Chinese vendor Huawei on Tuesday announced an investment of $2 billion (about `9,000 crore) in the next five years to set up an R&D centre, local manufacturing and other activities.

The announcement comes on the eve of Chinese premier Wen Jiabao’s three-day visit to India starting on Wednesday. “Huawei has been in India for over a decade and is committed to a long-term development and cooperation in India. As an integral part of the Indian telecom industry development and an active player serving all telecom service providers, Huawei India strives to be the long-term partner for the development of India’s telecom and IT industry and inclusive growth,” Max Yang, CEO, Huawei India, said.

The new R&D campus would be set up in Bangalore, the company said in a statement.

The five-year plan will focus on the development, augmentation and cooperation in local R&D, manufacturing, technology cooperation with Indian IT companies, employment etc, Huawei said.

The company has operations in 19 major regions and employs over 6,000 technical and professional staff across the country.

The development of the new R&D campus in Bangalore will increase the current capacity to about 3,000 R&D engineers.