Chinese telecommunications major Huawei is reportedly planning to invest €1.5bn in France to build smartphones.

The announcement comes after Huawei commissioned a new European research and development centre at the Sophia-Antipolis technology park in southern France.

AFP reported Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei telling Les Echos business daily: “Our investments will have a significant impact on our global innovation, while boosting France’s competitiveness in new technologies and creating jobs for French talent.”

As part of its efforts to increase the number of European parts suppliers, the Chinese firm is planning ties with some key French groups including STMicro.

Last week, the company revealed plans to spend $4bn in fixed broadband technology R&D over the next three years, to enable its customers to offer an improved internet service for end users.

Huawei anticipates the next three years to be a decisive period for fixed broadband development.

A research report from IDC noted that during late July, Huawei nearly doubled its sales to 20.3 million phones and captured 6.9% of the global smartphone market.

Last year, Huawei generated €5.2bn in Europe and it is planning to hire about 13,000 employees there in the next three years.