Chinese tech giant Tencent has flagged plans to expand its investment and activity in the Hubei-province capital of Wuhan where COVID-19 first emerged, following the removal of lockdown restrictions on 8 April.
Tencent has committed to investing in a range of areas in Wuhan including digital governance, online education, smart transit and artificial intelligence.
The tech giant will establish its Tencent (Wuhan) Digital Industry headquarters in the Hubei capital, as well as launch a smart education base, an offline experience centre, an artificial intelligence lab and a cybersecurity academy.
Tencent expects these moves to drive a quadrupling of its staff team in Wuhan within three years to 4,000 personnel in total.
After COVID-19 first emerged Tencent’s Tencent Foundation committed 300 million yuan in funds to fighting the disease, and has since increased this sum to 1.5 billion yuan in total.
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