Nokia President and CEO Rajeev Suri has received the Marco Polo award, the highest honor accorded to a non-Chinese citizen, for Nokia's longstanding contribution towards the development of the country's economy, technology and culture. The award, presented by Zhang Jianguo, General Secretary of the CAIEP, recognizes the company's pioneering efforts in driving the global development of TD-LTE and facilitating the creation of a rich, worldwide ecosystem and supply chain in China.

With the award, Suri joins a list of global luminaries who have received this prestigious state honor, including former US President George H. W. Bush; the former CEO of Ford, Alex Trotman; and Ralph Larsen, former CEO of Johnson & Johnson.

Nokia's key achievements at a glance:

  • Nokia was the first international company that strongly promoted TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE as global standards in 1998. Since then, the company has built a full value chain for this technology in China - including product management, research and development, manufacturing, logistics, global marketing and sales and services.
  • With a workforce comprised of 3,000 technology experts, Nokia's global  R&D headquarters for TD-LTE and related technology in Hangzhou provides services to more than 100 operators and terminal manufacturers across the world.
  • To date, the company has 47 commercial TD-LTE networks in six continents.
  • This technology standard has proven particularly important to Chinese operators, ecosystem partners, and subscribers - resulting in Nokia Networks' Markus Borchert being honored with the People's Republic of China Friendship award in 2014.

Zhang Jianguo, General Secretary of the CAIEP, said: "This award is a token of our gratitude and appreciation for Rajeev Suri, and the Nokia team, for becoming one of China's key partners in progress. We truly honor the company's contributions as a crucial building block in the country's economic and technological development, with the hope that this partnership will become stronger in the future."

Rajeev Suri, President and CEO of Nokia, said: "Nokia has been in China since 1982, and, as a pioneer in telecommunications, we are proud of our role in the country's rise to become a leader of the global economy. This award recognizes our innovation force behind TD-LTE and our hard work in the country, and will spur us on to do even greater things in the days to come. We are especially inspired by the Chinese government's Internet Plus strategy, which is very much aligned with our vision of a Programmable World."