China's ZTE to expand into enterprise services and smartphones

Firm aims to become a top-three smartphone provider by 2016

Chinese telecoms equipment manufacturer ZTE intends to be one of the world's top smartphone makers by 2016.

The company, which currently focuses on supplying telecoms equipment such as antennas and base stations, said it also wants to move into providing IT infrastructure for public-sector organisations and enterprises.

A new ZTE mobile devices business group will operate independently from the rest of the organisation under the leadership of Zeng Xuezhong , ZTE executive vice president. Zeng previously oversaw ZTE operations across China.

Meanwhile, senior vice president Pang Shengqing will head up ZTE's new enterprise business unit and will be in charge of services such as cloud computing and big data.

"In 2014, the company is excited about the opportunities in enterprise and mobile devices, and the organisational changes will strengthen our capabilities in these areas," said Hou Weigui, chairman of ZTE.

"Telecommunications and technology are intensely competitive industries, and it is vital that we constantly renew ourselves in order to excel."

Shi Lirong, president of ZTE, added that the changes in focus at the firm won't happen overnight and may take time to implement.

"It is important for the company to become faster, more entrepreneurial, more youthful and more focused," Shi said. "We need to execute changes in our strategy, our organisation and our culture in a responsive and timely way."

ZTE's efforts to expand its enterprise and public-sector IT interests may be hindered by the fact that in some parts of the world, especially the US, the company is seen as complicit with Chinese spying efforts and therefore viewed as a security threat.