Remarking "The Chinese to take the lead in the world-class innovative competition"

20 April 2009, Shenzhen, China - ZTE’s Headquarters in Shenzhen today witnesses a great event in a happy and joyful atmosphere. In the morning, the sun shines brightly even after a short rain. Mr. Hou Weigui, board director of ZTE Corporation was waiting here among the crowd wearing a shiny smile on his face. Today, a distinguished guest-Wen Jiabao, Premier of the State Council- would come to visit ZTE after his journey to the Boao Forum for Asia. Premier Wen’s journey to Shenzhen is to investigate the operation of Shenzhen enterprises under the global financial crisis.

At 8:45 am, a familiar and robust figure got off the car, smiling and amicably waving hand towards the welcoming crowd. He was Premier Wen Jiabao for whom this welcoming crowd was expecting for eagerly. Premier Wen shook hand with every staff member of ZTE present, and said kindly that “I once visited ZTE in 2003. This is my second visit and I feel very happy!”

Accompanied by Wang Yang, Provincial Party Secretary of Guangdong Province, Premier Wen toured the exhibition hall, the global customer support center and the SMT production line of ZTE. He stopped from time to time to talk affectionately with the staff, showing great concern on their life and work in Shenzhen.

“Compared with the year 2003, Year 2008 witnessed ZTE’s impressive growth - our sales income has grown from 16 billion yuan to 44.3 billion yuan; the overseas income increased from 12% to 61%; and the number of employees was up from 17,000 to 61,000. The compound annual growth rate of sales volume is up to 22%, ranking in the top position in the telecommunications industry in the world.” Xu Xiaohuan, narrator of ZTE at the exhibition hall reported to Premier Wen about the development of ZTE in the past 6 years.

“ZTE made big contributions to our country.” nodded Premier Wen in appreciation after learning that ZTE recorded high with its tax payment of 5.1 billion yuan in the global financial crisis while upholding the government’s employment policy by actively enlarging its recruitment of university graduates, and ZTE enlisted 1,100 upstream industry chain vendors supporting the employment of over 100,000 people.

In reply to countermeasures taken by the enterprises against the financial crisis about which Premier Wen is deeply concerned, Mr. Hou Weigui expressed his confidence in the prospect of the telecommunications industry. Mr. Hou noted that ZTE would take the crisis as an opportunity - With the proprietary innovation and sincere service wining over more and more clients, the Company aims to achieve a two-digit growth rate this year.

Premier Wen was satisfied with Mr Hou’s confidence. Holding the hand of Mr. Hou, Premier Wen noted,  “it is great that in the global hard times, ZTE is determined to further tap the domestic and overseas markets and is confident to keep growing rapidly!”

During his visit, Premier Wen heard that ZTE had made great achievements in 3G telecommunications area. For instance, in the 3G equipment bidding of China, ZTE acquired a 29% share and became the largest supplier of 3G network equipment in China. As TD-SCDMA is the proprietary 3G mobile communication standard of China, ZTE has taken TD-SCDMA as its strategic product and invested in it for 9 successive years, with a total investment of 2.5 billion yuan, an input of several thousands of staff members and a great number of patents in the TD area.

After the report, Premier Wen remarked affirmatively, “well-done,” and talked with Wang Jianzhou, Chairman of China Mobile via the TD mobile video phone of ZTE. He was very satisfied with the voice and video effect of the phone.

Afterwards, Premier Wen visited ZTE’s SMT product line, where he stopped from time to time to watch the operations of the equipment and asked about the workers’ work and life. In the SMT test zone, Premier Wen carefully observed the work flow of Qin Miaomiao, a female worker of ZTE, asking her about “test procedures”, “test tools”, etc.

After visiting the global customer support center, Premier Wen made a 10-minute impromptu speech to the staff members of ZTE.

In his speech, Premier Wen said, “I am very sensitive to figures, especially at the times of crisis. Although the figures I heard from you seem dull, but they are live and give hope to us. The name of ZTE implies the meaning of prosperity and development, and I should say it also signifies the prosperity and development of China.”

Premier Wen specially mentioned that “during my visit in 2003, ZTE had 17,000 staff members, now you have over 60,000 employees with most of them being technical staff.  This means you are a high-tech enterprise, a technology-intensive enterprise, and you are growing quickly.”

Premier Wen encouraged ZTE to firmly “go out” to grow and develop, “ZTE aims right to the point. When some of our enterprises and industries are at their hard times, it is also ripe opportunity for other high-end industries like electronic communications industry to expand overseas. Seize this opportunity well and we can make presence in many more overseas markets, and our enterprises will grow stronger and prosper.”

Premier Wen also pointed out that “high-tech enterprises are highly innovative. ZTE has 18,000 domestic patents and 2,500 international patents. These figures are evidence of our innovation. Innovation not only makes fortune and increases one’s competitiveness, but also wins dignity for our enterprises and our people. The Chinese people are able to take the lead in the world-class innovative competitions.”

Premier Wen highly praised ZTE for its achievements against this adverse economic situation, and regarded ZTE as an example for other Chinese enterprises to learn from. “Hope is just like a beacon that gives us the direction. Hope resides in our heart, in our innovative successes and in the achievements of China,” emphasized Premier Wen. “We must be confident and full of hope as confidence is much more important than gold or currency. I hope that ZTE will be bold enough to make innovations, emancipate the mind and make progress, thereby being always at the forefront of the entire electronic communications industry.”

The staff members of ZTE felt deeply touched and applauded from time to time with Premier Wen’s speech. After the visit, Premier Wen had a group photo taken together with ZTE staff members at the site, saying that, “ZTE is very big and I cannot see every of your staff. Please refer my regard to all of them.”