Industry opportunities worth US$1.2 trillion (38.1 trillion baht) are expected to be generated by 5G wireless broadband in Southeast Asia, with 80 million subscribers by 2023 in the region.
James Wu, president of Huawei Southeast Asia, said digital and intelligent equipment will boost social productivity by 4-8% on average by 2023.
He said starting this year 5G tech will become the most important ICT infrastructure globally.
Huawei expects internet traffic in the region to increase by five times, with over 20 smart cities developed in the region paving the way for 5G adoption by 2023.
"Southeast Asia is an emerging market, and a powerful engine that connects innovation and business," said Mr Wu.
Yesterday the company announced its procurement results for 2018 in select parts of Asia, which amounted to $608 million.
In Thailand alone, procurement reached $196 million, the highest among 10 countries, followed by India ($146 million), Hong Kong ($105.3 million), Myanmar ($60.8 million) and Bangladesh ($29.3 million).
Thailand has been Huawei's highest procurement market for three consecutive years.
The forecast procurement budget for the region this year is expected to grow further to $652 million, up 7.2% from 2018.
The procurement budget for Southeast Asia this year will comprise $377 million for the carrier and enterprise business group, $127 million for the consumer business group, $8.5 million for the cloud business unit and $139 million for administration.
At Huawei's 2019 SEA Core Partner Convention in Bangkok yesterday, Mr Wu said Huawei spent a total of $2.1 billion for its procurement budget in the region during 2016-18.
Over past three years, Huawei has collaborated with 1,900 local partners, creating more than 45,000 jobs in its supplier companies.
More than 125,000 telecom engineers were trained in the region, with over 98,000 receiving professional certifications.
In Thailand, commercial use of 5G is promising, and the company has invested $5 million on 5G trials in cooperation with the government, operators and universities, he said.
Investment will continue and 5G equipment ready for commercial use has arrived in Thailand for trials, said Mr Wu.
He said each market has a comparative advantage.
Value creation and sharing across the entire industry chain is the future.
Huawei SEA has more than 9,600 employees, 80% of whom are local.
The company's headquarters are in Bangkok and operations span 10 representative offices.
