Mr. Ke Ruiwen, Chairman of China Telecom: Setting Sail in the New Blue Ocean of the Industry and Portraying the New Vision of Development Together

8 Jul 2022

On 8 July, at the investors exchange event of listed companies of the telecom industry jointly held by the three telecom operators, Mr. Ke Ruiwen, Chairman of China Telecom, made a keynote speech titled “Setting Sail in the New Blue Ocean of the Industry and Portraying the New Vision of Development Together”. Mr. Ke gave an in-depth sharing to investors about China Telecom’s practice and thinking in propelling the high-quality development of the digital economy, and communicated with chief analysts of leading securities firms, news media and general investors on issues such as cloud-network integration, sci-tech innovation and investors’ rights and interests on site.

“At present, the new generation information and communications technologies are increasingly permeated into all parts and the whole process of the economy and society while accelerating the pace of the whole society advancing towards an intelligent and digital age. The State attaches great importance to the building of Digital China and the development of digital economy, and requires the strengthening of problem-tackling efforts for key core technologies as well as the accelerated construction of the intelligent integrated digital information infrastructure that is high-speed and ubiquitous, aerial-ground in one, cloud-network integrated, intelligent and agile, green and low-carbon as well as secure and controllable, with an aim to open up the information artery of economic and social development”. Mr. Ke Ruiwen said that, as the country’s main force of informatisation development, China Telecom proactively fulfilled its responsibilities and missions in the construction of Cyberpower and Digital China as well as the safeguarding of network and information security. China Telecom accelerated the construction of new information infrastructure and popularisation of application on all fronts and contributed to strengthen the new momentum of economic development and propelled the high-quality development of digital economy.

Mr. Ke Ruiwen pointed out that adapting to the development trends including the iterative upgrade of the new generation information and communications technologies and the deep integration of digital technologies and the real economy, China Telecom seized the opportunities arising from the development of digital economy, fully implemented its “Cloudification and Digital Transformation” strategy, and expanded its integrated intelligent information products and services with a customer-oriented approach. The Company also accelerated the construction of digital information infrastructure with “cloud-network integration” as the core feature, fully undertook the “East-to-West Computing Resource Transfer” project, stepped up its efforts in sci-tech innovation, deepened the reform of systems and mechanisms, and made every effort to promote the high-quality development of the Company. It can be demonstrated in three aspects:

Firstly, seizing new opportunities arising from digital economy and expanding new room for industry value

At present, with the combination of changes unseen in a century and the once-in-a-century pandemic, the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating, while the economic pattern and growth path are undergoing profound changes. As an important part of digital economy, industrial digitalisation is the main engine for the whole society to promote the high-quality development of digital economy. It is also the proactive choice for various industries to create new advantages in digital economy which opens up a broader development potential for telecom operators. Leveraging resources in whole process and whole network as well as the edges in accumulation and localisation of customer service, telecom operators have abundant use cases and massive data, becoming the main force and beneficiary of promoting industrial digitalisation.

Through the consolidation of its edges and resources and alignment with customer demand, China Telecom built the integrated service system featuring vertical integration, horizontal penetration and coordinated operation. Leveraging the “integration of cloud, security, 5G, data and intelligence”, the Company took customers’ sense of gain and degree of satisfaction as the assessment criterion, provided customers with integrated solutions and operation and maintenance services, supported “the cloud migration, the use of data and intelligence injection” for numerous walks of life. The Industrial Digitalisation revenue of China Telecom achieved nearly one hundred billion yuan and is now still maintaining a rapid growth momentum, achieving simultaneous growth of customer value and corporate value while empowering the high-quality development of digital economy.

Secondly, cloud-network integration empowered by sci-tech innovation to enhance the core potential energy for development

Sci-tech is the core capability in the digital economy era. At present, the core competitiveness of telecom operators is no longer limited to network resources, but more about their sci-tech innovation capabilities. Sci-tech innovation has become the core force for the construction of intelligent integrated digital information infrastructure, which is the intrinsic driving force for the high-quality development of the industry.

