Dear colleagues and friends,

At the last sunset of 2018, snowflakes accumulated in part of North China and lower reaches of Yangtze River, distinctly wrapping this year up with welcomed,tangible moisture. As we ring into the year of 2019,I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of GCL Group, to extend our annual greetings to my colleagues and those who have supported us and helped bring green energy into life. I wish youa very happy new year.

The year of 2018 will be remembered as it marked the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up and GCL’s 28th founding anniversary.As the old saying goes, “When one drinks water, he should never forget where it comes from.” GCL’s development has been closely tied with the national development. Without the strong leadership of the Party and the government, without the policy of reform and opening-up, we would not have gone this far.

In the past 28 years, riding the surging wave of reform and opening-up, GCL has held fast onto the development of industries, especially the new and green energy industry and explored a path toward green and compound growth driven by innovation in both technology and management. The efforts have paid off: we stand out with a distinguished principal business and a clear edge in R&D, and we have maintained an internationally leading position in the terms of products and market shares for years. In 2018, we again led the new energy industry on the list of China’s top 500 companies and made it to the top among the world’s top 500 new energy companies. Personally I was awarded the “Corporate Reform Medal”, “Leading Figure of Energy Reform”, and “Top 40 Energy Entrepreneurs” in the past four decades of reform and opening up, and elected first president of Global Green Energy Industry Council, deputy director general of China Electricity Council and the first executive vice president of its Committee for Electrical Vehicles and Energy Storage. I am humbled by the honors and will do my best to promote the development of the industry.

Last year, as Chinese economy continued to shift from high-speed to high-quality development, we actively adapted to external changes by reinventing the development mode, optimizing the industrial structure and shifting the growth momentum. Despite all the common challenges facing the private sector, such as the trade war, the deleveraging policy, adjustments to the industrial policy, and cyclical changes, we managed to pull through by standing united and confident, by working together with all our partners, and with the support from the Party and governments at all levels. We achieved targets in restructuring, liability reduction, innovation and transformation. We vigorously adjusted the asset structure and honored the payment of financial products that were due. While optimizing our assets, industry and product structure, we introduced strategic investors and competitive partners, assumed a bigger role in the mixed ownership reform, advanced the shareholding system reform in the company, and put in place a mechanism for joint contribution and shared benefits and responsibilities. We reinvented business and organizational models and saw significant improvement in quality and efficiency. The seeds of transformation we sowed years ago have flourished in 2018: we became leaner and lighter to pursue our green dream.

We completed a strategic transformation as scheduled amid robust development by following the established business roadmap. We achieved new milestones in the implementation of the “Vacating Cage for New Birds” project, business transformation and upgrading, dual-principal business development, the promotion of intelligent and information technologies, the integration of industrialization and information technology, and the internationalization strategy. We made breakthrough in the development of integrated circuit materials, which will strengthen China’s chip competitiveness. We extended our green energy business, led by overseas natural gas projects, to over 20 countries and regions abroad. All this would not be possible without the leading role of 3,555 Party members of 109 Party branches, eight Party divisions and 11 Party committees across the Group, which has worked closely with workers’ unions and Communist Youth Leagues committees to advance business transformation and upgrading. It would not be possible without the concerted efforts and pooled wisdom of our nearly 30,000 employees who have worked hard as one team to overcome difficulties and challenges and bring the company to a new high. On top of the Xinhaikang Spirit that supported us in our earliest days, we have developed and promoted the Taicang Port Spirit, the Zhongneng Spirit, the Gobi Spirit, and the Ogadēn Spirit, injecting new energy into corporate reform. Our dream of green development and our commitment to social responsibilities in economic development, environmental protection and public services have driven us to work relentlessly to make the company stronger and create more wealth and benefits for our employees and the general public alike.

As we usher into 2019, my company and I feel especially grateful towards our shareholders, partners and friends who have supported us along the way.We owe what we achieved in 2018 to our employees, to every worker along the industrial chain, and to numerous people who have contributed to the green energy industry.

In 2019, we will continue business transformation, but never abandon our principal business. We will continue to be market-oriented, customer-centered, and technology-driven, rely on high-end talents, promote standardized, prudent and stable operation, closely track the yield rate and keep the liability rate under tight control, to ensure the compliance of key financial indicators such as the cash flow. We will work to enhance the operational effectiveness in all respects and maximize the output of every investment in green energy. We will continue to pursue high-quality, sustainable and sound development with the help of high technology, and construct a new corporate and industrial ecosystem by following the thinking of platform economy and data economy. We will strive to grow into a technology-driven industry leader in terms of technological prowess, branding, human resources, products, models and profitability. While consolidating our global leading edge, we will increase efforts in the formulation of global technical standards and rules governing green energy, intelligent manufacturing of high-tech equipment and products, industrial big data and cutting-edge energy technology, and continue to climb up the high-grade, precision and advanced niche market of energy. We will further align with the Belt and Road Initiative to expand the global market, visibility and footprints of our brand. We will strive to develop more national yardsticks for new energy, new materials, new processes, and new technologies. We will break the boundary separating green energy from 5G communications, industrial radio frequency, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, Energy Internet & smart micro-network, power batteries & energy storage, and electrical vehicles, and build ourselves into a smarter, more efficient and greener comprehensive energy service provider and mobile energy service provider. On top of that, we will strive to bring at least 10 million tons of LNG per year into China in three to five years, to help improve the energy structure and fight air pollution at home. We will work with partners inside and outside the industry, employ green technologies of smart grid, UHV power grid, clean energy and energy storage, accelerate to promote clean energy development and substitution and the use of electricity at user ends along the Belt and Road region, and limit the use of fossil energy to its basic purposes, to better protect the Earth.

Everything takes on a new look in the new year. This year is crucial for the energy reform and promises us a brand new era full of hopes. In the pursuit of green and low-carbon development, the green energy industry is the honorable pioneer. There will be bumps on the journey ahead and complete darkness before day breaks, but the destination will be reached and the dawn will come when new energy will play the hero in the energy reform. Green energy represents an irreversible trend which is created and reinforced by every advocate of it. The new energy industry and enterprises will never be absent or late, but will rise up to their duties in responding to climate change and driving the energy reform.

In the past four decades, China has blazed the trail of reform and opening up and blossomed into an international powerhouse. In the past 28 years, GCL has never stopped ploughing and weeding in its field and is steadily pushing ahead the boundary. In the age of change, winners are those who innovate and adapt. At the threshold of 2019, we have reexamined our philosophies and missions one by one, and hold fast to them in the firm belief that tomorrow will be better. Let’s follow Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in practice, boost confidence in socialism with Chinese characteristics, gallop forward together into the new era and embrace the spring of 2019 with unyielding determination and confidence to achieve more success.

Thank you again and best wishes to you all. Happy New Year!

ZHU Gongshan
Chairman ofGCL Group