Community Engagement:
How We Create a Better Future for All

At CITIC, we believe that giving back to society and promoting community prosperity are crucial social responsibilities. We have integrated ourselves into the community, in accordance with national policies, by assisting with rural revitalisation projects, participating in public welfare activities, supporting community development and providing volunteer services. Our goal is to promote high-quality social development according to our philosophy of contributing to people’s prosperity.

In 2022, we followed government legal guidance on public welfare and our own external donation policies. We not only donated RMB107.0582 million to charitable causes but also organised 249 volunteer activities that involved around 12,000 employees providing 50,000 hours of community service.

Contributing to Rural Revitalisation and Common Prosperity

We offer our resources, including financial assistance, to promote community development. In collaboration with the local governments of Yuanyang County, Pingbian County, Qianjiang District and Xainza County, we invested a total of RMB6194.43 million in non-repayable funds and RMB832 million in repayable funds. Furthermore, we raised RMB1.8876 million in non-repayable funds and RMB231 million in repayable funds to support local businesses. Over the course of the year, we supported 49 community assistance projects with aid to the local populace. Our case study, Promoting Consumption as a New Engine for Common Prosperity , was selected as an excellent national example of empowering consumers in the rural revitalisation drive.

Driving Industrial Revitalisation

During the year, we invested RMB10.63 million in 11 projects aimed at industries that benefit the local population, including the farming and specialty breeding sectors. In addition to providing financial assistance, the projects also improve production and logistics in these industries.

In particular, we asked CITIC Bank to provide Qianjiang District with a credit line of RMB1.216 billion and RMB10.94 million in financing for agriculture-related small and micro-size businesses in Yuanyang County, which was experiencing financing difficulties as a result of the pandemic. We also launched 12 Insurance + Futures projects, for which we provided RMB3.13 million in risk compensation to 83 livestock farmers and secured the entire industry chain, from breeding costs to sales prices. Furthermore, we have advocated for CITIC Consumer Finance to implement the Dawn Plan, a convenient, efficient and inclusive financial service that caters to the needs of farmers.

Developing a Strong Talent Pool

In 2022, we invested RMB1.93 million in training programmes for grassroots managers, technical personnel and leaders of the rural revitalisation campaign. A total of 5,265 people attended these programmes.

In collaboration with CITIC Securities, China Securities and CITIC Futures, we organised training sessions on modern agricultural development models and Insurance + Futures projects. We also provided financial literacy education and medical service training to 255 local doctors. Our donations for this latter initiative included portable B-ultrasound machines, electrocardiograms and other medical supplies to help improve rural medical conditions.

Supporting Cultural Revitalisation

We invested RMB2.3 million during the year to build cultural walls and squares, create educational posters and support cultural literacy. In our Love Packages project with the China Rural Development Foundation, we donated art supplies worth RMB1 million to 10,000 rural elementary school students in Yuanyang County. We also joined CITIC Press to set up Dream Libraries in 20 schools and donated nearly 10,000 books to enrich the cultural lives of local residents.

Promoting Ecological Revitalisation

We invested RMB17.28 million for the construction of sewage pipelines, public toilets and garbage disposal stations, and installed 527 streetlights in local communities. We also established three rural revitalisation demonstration sites, which helped to improve the overall living environment and contributed to the development of a more liveable countryside.

Building a Better Society through Public Welfare

We are committed to supporting public welfare projects, including financial donations for education, sports and health facilities, assistance to disadvantaged groups, and improvements to community infrastructure. We also use our industry expertise to provide a range of public welfare activities that embody CITIC’s distinctive qualities.

Advancing the Livelihoods of Hong Kong and Macau Residents

At CITIC, we support our employees in serving the local community through their participation in volunteer activities. In 2022, they took part in a variety of events, such as the Hong Kong SAR government’s campaign of distributing anti-pandemic materials. Our volunteers also participated in the CITIC Cares: Community Warmth Programme of home visits to the elderly and underprivileged families. For Orbis World Sight Day 2022, we organised a fundraising event in support of their campaign to prevent blindness.

