After the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei opened an exhibition center near Amsterdam recently, Eberhard van der Laan, the city's mayor, sang the company's praises to business leaders in a speech.

"I learnt the concept of clouding technology during my visit to Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen two years ago," he says.

Compared with Huawei's expansion in the US, which has run into roadblocks, the company has been welcomed in most European countries.Provided to China Daily

The telling of that anecdote is typical of Van der Laan's unstinting praise of Huawei's contribution to his city and his country.

Yet 10 years ago when Huawei, now a global leader in its field, sent Patrick Zhang to Europe to explore market opportunities, he says he was unsure about what kind of reception it would receive.

The company ended up receiving such a good hearing and gaining such widespread recognition that recently local radio in the Netherlands broadcast live when Huawei hosted a half-day forum on trends in global information technology and big data.

Reflecting the company's growing presence in Europe, it has become the biggest Chinese investor in the Netherlands after 10 years of expansion.

"When we first went to Europe, we virtually wandered the streets like tourists looking for customers," says Zhang, now president of marketing and solutions at Huawei Enterprise Business Group, in an interview in Amsterdam.

"It was very hard. The first steps were particularly difficult."

Huawei has been highly successful in Europe thanks to its strategy of localization and attaching great importance to research and development. It now has ties with 560 European channel partners in telecommunications operations, had a turnover in the continent of $4.17 billion last year, and has more than 7,500 staff, most of them Europeans.