China Telecom is deeply aware of the core position of sci-tech innovation in the overall corporate development. The Company took the promotion of sci-tech self-reliance and self-improvement as the strategic support for the high-quality development of the Company and proposed the goal of “building China Telecom into a sci-tech company with proprietary control of key core technologies and entering the first-tier camp of national sci-tech innovation companies”. The Company fully completed the layout of RDO (Note: RDO refers to “Research-Development-Operation”) sci-tech innovation and research and development (R&D), continuously enhanced the innovation system, deepened innovation coordination and optimised the innovation ecosystem. The Company also nurtured, introduced and tapped the full potential of talents on all fronts and accelerated the commercialisation of sci-tech achievements list. China Telecom firmly grasped cloud-network integration which is the core characteristic of the new digital infrastructure, grasped the direction of cloud-network integration and adhered to the principle of network as the foundation and cloud as the core. The Company proactively stepped up the problem-tackling efforts for key core technologies of cloud-network integration in areas such as cloud computing, 5G Core network decoupling, cloud-network operating system, intelligent scheduling of cloud-network security to enhance the supply capability of original technologies and build a brand-new digital foundation featuring cloud-network integration for the development of digital economy. The Company promoted the coordinated development of the industry chain with the technology chain and strived to become the "source of original technologies" and "leader of modern industry chain".

Thirdly, building a win-win new ecosystem and proactively rewarding shareholders and customers

To strengthen, optimise and expand digital economy, it is necessary to fully implement the new development concept, dare to innovate development models, build a new development pattern, and promote the transformation of digital economy from the scale-based quantitative model to the return-based qualitative model. The telecom industry adhered to the concept of open cooperation, continued to deepen the integrated cooperation with the upstream and downstream of the industry chain, and promoted the maturity and prosperity of the ecosystems of 5G, cloud and others.

With focuses on key areas such as cloud computing, network and information security, Industrial Digitalisation, Smart Family, AI/Big Data, China Telecom is committed to implementing a larger, broader and deeper pragmatic ecological cooperation, further transforming the development model and growth mode, continuously enhancing the supply capability of digitalisation, and jointly creating a new future for digital economy. Guided by the new development concept, we proactively explored new models for cloud-network construction and operation, reduced duplicate input of resources, and strived to create a green cloud-network with high efficiency and energy conservation. Take co-building and co-sharing as an example, China Telecom and China Unicom jointly built the world’s largest 5G SA co-shared network through co-building and co-sharing and further deepened 4/5G collaboration. By the end of last year, the aggregate savings of network investment for both parties exceeded RMB210 billion while that of network operating costs reached RMB20 billion per year. In the next step, telecom operators will proactively promote the co-building and co-sharing of 4/5G base stations, optical fibres and spectrum resources, and the capital savings will be used to increase R&D investment and enhance corporate value, so as to effectively enhance customers’ usage experience and reward to investors.

During the on-site Q&A session, Mr. Ke Ruiwen said that “cloud-network integration” is an important part of the construction of digital information infrastructure and a core feature of the supply system in the digital era. Technology, openness and reform are the three key elements to promote cloud-network integration. China Telecom insisted on sci-tech innovation in the unified deployment of cloud-network integration, adhered to an open mindset to jointly build the digital information infrastructure with all parties in the industry chain and value chain, and strived to build the production relationship that adapts to sci-tech development and meets customer demands.

When speaking about sci-tech innovation, Mr. Ke Ruiwen indicated to the reporter that China Telecom will unswervingly develop as a sci-tech company and keep cloud-network integration infrastructure under its own control. Driven by technology, e-Surfing Cloud 4.0 is capable of strong proprietary core technologies, with its CDN technology becoming industry-leading. Services such as “e-Surfing Webcam”, “Bright Kitchen” and etc have not only ensured information security, but also provided customers with services with sense of technology and modernisation.

“China Telecom returned to A-share market last August and we continued to promote the high-quality development of the Company. In 2021, we achieved double-digit growth in both revenue and profit, with the dividend payout ratio reaching 60%, successfully fulfilling our commitments to the capital market”. Mr. Ke Ruiwen emphasised that the development of the industry and the Company is inseparable from the care and support of investors. China Telecom will proactively reward investors and share the results of high-quality development of digital economy with investors.

Video Replay (Chinese only)
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