CRI听力:China Unicom to cooperate with Alibaba

China Unicom has inked a strategic partnership with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group in a move to reverse the telecom giant's declining profits and to speed up its shift toward the mobile internet.

The two will cooperate on basic telecommunication services, mobile internet, and industrial internet.

China Unicom also signed a strategic cooperative agreement with internet giant Baidu earlier this month, to cooperate on projects in mobile internet, artificial intelligence, big data and telecom services.

The cooperation between China Unicom and the internet giants comes after the National Development and Reform Commission selected China Unicom to be among the first batch of enterprises to pilot mixed-ownership reform.

It's being reported that China Unicom will likely attract private investors to participate in its reform.

For more on this, CRI's Ding Heng spoke earlier with John Ross, senior fellow of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University.