During his visit to Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen, Hon. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and the ambassador of Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka jointly witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on ICT cooperation between the Sri Lankan Ministry of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure and Huawei Sri Lanka.
The MoU demonstrates the Sri Lankan government’s commitment to furthering its cooperation with Huawei. Ranil Wickremesinghe visited Huawei’s new ICT industry exhibition hall and had a friendly meeting with Mr. Li Jinge, senior vice president, Huawei. Huawei has been operating business in Sri Lanka since 2005. At that time, the local mobile penetration rate was only 16.85 percent, and the household broadband penetration rate was 0.4 percent.
Over the past 11 years, Huawei has partnered with local operators to focus on innovation and bridging the digital divide. Sri Lanka’s mobile penetration rate now reaches 112 percent, and the household broadband penetration rate reaches 12 percent. Huawei’s networks have served 70% of total population in Sri Lanka, and Sri Lankan customers can now enjoy the high-speed 4G networks. Huawei’s smartphones have also been well received by Sri Lankan consumers, with the second largest market share in the local smartphone market.