(Yicai Global) Nov. 27 -- Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei Technologies, said the Chinese telecom giant’s budget smartphone brand should strive to outdo its former parent company after it passes into new hands.

The Honor handset business, which Huawei has sold to a joint venture group for an undisclosed sum, should try to become the Shenzhen-based company’s strongest competitor, Ren said at a farewell event held for the brand on Nov. 25. 

Huawei sold it to a joint venture between a company under the Shenzhen government and over 30 dealers and agents for a reported CNY100 billion (USD15.1 billion) earlier this month, leaving a gap in Huawei’s consumer business.

Founded in 2013, Honor helped turn Huawei into the world’s second-biggest smartphones supplier last year. The business was spun out in April amid Huawei's shortage of chips after the Trump administration set limits on its purchases of US tech.

Honor should embrace globalization, learn from all advanced things, and strengthen cooperation with firms from Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, and South Korea, Ren said.

The US is a world-leading technological power, and many of its companies are excellent, so Honor needs to be firm and bold in cooperating with them, as well as with domestic players, said Ren, who is also Huawei’s chief executive.

Huawei did not want to drag down Honor and its distributors in 170 countries as the parent company has been affected by the US ban, Ren explained on Nov. 27.

After the “divorce,” the two companies should strive to achieve their own goals and comply with international rules, he added.

Editor: Emmi Laine