2023 was a critical year for the Company to implement the 14th Five-Year Plan. China Unicom has established itself through the “Internet”, grown through “Connectivity”, and become stronger through “Convergence”. We bravely undertook the mission and tasks of the new journey of the new era, took the initiative to serve the Cyber Superpower and Digital China strategies, shouldered the responsibility in scientific and technological innovation and in-depth reform, actively took actions in building development advantages and making up for the shortcomings of capabilities, and better performed functions such as strategic security, industrial leadership, national economy and people’s well-being, and public services, contributing to the enhancement of the ability to create comprehensive value for the economy, society and environment.
Bearing the responsibility and supporting the construction of a modern industrial system. China Unicom continued to build high-quality networks, vigorously promoted new industrialization, deepened the integration and innovation of digitalization and reality, and accelerated the building of the backbone to empower the digital, intelligent and green transformation and upgrading of the economy and society. We served the construction of digital economy, accelerated the promotion of 5G, gigabit and integration, and optimised the product experience such as Unicom Home Surveillance, Unicom Assistant, Unicom Ultra HD, and 5G new communication to meet the needs of the people for a better digital and intelligent life. The Company strengthened Unicom Cloud and continued to polish the No. 1 brand of “5G+Industrial Internet”. The Gewu Unilink platform was selected as a national dual platform, with a total of 30,000 5G industry application projects. We served the construction of digital government, upgraded the “Zizhi” administrative big data platform, and served the construction and operation of the digital economic operation platform in 16 provinces. We served the national cultural digitalization strategy, upgraded the digital cultural chain of China, served the construction of the Chinese cultural database, and created digital display platforms such as the National Nature Museum and Shaoshan Memorial Hall of Comrade Mao Zedong. The Company built an inclusive and convenient digital society, upgraded the “Urban Digital Intelligence Brain”, constructed digitalized colleges and universities, and built a full-scenario digital medical capability system. The digital village platform covered 255,000 administrative villages, comprehensively supporting rural revitalization. We actively worked towards the “dual carbon” goal. The 4G/5G co-build and co-share leads to annual power saving of about 20 billion kWh, and the carbon emissions are reduced by approximately 11.5 million tonnes per year. We created digital solutions such as smart water conservancy, environmental monitoring and energy consumption management to help build a beautiful China.
Concentrating our efforts to promote high-level technological self-reliance and self-improvement. China Unicom deeply implemented the strategy of strengthening enterprises with technology, accelerated the transformation to a world-class technology service enterprise with global competitiveness, and strived to become an important part of the national strategic scientific and technological strength. The Company promoted industrial innovation with scientific and technological innovation, implemented the action plans of industrial renewal for central state-owned enterprises and inauguration of future industries, and accelerated planning in three strategic emerging industries, namely next-generation mobile communication, artificial intelligence and new energy vehicles, as well as two future industries, namely future network and future information, accelerating the development of new quality productivity. The efficiency of scientific and technological innovation continued to improve, and the investment intensity of R&D funds exceeded 4%. The Company accelerated the development of original technologies and developed core technologies in key areas such as IPv6 evolution and security, network security, intelligent vehicle-road collaboration, and time-frequency synchronous chip. The Company established 62 international standards, applied for 4398 patents, attained 1 China Patent Silver Award, 2 World Internet Leading Scientific and Technological Achievements Awards, and won the National Quality Engineering Gold Award for “5G Co-build and Co-shared SA Construction Project”. We deepened industry-university-research cooperation with Zhongguancun Laboratory, Zijinshan Laboratory and Pengcheng Laboratory to promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements from “laboratories” to “production lines”. The digital transformation was expanded in depth, with continuous enhancement of intelligent brain capabilities and a strengthened intelligent operation system to provide data and tool empowerment for the front line. The proportion of intelligent services increased to 85%, and the operational efficiency and customer experience were significantly improved. The Company’s data management capability ranked among the first tier in the country, and its data governance has passed the DCMM5 certification. The Company has been awarded the title of “Top Ten Famous Enterprise in Data Management”, and ranked first among central stated-owned enterprises in the special action of digital intelligence improvement of state-owned assets supervision, setting a benchmark for the digital transformation of central stated-owned enterprises.
Taking the lead in serving the new landscape of national strategic security. China Unicom coordinated high-quality development and high-level security, accelerated the construction of intelligent comprehensive digital information infrastructure, comprehensively improved intrinsic security capabilities, and built a solid national cybersecurity barrier. The number of 5G mid-band base stations exceeded 1.21 million, the number of 900M base stations reached 680,000, mobile network covered 98% of administrative villages, broadband network covered 540 million residential units, helping to narrow the digital divide. The Company accelerated the “5+4+31+X” computing power centre deployment, promoted the construction of the first batch of AI computing nodes, and provided integrated computing network services, bolstering the information channel for economic and social development. The Company served the construction of the “Belt and Road”, as the capacity of international submarine and terrestrial cables resources reached 88T. The “Intelligent Cloud Data Centre” and Unicom Cloud International Station were launched, helping to build a new development landscape. The Company leveraged the pivotal and conducive nature of its role as the chain leader of the modern cybersecurity industry chain, self-developed the “Mogong” security operation platform, realised the physical operation of security operation centre, strengthened the protection of critical infrastructure, and effectively improved its comprehensive cybersecurity defence capability. The Company carried out the joint chain action, operated the cybersecurity intellectual property operation centre, cooperated with scientific research institutes to build national innovation carriers such as security attack and defence laboratories and information technology innovation laboratories, and worked with industrial chain partners to create the “Security Hub” cloud market, empowering the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. The Company established the China Unicom Anti-Fraud Centre to crack down on network and telecommunication frauds and safeguarded the safety of people’s lives and properties. We successfully completed key communications support tasks such as the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the Belt and Road Summit Forum, and the Hangzhou Asian Games, and demonstrated our responsibility in flood and earthquake emergency rescue and disaster relief. We continued to consolidate the brand image of “Chief Security Officer”.
Overcoming difficulties and stimulating the vitality and momentum of high-quality development. China Unicom has always adhered to the two “consistent principles”, made good use of reform to further promote the modernization of corporate governance system and governance capabilities. The Company fully implemented the reform deepening and improvement action plan, and strengthened the system integration, coordination and efficiency of reform, innovation and development. We carried out in-depth quality and efficiency improvement, and the level of refined management was significantly improved. We continuously improved the quality as a listed company and actively responded to investors’ concerns. The Company gave full play to the operational advantages of “One Unicom”, accelerated the formation of specialised, refined, unique and innovative capabilities. Two professional subsidiaries were selected as world-class professional leading demonstration enterprises by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and three professional subsidiaries were selected as national-level specialised, refined, differentiated and innovative “little giant” enterprises. We continued to improve the organisational system of operation services, further promoted the “Strong Counties (Districts) Project”, and further stimulated the vitality of frontline units. The Company improved the market operation mechanism, built a multi-dimensional promotion incentive system covering all employees, and significantly enhanced the happiness and sense of achievement of employees.
The year 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of new China and is also an important year for the Company to continue to strive for a new start. We will insist on “Strengthen and Solidify, Preserve and Innovate, Integrate and Open”, fully leverage the Company’s unique advantages, deeply implement the strategy of strengthening the enterprise, and solidly promote key action plans. With a pragmatic and pioneering approach, we will work hard to make new contributions to the construction of Chinese modernization with the tangible results of high-quality development.
