawei Ireland celebrated its 20-year anniversary, announcing that it has made an €800m economic contribution to the country.
A new report by Amárach and commissioned by Huawei showed that the telecoms giant employs almost 550 people directly and supports the employment of a further 6,100 people indirectly from its activities, including R&D.
According to the report, the company is also set to contribute €4.5bn in economic value to Ireland between now and 2030, with the potential for this figure to be bigger.
Huawei arrived in Ireland in 2004, a time when the telecoms industry was operating in 3G and Ireland’s tech multinational ecosystem was quickly taking shape. The country was also seeing a boost in its R&D ecosystem, with the opening of the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) and the establishment of Siemens Research Ireland.
The summer of 2004 also saw the founding of the Centre for Telecommunications Value-Chain Research (CTVR), the predecessor to the Connect research centre. Based at Trinity College Dublin, CTVR received major funding from both SFI and Bell Labs. It was these developments, along with many others that led IDA Ireland to declare Ireland a knowledge economy.
In the 20 years that have followed, Huawei’s activities have evolved from supplying mobile phones and dongles to building to being one of the key players in powering Ireland’s digital connectivity.
Speaking at Huawei’s anniversary event, Minister of State in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Dara Calleary, TD, said the company’s investment in R&D has helped it move to the forefront of the country’s digital transformation.
“Huawei is responsible for supporting the connectivity of millions of people across Ireland and is currently supporting local customers in the roll-out of next generation networks, including 5G and gigabit broadband, while contributing to the development of Ireland’s national digital infrastructure,” he said.
Huawei Ireland’s CEO, Calvin Lan, praised Ireland for its strong and growing talent pool. “Ireland has developed an innovation ecosystem which sees world leaders in technology like Huawei locate here,” he said.
“A strong and diverse pipeline of foreign investment helps create an innovation mindset. It also supports the development of Ireland’s home-grown start-up ecosystem, leading to greater collaboration, cooperation and opportunities for Irish companies to go global.”
But while the Amárach report highlights the positive contribution Huawei has made to Ireland, there is still a lot of work to do to ensure Ireland remains a powerhouse when it comes to its tech economy.
Prof Patricia Maguire, director of UCD Institute for Discovery, said that Ireland needs to keep developing its talent and skills if it can hope to accelerate in the next 20 years. “It’s all about developing talent,” she said.
“We need absolute experts, but we need those experts to be absolutely able to speak interdisciplinary, multi-disciplinary languages and I think if we could focus the infrastructure, we really can accelerate and be the best in the next 20 years.”
Gerard O’Neill, chair of Amárach Research, said Ireland’s opportunities lie in its heritage. “There’s an opportunity for Ireland maybe to reconnect some of its creative heritage but also its creative genius to the opportunities that AI, machine learning and all these other tools will give us to create new kinds of content,” he said.
“Through that [we can] really reinforce the association between Ireland and creativity but also Ireland, creativity and technology.”
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