Huawei is embarking on a charm offensive with developers, announcing it will invest up to $1 billion over the next five years to build a developer enablement platform and establish partnerships with the sector.

The announcement of the Developer Enablement Plan was made at Huawei’s Developers Congress today in Shenzen.

Ryan Ding (pictured), Huawei’s executive director and president of products & solutions, said Huawei has opened up its ICT solutions to developers and is building an open environment and enablement platform for the operator and enterprise markets. The aim, he said, is to help developers create innovative services and rapidly respond to customers’ business needs.

Ding noted that the company has opened up to its developer technologies, such as cloud computing, big data, IoT and BYOD. In addition to technical cooperation and talent cultivation, Huawei said it will work out business partnerships with developers.

Huawei announced that it will build a developer-centric platform called eSDK based on the concept of LEADS (lab-as-a-service, end-to-end, agile, dedicated and social). This platform is designed to help developers accelerate technological innovation and increase their efficiency in developing differentiated services.

In addition to providing lab-as-a-service based on the cloud, it will introduce the Developer Zone that supports social engagement among partners.