In FY2016, the domestic economy further slowed down, posing unprecedented challenges to the Group in the face of adversities such as the reverse trends of supply and demand in the domestic gas industry and the inferior competitiveness of natural gas vis-a-vis alternative energies in terms of pricing. Notwithstanding the economic malaise and complicated landscape of industrial development, all of the Group’s employees continued to stick to our corporate mission of “Benefiting the Society through Establishing a Harmonious Ambience”, adhere to our core values of “Social Respect, Customer Trust, Members’ Well-Being, and Win-Win with Shareholders” and actively respond to the state’s call for “Energy Conservation, Emission Reduction and Environmental Governance Policies and Thorough Implementation of the Action Plan of Air Pollution Prevention”. Even in the face of huge difficulties, we have demonstrated outstanding bravery and continued to implement the macro-market strategy through practical actions and enhanced our management capabilities while proactively driving reform and innovation. In order to provide clean and convenient energy and services to users, improve urban ecological environment and keep creating stable and long-term value for shareholders, staff, customers and the society, we made persistent efforts to beef up the strength and execution capability of our people and seized the initiative to achieve further development.
![Social Responsibility]( "Social Responsibility")
I. RESPONSIBILITIES FOR EMPLOYEES
Since 2002, China Gas has been on a fast track of development with nearly 38,000 employees in 25 provinces, cities and autonomous regions across the country. We are blessed with dedicated staff who are totally committed to their jobs and are always striving to improve their skills. By actively implementing the corporate culture of China Gas and setting an example, our employees have become the driving force for the development of China Gas.
The Group adheres to its “people-oriented” operating ideology to retain a diverse array of talents and build a sense of belonging among our employees. In particular, we increase the self-value of employees and their sense of identity with the Company through cultural promotions, system building, business trainings and a variety of other initiatives. In terms of compliance with labour laws, the Group has strictly followed the requirements of the “Labour Contract Law” and insisted in promoting merit-based employment, paying wages on time, making contributions to social security funds and improving labour relations to avoid labour disputes. In addition to performing comprehensive assessment on all employees, including the Group’s management, through performance appraisal, the Group also carried out competence appraisal for employees from the headquarters and various districts and project companies during this financial year. We make all-out efforts to optimize human resources allocation through closely aligning with the Group’s strategies and business development; we strive to promote market-andservice-oriented transformation through team building and weeding out the inferior; we also improve our personnel structure through strengthening our front-line and general staff. We continue to adopt a dynamic management model for manager-level positions and prioritize basic working experience when selecting candidates for manager vacancies. With a view to providing strong support to the Group through refining manager-level management, we vest the power of recruitment, management and allocation of managers to regional offices and strengthen the organizational and disciplinary aspects of such allocation. In terms of remuneration system, we motivate the whole team of staff through improving our remuneration system which gives more rewards to employees who create value. The Group’s motivating remuneration system and differentiated assessment system are designed in accordance with the nature of our market-oriented businesses such as value-added business and emerging business. In addition, through offering incentives by means of economic leverage, the productivity of our staff can be fully unleashed while the personal goals of employees and corporate development targets can be closely aligned to realize joint development of staff and the Company.
To build a learning-oriented and innovative enterprise, the Group also introduced a series of effective measures with full involvement of our employees, including Management Institute, general manager training camp, professional trainings on safety, engineering, finance and legal affairs, book recommendations from CEO and sharing sessions of reading. In this financial year, the number of enrollments for courses and exams offered through E-learning online learning system is 106,507 while that for offline learning is 122,079 and a total of over 72,536 training hours was completed.
In addition, the Group also established a smooth complain and whistle-blowing procedure under which every complaint is investigated by the Group’s audit supervision department and the investigation results are reported to the higher management and the complainants. Once a material complaint is confirmed, rewards will be given to the relevant complainant. This internal audit system has great significance in safeguarding the legal rights of staff and ensuring fairness, justice and openness within the Group. Moreover, to address the requests of employees, China Gas has established a column of inner voices on the “China Gas House” WeChat platform for employees to share their difficulties and stress from work which will later on be replied and answered by different professional departments of the Group. Since its establishment in November 2015, the platform has received about 400 questions raised by employees which were all replied and given feedbacks by the relevant departments.