Empowering Education through Public Donations

For the past 13 years, CITIC Bank’s Love·Trust·Remit credit card public welfare platform has supported the improvement of education in underdeveloped rural areas of China. By the end of 2022, the platform had received credit card point donations from over 1.3 million users, allowing for the establishment of 200 Dream Centres in schools throughout the country. These centres feature multimedia classrooms and accompanying curricula that have benefited 160,000 teachers and students each year across 28 provinces and autonomous regions.

CITIC Press has donated books to nearly 100 primary and secondary schools, as well as special needs reading groups, across China. Over 4,000 volumes have been donated to schools in remote, impoverished areas and special needs reading groups such as individuals with disabilities. Furthermore, CITIC Press has set up book stalls in hospital corridors, offering children and patient families a richer selection of books to choose from.

Caring for Children and Youth

Our headquarters organised two “One Piece of Paper, One Act of Love” public welfare events and donated the proceeds from recycled paper sales to the China Charity Federation. All these funds will be used to provide medical treatment for children with congenital heart disease from impoverished families in remote minority areas, such as Xinjiang and Tibet.

Supporting Public Services

CITIC Offshore Helicopter (COHC) provides a wide range of government social and public management services, including maritime search and rescue and emergency response operations across the country. For 14 years in a row, CITIC Offshore Helicopter (COHC) has successfully completed flight missions in support of Antarctic scientific investigations. In 2022, the company played a crucial role in the rescue efforts for the China Eastern Airlines plane crash in Wuzhou, Guangxi Province, as well as the search and rescue of the Fujing 001 ship in Yangjiang. In addition, COHC proactively responded to the Luding earthquake relief efforts and provided strong support for the “9.5 Luding County earthquake relief” mission. COHC also collaborated with ground teams to conduct personnel rescue operations in the Lingshan Scenic Area.

Promoting Community Development Through Collaboration

One focus of our public welfare activities is promoting integrated urban-rural development across China, such as helping low-income farmers sell their peaches through online and offline channels to increase their earnings.

CITIC Pacific Mining has several management systems guiding its community responsibilities. These include community relations, external communication management, on-site mine visits, local procurement and participation in indigenous communities.

In support of community development, the company has produced an annual community relations and stakeholder work plan. In 2022, the CITIC Pacific Mining Community Assistance Fund helped to promote Chinese language in remote areas, children’s sports programmes, male health initiatives, barista training programmes, youth gymnastics clubs and outdoor running events in the project area.

Protecting the Environment

Since 2016, CITIC Bank Shanghai Branch has been participating in the Wild Bird Environmental Conservation Volunteer programme. This programme was set up to monitor and protect wild birds, remove illegal bird nets and rescue trapped birds. By the end of 2022, the programme had conducted 151 patrols with the participation of 657 volunteers over 1,865 kilometres of forest. A total of 1,788 illegal bird nets were dismantled and 269 residual nets removed. The programme has also rescued and released 309 live birds, such as Chinese spotted doves, mountain spotted doves, pale thrushes, Siberian rubythroat, and Oriental scops owls (a national second-level protected species).

Overseas Public Welfare Projects

CITIC Agriculture is providing agricultural technology assistance to countries such as Ethiopia, The Gambia, the Philippines, Senegal and Dominica, primarily through experimental demonstrations, variety breeding and promotion of rice and vegetable technologies. These efforts have helped increase local agricultural production capacity and create new employment opportunities.

Spreading Love and Warmth Through Volunteer Service

We fulfil our corporate social responsibilities by helping our subsidiary companies establish volunteer service organisations. As a result, we now have a large youth volunteer organisation with over 30 teams and more than 12,500 volunteers. During the past year, our volunteer organisation has provided its services in over 20 cities and regions, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Hebei and Fujian. Activities have included pandemic prevention and control, voluntary blood donations, caring for disadvantaged families, low-carbon development and environmental protection.