The Third Session of the Fifth Congress of Employee Representatives and the Congress of Union Members of the Group Company was solemnly convened on June 7 in the Auditorium of Building No. 1 at Headquarters. A total of 117 employee representatives from all fronts across the company gathered to conscientiously exercise their democratic rights with a strong sense of responsibility, faithfully fulfill their sacred duties as employee representatives, and jointly deliberate on major plans for the enterprise’s development.

The auditorium was imbued with a solemn and enthusiastic atmosphere, with the company’s logo prominently displayed at the center of the stage backdrop, gleaming brilliantly against the vibrant red flags.

Zhong Yiming, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Group Company, presided over the meeting. The meeting first approved the list of members of the Presidium, which includes Zhang Xiangyang, Zhang Zhongda, Zhong Yiming, Huang Jing, Chen Jianqing, Xing Guangzhong, Shao Jinman, Chen Guoli, Yu Fengbin, Dai Jianbin, Yin Yougen, Wang Jun, Qiu Lin, Li Guang, Yi Xingzhong, Guo Qiyun, Wang Shaobo, Ling Jinxiang, Xu Chunyang, Cui Jiansheng, and Chen Minghua.

At 2:00 p.m., Zhong Yiming announced the opening of the Third Session of the Fifth Congress of Employee Representatives and the Congress of Trade Union Members of Nantong Construction Engineering Group Co., Ltd. All attendees rose to their feet as the national anthem was played and sung.

In accordance with the meeting agenda, and amid warm applause, Zhang Zhongda, General Manager of the Group Company, delivered, on behalf of the General Manager’s Office, an administrative work report entitled “Understand the Situation, Firmly Uphold Confidence, Rise to Challenges, Turn Crises into Opportunities for Survival, and Strive Vigorously to Achieve the Sustainable, Steady, and Healthy Development of the Enterprise.” The report was divided into two parts: a review of the work accomplished in 2023 and the objectives and tasks for 2024.

In his report, Zhang Zhongda pointed out that 2023 marked the inaugural year for fully implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and was also an exceptionally extraordinary year in the company’s development journey. Faced with a complex and challenging situation characterized by sluggish domestic and international economic recovery and an unexpectedly sharp downturn in the construction industry, the Party Committee, the Board of Directors, and the General Manager’s Office of the Group led all cadres and employees in steadfastly upholding the overarching work principle of prioritizing stability while seeking progress within stability. With unwavering confidence, they rose to challenges, shouldered responsibilities, turned crises into opportunities for survival, overcame numerous difficulties, and worked tirelessly to surmount obstacles, thereby enabling the company to maintain a steady and robust growth trajectory. Despite significant challenges, the company made headway in market expansion, introduced innovative approaches to corporate management, optimized and upgraded talent management, advanced scientific and technological innovation in a solid and systematic manner, and achieved remarkable results in Party building and corporate culture development.

In his report, Zhang Zhongda pointed out that 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and is also a pivotal year for the company in implementing the 14th Five-Year Plan. After a comprehensive analysis and assessment of the development environment, in close alignment with national policy orientations and taking into account both the Group’s phased development goals and the current market conditions, he outlined the company’s overall work plan for 2024: guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Second Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, and the Central Economic Work Conference; adhering to the overarching principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability and using progress to promote stability; comprehensively applying the new development philosophy; accelerating the establishment of a new development pattern; focusing on promoting high-quality development; better coordinating domestic and international markets; and placing particular emphasis on ensuring stable operations, preventing risks, strengthening internal capabilities, enhancing management, cultivating talent, fostering innovation, shaping corporate culture, and reinforcing Party building—so as to ensure the enterprise’s sustained, steady, and healthy development even during the most challenging period in the industry. In light of the Group’s 14th Five-Year Plan and the current severe conditions in the construction market, the report sets forth the Group’s key economic targets and work tasks for 2024.

Zhang Zhongda outlined the key priorities for 2024: first, coordinate domestic and international markets to stabilize the core business foundation; second, make all-out efforts to prevent and defuse major risks by every possible means; third, strengthen internal capabilities and comprehensively advance refined project cost management; fourth, put people first and reinforce talent development and team building; fifth, leverage innovation to foster new drivers of productivity; sixth, cultivate a strong corporate culture to enhance the company’s brand image; and seventh, ensure the sustained, stable, and healthy development of the enterprise through Party leadership.

At the conference, Wang Shaobo, Chairman of the Trade Union of the Group Company, delivered a work report titled “Unite Hearts and Pool Strength, Assume Responsibilities and Take Action, Uphold Fundamental Principles while Pursuing Innovation, Press On with Courage and Determination, and Unite and Lead the Broad Mass of Employees to Fully Promote the Group’s Sustained, Steady, and Healthy Development.” In his report, he reviewed the past year’s trade union work from five key perspectives: first, steadfastly upholding ideological guidance to continuously enhance the enterprise’s cohesion and centripetal force; second, consistently serving the overall interests to continually strengthen the workforce’s combat effectiveness and creativity; third, adhering to democratic management to steadily increase employees’ sense of happiness and belonging; fourth, persistently improving skills to further solidify the scientific and standardized nature of work; and fifth, continuously tapping into vitality to expand the diversity and innovativeness of services. He also outlined the main tasks for the trade union in 2024: first, further strengthening Party leadership to guide employees in heeding the Party’s call and following its lead; second, further enhancing central service functions to lead employees in assuming responsibilities and taking proactive action; third, further strengthening rights-protection services to safeguard employees’ legitimate rights and interests; and fourth, further strengthening organizational development to unleash employees’ latent vitality.