FY2016 is the “Year of Quality Service Culture” of China Gas. During the year, the Group has continuously strengthened occupational health and safety management. Various regional management centers, business departments and project companies also rolled out a series of activities, including indoor gas facilities installation and maintenance skills competition, home safety and customer services skills competition, which effectively foster a culture of customer services within the Group as well as enhancing employees’ occupational skills and professional quality.
Also encouraging is that the “Elite Billboard” annual review has become a stage where the spotlight is turned on our outstanding staff. As more and more outstanding employees have become well-known within the Group through such billboard, team cohesion and staff loyalty to the Group are greatly increased. “China Gas House” WeChat corporate account has successfully developed into yet another important communication tool other than internal OA Forum and periodicals. Through such account, corporate updates and news on various staff caring activities and corporate culture activities and promotions are timely published to our staff members to let them understand more about the Company’s strategies and targets. The Group’s headquarters and various project companies also organized a variety of activities to enrich the cultural life of our staff, such as regular meetings of democratic life, benchmark learning, body check, hiking, fun sport day games, speech competitions, just to name a few.
II. RESPONSIBILITIES FOR CREDITORS AND SHAREHOLDERS
China Gas has always upheld the ideology of integrity, innovation and cooperation to promote the core value of “Pursuing Win-Win with Shareholders”. With total commitment to stakeholders such as shareholders and creditors, we treasure every bit of capital and make strenuous efforts to build up a well-established corporate governance structure and develop a corporate operational culture which focuses on maximizing value as we know that only by constantly increasing corporate value and delivery satisfactory rewards to our shareholders can we win long-term trust and support from shareholders and investors. As a listed-company in Hong Kong, China Gas has not only strictly complied with the requirements of relevant laws, regulations and company constitution to establish an open and transparent communication mechanism with investors, but also strictly observed the information disclosure requirements under the Listing Rules to communicate closely with investors and shareholders.
In FY2016, besides organizing visits and teleconference for investors on a regular basis, the Group also participated in 18 large-scale investor summits organized by domestic and foreign investment banking institutions, held 2 non-deal road shows for global investors, received visitors from about 100 large-scale domestic and overseas institutional investment funds, and continuously deepened the understanding of shareholders and creditors of the Group through result presentations, announcements and press releases.
While emphasizing on protecting the interests of shareholders, the Group also attaches great importance on meeting its liabilities to creditors. The Group has always been well trusted by many domestic and foreign financial institutions and maintained sound cooperation with them. With the support from numerous financial institutions, the Group has made full and reasonable use of its capital to facilitate the healthy and orderly development of the Group. Meanwhile, the Group’s solid operational results and stringent corporate capital management system provide further protection to the interests of creditors. The Group takes into full consideration the legal rights of creditors when making important operational decisions, discharges its liabilities to creditors in strict compliance with contracts entered into with them, passes on important information relating to its creditors in a timely manner, fully discharges its liabilities to the creditors and protects the legal rights of creditors from being infringed, all contributing to our well-earned social and capital reputation.
III. RESPONSIBILITIES FOR CONSUMERS
During FY2016, the Year of Quality Services Culture of China Gas, we improved our service quality by leveraging on convenient and user-friendly measures. We also increased satisfaction level by leveraging on technological innovation and created a more trustworthy consumption environment through improving management practices. China Gas keeps abreast of the times and combines quality services with information system, as demonstrated by the use of customer services mobile app and customer services satisfaction level assessment system as well as the use of GPS system to inspect and repair pressure regulating boxes and meter readings of industrial and commercial users. Meanwhile, to improve users’ experience, various group companies under the Group introduced grading management system for users and promoted standard service codes.
In FY2016, China Gas conducted the its first customer satisfaction survey and attained an outstanding rating for overall customer satisfaction level. During such period, a number of project companies received honours such as “Youth of Civilization Entity”, “Workers’ Vanguard” and “May 1st Labor Medal” from governments of their respective provinces and cities. In FY2017, the Group will introduce a series of customer services innovation and improvement activities under the theme of the “Year of Quality Services Culture” to provide convenient, high-quality and highly-efficient professional services to our users continuously.
