The Industrial Giant Reborn

After eating a sumptuous dinner at the uncle's house, Chen Zhiwen bid farewell and left. As soon as he left the door, a man in gray clothes approached quickly, and was immediately restrained by several bodyguards around him.

"Comrade, I'm not a bad person. I have a business to discuss with your boss." The visitor was about 40 years old, with a naked beard and dark skin, and said with a pure northeast accent.

"What's the matter?" Chen Zhiwen asked casually.

"Comrade, do you need foreign exchange certificates? I have some here?" the visitor said with a smile.

"I just came from overseas, what do you want foreign exchange certificates for?" Chen Zhiwen said with a light smile.

Foreign exchange certificates are currencies exchanged from equivalent foreign exchange. They are used in China as RMB, but because they are not restricted and you can buy imported goods or some special materials, their value is far more than normal cash. The country's introduction of foreign exchange certificates is actually convenient for overseas people to use when they return to China, but it also gives some "bad guys" the opportunity to buy high and sell low.

"Comrade, do you need to sell foreign exchange certificates? Our price is very good." The visitor asked again with a smile.

"What's your name?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"My surname is Hu. Everyone in the yard here calls me Mr. Hu, but you can just call me Mr. Hu." Hu San said with a flattering smile.

As a poor man who lives nearby, he has some eyes on what happened here. When two cars appeared outside, he got the news. In this era, it is expensive to have a car. When I checked outside, I saw the 4 circles of the car logo, and my head immediately exploded.

Although he can't afford a car, it doesn't prevent him from being a car fan. He knows some international brands, and he also knows that Audi is one of the luxury cars in foreign countries. He can drive such a car in China. The car is either a big leader or a rich overseas businessman, the latter is more likely, because when a big leader comes here, there will definitely be many people to greet him, and if it is a private visit by WeChat, he will not drive an Audi.

When he arrived near Chen's house, he saw so many bodyguards who didn't look like locals. He was even more sure of his guess, so when he saw Chen Zhiwen coming out, he rushed over immediately. If he seized such an opportunity, he might save himself a lot of struggle. 30 years.

"Hu San, you don't have to sell foreign exchange certificates to me. I'll give you a deal. If it's done, I guarantee that you don't need to be so smug to make a living." Chen Zhiwen said.

"Tell me." Hu San said excitedly.

"I want to buy some courtyard houses in China, but I don't want the ordinary small ones. I want the big ones. I want as many as I want. As long as you can buy them, the benefits to you will definitely not be small." Chen Zhiwen continued Said.

"Siheyuan? No problem, I don't know how big you mean by large area?" Hu San asked.

"At least a few hundred square meters, the bigger the better." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said, "Do you have all the information or a clearly marked map of the courtyard house in Yanjing City?"

"Not really, but if you want, give me three days and I'll sort it out." Hu Sanxi said, this is big business.

"Okay, tell him where you live, and he will come to you then." Chen Zhiwen pointed to an assistant and said, "You guys will communicate with each other in the future."

"Okay, Chen Sheng." The assistant who was named agreed.

"Then let's go, it's getting dark soon." Chen Zhiwen looked around and said, Yanjing City's latitude is on the north side, and it will start getting dark before 6 o'clock at this time.

In the domestic real estate industry, Chen Zhiwen is not in a hurry, but some things are wrong. This village will not have this store. This is the case with the courtyard house in Yanjing City. When the national economy is better in the 1990s, the cost of acquisition will be greatly increased. increase, and many may be protected by legislation that money cannot buy.

But after all, this is not a big investment project, nor does it have any direct economic value. Chen Zhiwen will not discuss this matter with any mainland officials. It would be too wasteful to buy a courtyard house with favors, and use money to solve things that can be solved with money. If not, use US dollars.

After returning to the State Guesthouse, before Chen Zhiwen arrived at his residence, he found a familiar figure fishing by the opposite small lake, so he walked over.

"Bao Sheng, why are you so interested in fishing here?" Chen Zhiwen also sat down beside him, picked up an extra fish tank nearby, put on good bait, and fished together.

"Does Chen Sheng also like fishing?" Bao Yugang asked in surprise.

