ZTE unveiled a new five year company strategy designed to fuel growth in a number of emerging areas, as strength in its home market led to a steady rise in half year profit.

The strategy, intended as a guide to 2021, will hone in on five key trends: virtuality, openness, intelligence, cloudification and “Internet of Everything”,  collectively dubbed ‘Voice’ by the company.

It said it will work on the “individual and interconnected impacts of each trend” as it developers products and services, with big data, artificial intelligence and virtual reality some of the key focuses.

In the financials, which covered the six months to 30 June 2016, ZTE reported a 9.3 per cent rise in net profit, reaching CNY1.77 billion ($266 million) from CNY1.6 billion, with revenue growing by 4 per cent to CNY47.76 billion.

The growth reflected “primarily the increase in operating revenue from 4G system products”, as well as other IT services in domestic and international markets.

In China, revenue hit CNY27.8 billion, accounting for 58 per cent of the total.

The international figure (CNY19.9 billion) was down 7.2 per cent, with pronounced weakness in Europe, Americas and Oceania.

In the US, the company has been involved in a spat with the country’s Commerce Department.

The US body imposed trade restrictions on the company in March following allegations that it had breached US sanctions of exports to Iran, but has granted temporary relief from the controls up until November.

ZTE said it would continue to work with US authorities on the investigation, while adding that it was difficult to assess the financial impact from the ongoing saga.

Breaking out individual business segments, operating revenue for its consumer business (including devices) was CNY14.4 billion, up slightly from CNY14 million. It said its premium handset devices, including AXON and Blade, helped it maintain and grow market share in key market.

The carrier networks division (ZTE’s biggest) also grew, with revenue increasing 5 per cent to CNY28.7 billion.

The government and enterprise business grew 2.5 per cent to CNY4.6 billion. It said its smart city initiatives were the key engine of growth in its enterprise business, with new orders increasing 40 per cent year-on-year in H1. Smart city solutions have been implemented in 145 cities worldwide.

ZTE also said it invested close to 15 per cent (CNY7 billion) of its total revenue in research and development during the first half of the year.