The Group requires its employees to always bear in mind the personal and property safety of consumers and put the Group’s safety concept into full practice when delivering customer services. One of our key initiatives in FY2016 is the safe operation benchmark management which aims at improving the level of safe operation management. Other successful campaigns include regular safety inspection on all levels, emergency drill on safe operation, strengthened control and management on sources of danger and wide-ranging potential risks report. The Group performed operational inspections on 75 operating cylinder stations and made suggestions to improve leakage alarm, emergency disconnection, safe evacuation, safety inspection, safe distance and other areas. In line with the bringing “A Safe Home” to the community campaign of the Year of Quality Services Culture, the Group carried out a series of safety promotion activities while providing quality services to users. Our project companies distributed promotional materials to local residents, answered inquiries, strenuously promoted urban gas regulations and all kinds of practical safety knowledge and provided personalized and convenient services to our residents, which won us wide applauses and praises from the relevant government leaders and residents.
IV. RESPONSIBILITIES FOR SOCIAL WELFARE
China Gas never forgets its mission of “Benefiting the Society through Establishing a Harmonious Ambience”. With a grateful heart, the Group gives back to the society through practical actions and actively launches various charity projects such as free tutorials, disaster relief and poverty alleviation. Our Employees Care Committee and China Gas Charity Foundation Limited (“China Gas Charity Foundation”), sponsored by several substantial shareholders of the Company under the principle of extending love to outsiders and delivering care to members, have been actively offering a helping hand to the poor and our employees in difficulties. To give back to the society, we engaged in a variety of activities, including relief for seriously ill employees, donation to Maternal and Child Recreation Center in Baise City, Guangxi, “Don’t Let My Mother Go Campaign”, Gu Jiang Chun Lei Scholarship Scheme, joint donation with the Overseas Friendship Association of Guangxi and annual elderly care activities in Hong Kong.
Besides charity donations, the Group also encourages all staff members to organize various charity activities to meet local practical needs, such as participating in the Walk for Million organized by The Community Chest of Hong Kong. The “Passing Caring and Love to People” blood donation campaign held by the Group in October 2015 was a stellar success and the Group has put out a call for project companies to organize blood donation activities. A number of project companies have also launched activities for the causes of forest plantation and caring for disabled children with a view to actively bearing social responsibility, supporting social charity and spreading the caring and corporate spirit of China Gas to others.
At the same time, China Gas Charity Foundation issued the Manifesto of Great Love, emphasizing its role as a platform of love and harbor of care for all staff members. China Gas Employees Care Committee keeps creating a warm and harmonious atmosphere under the banner of “Awaking Passion and Showing Friendly Affection Together Like Family Members” and “Staying Warm and Healthy by the Light of China Gas” for all employees to overwhelm them with the warmth of family.
V. RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND RESOURCES
As one of the largest domestic cross-regional gas companies, China Gas has been promoting wide application of natural gas as a clean energy and optimization of urban energy structure since its establishment. We supply clean energy to 300 cities and areas across the country and contribute to improve urban environment and people’s quality of life.
The Group combined the urban gas, gas for vehicles and vessels, LPG business, LPG trading, distributed energy and value-added business through implementing the “Three-Leap” strategic breakthrough plan. Benefiting from the “cross-region”, “cross-method”, “cross-category” model of development, different business segments have created synergistic effects and realized full coverage of gas supply in cities and towns, giving a positive thrust to the nation-wide application of various clean energies.
To improve the atmospheric environment, it is essential to replace highly polluting and energy-consuming energies such as coal with natural gas. China Gas actively responded to the policy of “coal-to-gas”, offered assistance to local governments and enthusiastically implemented this green and environmental-friendly project. So far, we have renovated over 3,000 tons of steam of coal-fired boilers and recorded gas sales of 430 million m3 through replacing coal with gas.
In terms of natural gas refilling for vehicles and vessels, China Gas now has over 571 natural gas refilling stations and several vehicle fleets for carriage of dangerous goods. We have commenced cooperation with major domestic vehicles and equipment manufacturers and will construct more natural gas refilling stations for vehicles and vessels to give full support to eco-environment conservation.
In terms of energy saving, the Group has promoted the idea of low-carbon offices, encouraged staff to switch to paperless work, equipped offices with complete sets of video conference system, adopted E-learning online learning and training system and reduced business travel, thereby reducing the emission of carbon dioxide over the years, which put environmental protection into practice in all aspects of employees’ work and life.