"It's okay. I often go fishing at sea. If Baosheng is interested, you can join me. I booked a cruise ship in the United States and I think I can arrive in Hong Kong next month." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. The cruise ship booked in the United States before , itself is also a leak during the economic crisis, the whole has basically been completed, leaving only the decoration.

"Okay, I can't ask for it." Bao Yugang nodded and said.

"Looking at Baosheng's expression, it seems that something is on his mind?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"It was at noon before, and a deputy director of the Machinery Department wanted me to place an order for several 50,000-ton seaborne bulk carriers." Bao Yugang sighed and said, "Chen Sheng, you also know that I am not optimistic about the future. In the shipping market, I am desperately cleaning up old ships myself."

"What's the price of a 50,000-ton freighter?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"The current international market is about 35 million US dollars. The domestic price is 30 million. I don't care if it is normal, but now it is very embarrassing." Bao Yugang said helplessly.

"If there are a few ships, that's more than 100 million U.S. dollars, which is indeed a bit much." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, even if his net worth is higher, he is not willing to lose 100 million U.S. dollars. His domestic investment is economical. In terms of benefits, you may not earn much, but you will never lose money, and because multiple parties make profits together, it can become an industry for a long time.

For Bao Yugang, this amount of funds is also a very large amount. In the original history, he only spent more than 2 billion Hong Kong dollars for the acquisition of Wharf, which is equivalent to almost 500 million US dollars.

"But I thought about it carefully, and decided to place this order, at most a smaller quantity." Bao Yugang shook his head and said, "Actually, I know what the country thinks, and the country should be able to build ocean-going cargo ships, but there is no overseas shipping. The company is willing to place an order, which leads to insufficient popularity, and no one buys it. There is a vicious circle behind it, so there needs to be someone to break this situation. As long as I place an order, there will be no problem with the quality in the future, and the price is cheap , will naturally be able to enter the international market.”

"In that case, you will be at a loss." Chen Zhiwen said.

"It's not too much loss. Although I'm not optimistic about the shipping market, I don't want to give up shipping altogether. A certain scale is still required. If you buy some new ships, it's good to get rid of some old ones." Bao Yugang said.

"Actually, I think global shipping can prepare for the domestic market. Since the country is preparing to develop its economy, it must focus on exports. Such a populous country will definitely have a high demand for shipping in the future." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and suggested. If you are not going to ship by sea, then tell Bao Yugang that you have a good relationship with this opportunity.

"Domestic export? You mean the container ship?" Bao Yugang asked.

"Yes, I predict that the export of industrial products in China will not be low in the next few years, and container ships will definitely be needed. If you are sure to place an order for the country, don't place an oil tanker or a bulk carrier. Ordering containers is the best." Chen Zhiwen said.

"That's not bad. After placing the ship order, we will then lock in the domestic export shipping order. Thank you, Chen Sheng, for reminding me." Bao Yugang seemed to think that this was okay, reducing his own risk, and said with a smile.

"I'm just a suggestion, and I don't take any responsibility. If you make money, just treat me to a meal. If you lose money, don't look for me." Chen Zhiwen shrugged.

"Why do you have to wait for dinner? I heard that Yanjing's Quanjude Roast Duck is very good. How about we go and have a look tomorrow?" Bao Yugang said.

"Okay, I also want to try Quanjude." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Early the next morning, Director Lin brought the relevant materials that he had made an appointment with yesterday, and Chen Zhiwen personally entertained them.

This information includes many home appliance factories in Yanjing City, which produce fans, washing machines, refrigerators, kitchen appliances, etc. Chen Zhiwen only took a rough look, and then selected some of the locations and scales. More than a dozen companies are planning to arrange some professional-level engineers to check. This type of investment belongs to the technical category, which is not what he is good at.

"Director Lin, there are many things involved in the joint venture factory. Even if I make a decision here, it will take a certain amount of time to follow up. It will be considered a success if the terms are negotiated, but I will make this happen as soon as possible." Chen Zhiwen received the information. Afterwards, he said that even if he hopes to use domestic labor to reduce his own costs and develop the domestic market, cooperation cannot be casual. It is not very important to invest more or less funds, but the legal terms still need to be determined first. OK.

