China Unicom, which is now under mixed ownership reform, launched a plan to streamline the company by cutting around 50% of its staff at its Beijing headquarters, the China Securities Journal reported on Thursday.
The telecom giant conducted a meeting on Wednesday on streamlining the company’s structure in its branches throughout 31 provinces in the country.
China Unicom has already completed the streamlining process at its headquarters, cutting departments from 27 to 20, while reducing employees from 1,787 to 891, down around 50%.
The institutional streamlining process is expected to be completed by the end of October this year, the report said.
China Unicom Chairman Wang Xiaochen pointed out that the cuts are just the first step in its internal reforms. The next step will be promoting decentralization, optimizing business processes and establishing market settlement and exit mechanisms, he said.