Hosted by Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), Wang Xiaochu, chairman and CEO of China Unicom, made a presentation at the Science Auditorium in its main campus on Wednesday, discussing reform and innovation of China's telecommunications industry.

As one of 100 public lectures in universities delivered by business leaders of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), Wang's presentation at BUPT reviewed the history of telecommunication development in China since the 1980s, elaborated on its major institutional reforms, and encouraged his student audience to do their part at the dawn of the 5G era.

According to Wang, two major institutional reforms of Chinese telecommunications industry had nationwide impact - China Mobile's IPO in Hong Kong and New York in 1997, and the completion of mixed ownership of China Unicom in 2017.

China Mobile's successful financing has inspired a lot of Chinese enterprises to successfully seek listing in Hong Kong since then, he added.

As for the completion of mixed ownership in regard to China Unicom, Wang introduced two strategies applied since 2017. "Firstly, China Unicom diversified the structure of shareholding and tried to ensure the company could take all our shareholders' interest into consideration, with a special focus on the voice of minority shareholders.

"Second, we highlighted checks and balances between the Board of Directors, the shareholders meeting and the management team, not only in regard to each party's respective duties, but also in terms of their dividends and salaries."

In addition, Wang also noted the difference between the diversified shareholding structure and the mixed ownership of SOEs.

"The diversified shareholding structure doesn't necessarily influence the production and operation of an enterprise, as a shareholder can be any individual with the capacity to make investment. However, the mixed ownership is designed to create checks and balances between different types of shares so that the efficiency of financial resource allocation can be maximized," he stressed.

Earlier, on June 6, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially issued 5G licenses. Since then, the main campus of BUPT has become one of the first of a handful of areas to be blanketed by 5G.

As the top institute in the field of telecommunications in China, BUPT's hosting of Wang's presentation was seen as acting as an inspiration for its students to further contribute to the development of this industry at the dawn of the 5G era.

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