Senior executives from Huawei’s headquarters in China are in New Zealand this week to assess possible business opportunities in this country.

The team includes vice president of global procurement, Wu Kunhong, who will attend functions held by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) and New Zealand Information Communications Technology Group (NZICT) in Auckland and Wellington.

The two events, which NZICT members can attend for free, are designed to introduce Huawei to the audience and also give presenters the opportunity to showcase their products to the international team.

Computerworld has been told by NZTE and NZICT that these commercial events are closed to media. Reports from the two events will be made available afterwards, says an NZTE spokesperson.

The trip follows a trade mission to China made last year by Trade Minister Tim Groser with a handful of New Zealand companies including Rakon, Pacific Fibre and Datacom, Tomizone.

Huawei New Zealand CEO Arthur Zhang, says the visit is an indication of New Zealand’s importance to the company’s global business.

“The seniority of the Huawei team on the visit is an indication of the strengthening relationship between Huawei and New Zealand and the regard with which the New Zealand ICT industry is held,” says Zhang.

Huawei is a telecommunications services and manufacturing company, which established its New Zealand offices in 2005. In 2007, it won the tender for Vodafone’s fixed line broadband network, and the following year began working with 2degrees to build and launch its cellular network.

In February Huawei announced it would be supplying the fibre equipment for Enable’s Christchurch UFB network.