Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies increased its sales by 46% year-on-year to USD23.3 billion in 2008.

Sun Yafang, president of Huawei, said in an email to employees that the current global economic situation is still very complicated and Huawei will seize opportunities and face more challenges in 2009. The company will hopefully raise its global sales to USD30 billion this year.

The reports in local media state a major part of the total sales published by Huawei is based on its contract sales and the actual sales of Huawei was estimated at 72% to 75% of the contract sales. Using these figures, the actual sales of Huawei in 2008 were about USD17 billion.

In terms of income, Huawei has become the world's fifth largest telecommunications companies, following Cisco, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks.