Huawei announced plans to build a wireless communications product factory in France, specialised in 4G and 5G equipment, as part of a previously-reported move by the vendor to boost its position in the European market.

The company said in a statement it will invest more than €200 million to set up the plant, and expected the equipment produced to be used mainly in Europe.

As part of the construction plans, the factory will have a demonstration centre designed to showcase the wireless base station production, software loading and testing processes.

The company stated it will leave the doors open to the centre in an effort to demonstrate “Huawei’s positive stance on Europe’s call for digital sovereignty”.

It offered assurances it will be able to “cover every link along its value chain and drive local industries forward, both upstream and downstream”, including R&D, sales, procurement, production and logistics.

The project, which is predicted to generate €1 billion-worth of products every year, will be among Huawei’s “first implementations of its advanced manufacturing technologies in Europe”.

Huawei stated France was a suitable location for its new plant, as the country had “a mature industrial infrastructure and a highly educated labour pool, and its geographic positioning is ideal”.