The Congress reviewed and adopted the Report on Administrative Work, the Report on Trade Union Work, the Report on Trade Union Financial Work, and the Report of the Trade Union Financial Audit Committee.

The conference reviewed and adopted the resolutions of the Third Session of the Fifth Congress of Employee Representatives and the Workers’ Congress. The conference called on all employees to, under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Second Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, accurately assess the situation, bolster their confidence, rise to challenges, turn crises into opportunities for survival and development, and continue to maintain the enterprise’s steady and sound operating momentum. All this is in order to comprehensively promote the enterprise’s sustained, stable, and healthy development and to strive tirelessly toward the realization of Nantong Construction Engineering’s vision of becoming a century-old, strong enterprise!

At the conference, Huang Jing, Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Group Company, read out the Decision on Commending the Group Company’s Advanced Units, Advanced Individuals, Advanced Party Branches, Outstanding Party Members, and Outstanding Party Affairs Workers for 2023, and the conference proceeded to confer awards on the recognized advanced collectives and individuals.

At the meeting, Zhang Xiangyang, Chairman of the Group Company, delivered an important speech, putting forward three key points for implementing the spirit of this Employees’ Congress and for effectively carrying out the next phase of work: first, gain a clear understanding of the situation and grasp the overarching trends, thereby genuinely strengthening our confidence and resolve to ensure survival and pursue development; second, prioritize key areas and rigorously ensure effective implementation, so as to guarantee the successful completion of the year’s objectives and tasks; and third, strengthen team building, enhance governance capabilities, and promote the enterprise’s sustained, stable, and healthy development. He emphasized that, in the face of an increasingly complex macroeconomic environment and the severe downturn in the construction industry—conditions that have exceeded expectations—all employees across the company must adopt the right perspective on the current situation, maintain unwavering confidence, rise to challenges, strive with determination, and deliver solid results. We must make every possible effort to create favorable conditions for market expansion, to proactively prevent and defuse major corporate risks, to advance refined cost management for projects, to ensure timely project settlement and collection of project payments, and to vigorously pursue measures to increase revenue while reducing expenditures, thus aligning our thinking with the work priorities set forth at the Employees’ Congress. To achieve these goals, we must rely on the “key few”—the leading cadres—to take the lead in ensuring effective implementation; use the “fundamental approach” of clearly defining responsibilities to drive implementation; and draw on the “powerful backing” of all employees to collectively ensure that actions are carried out in line with the overall objectives and requirements articulated at the Congress. In addition, we must strengthen team building and enhance governance capacity; intensify ideological and political work to forge a united force for development; and reinforce Party building to facilitate the effective implementation of all initiatives. Finally, he called on everyone in the company to be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, gain a clear understanding of the situation, remain steadfast in our confidence, confront difficulties head-on, turn crises into opportunities for survival, and tirelessly strive to ensure the enterprise’s sustained, stable, and healthy development and to realize the aspirations of all cadres and employees for a better life.

During the meeting, Zhong Yiming put forward two requirements for effectively implementing the spirit of this session of the Employees’ Congress and the Trade Union Congress: First, we must study the spirit of the meetings thoroughly and align our thinking and actions. All units and departments should organize study sessions in earnest, ensuring that the spirit of the meetings and the important remarks delivered by Chairman Zhang Xiangyang are communicated fully, accurately, and promptly to all cadres and employees. We should draw morale, unite strength, and ignite enthusiasm from the spirit of the meetings, thereby aligning the thoughts and actions of the broad workforce with the Group’s work guidelines and strategic decisions for 2024, thus injecting strong momentum into the achievement of annual objectives and tasks and the comprehensive promotion of the enterprise’s sustained, stable, and healthy development. Second, we must conscientiously implement the spirit of the meetings and put in place concrete measures. All units and departments should, in accordance with the fundamental principles and key requirements set forth in the Administrative Work Report, further clarify their work strategies and formulate and refine the specific priorities and plans for their respective units and departments. Attention should be focused on the seven areas of work outlined in the 2024 report; each item should be carefully compared and detailed, with clear links to individual responsibilities and assigned tasks. We must rigorously identify shortcomings and gaps, conduct in-depth reflection on underlying causes such as insufficient subjective effort and management deficiencies, adjust our mindset, improve working methods, enhance work efficiency, and ensure that all work arrangements are effectively implemented.

The conference concluded successfully to the rousing strains of “We Workers Have Great Strength.”

(Party and Mass Work Department, Ji Yan)