"Of course, we are also very happy to reach a cooperation with an international electronics group like Midea." Director Lin said with a smile.

"Okay, I hope we can confirm the cooperation as soon as possible." Chen Zhiwen paused and said, "There are two more things that I want to discuss with Director Lin."

"Please tell me, Mr. Chen," Director Lin said.

Chen Zhiwen said: "Yesterday afternoon, I went to my uncle's house. He lives in a courtyard house on the edge of Chaoyang District. After chatting casually, I realized that it is very troublesome to install a telephone in China. Later I asked It took me a while to realize that the current program-controlled switches in China are all imported equipment purchased at high prices from overseas, so the cost must be too high. If this type of program-controlled switches can be produced in China, I think many people can use the phone, which is very important for the future of the country. Developing the economy also helps a lot.”

"The business of Midea Group also involves program-controlled switches?" Director Lin's eyes lit up. At present, there is a shortage of foreign exchange in China. Some consumer goods such as color TVs and cars can be omitted or purchased less, but many of them are necessary for economic development, no matter how expensive they are. You have to buy, such as heavy trucks for transporting materials, machine tool processing equipment, etc., and the program-controlled switchboard also belongs to the latter. Although it does not generate value by itself, it can quickly communicate between the north and the south, making economic activities more active.

In fact, there are such switches in China, but the technology is very different from that in foreign countries. The number of calls that can be served by one device is only a few hundred, while those in overseas are basically tens of thousands or more, and the efficiency is much higher. Now that the country is reforming, every company wants to earn foreign exchange, so it needs a phone even more, not to mention the vast number of ordinary people.

"No." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said, "But domestic research and development can be done by ourselves? What I can do is provide funds, including RMB or US dollars. In addition, I can also invite some experts from abroad to guide me. If it can be developed domestically, it can also save a huge amount of foreign exchange.”

"Mr. Chen provides funds? Then what kind of cooperation method?" Director Lin asked with great interest. As long as you can save foreign exchange, that's a good thing.

"Shenhai City is now proposing three-way-one-subsidy cooperation for Hong Kong-funded factories. Has Director Lin heard of it?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"I've heard of it." Director Lin nodded and said: "Some ideas of Shenhai City are very groundbreaking. All investment is in charge of Hong Kong capital, and they are only responsible for processing. This really saves a lot of controversial trouble."

"My suggestion is the same. I will provide funds, test equipment, site investment or other necessary things, and then send people from the mainland, such as some university professors, to overcome related technologies together. After the research and development results , all the patents belong to me.” Chen Zhiwen said.

Although many domestic talents are limited by the vision of the previous decades, the base here is too large, and there must be many powerful talents. These people are all national treasures. Too little digging has little effect, and too much digging may have a bad impact, and it takes a lot of time and energy to choose the right people.

Therefore, it is better to entrust domestic research and development with a model similar to Shenhai City’s manufacturing industry, as long as the final patent belongs to itself. However, the current domestic patent law is not perfect, so the cooperation contract A separate contract is also required.

"If the patent belongs to Mr. Chen, then domestic production still needs a joint venture?" Director Lin asked.

"Yes, these are two things. First, I entrust the research and development. If it succeeds, then we will build a joint venture factory. However, everything needs to be decided in advance. For example, if the products produced after the factory is established, as long as the quality is not bad and the price is cheap, Then the domestic telecommunications department should give priority to purchasing ours, and at the same time, before we can recover the cost, we should not allow other overseas brands to enter into joint venture factories to produce switches." Chen Zhiwen added.

As a future traveler, Chen Zhiwen naturally knows that the future Huawei can develop switches and almost dominate the domestic market in the 1990s. Now that he has sufficient funds, there is no reason why he can't research them.

It’s just that Western technology companies’ favorite trick is that when there is no such product in the mainland, they will sell it at a high price, ten times or even dozens of times. competitors.

In the 1980s and 1990s, many domestic manufacturers were killed in this way. Chen Zhiwen had to guard against this, but it was impossible to propose any exclusive supply agreement. The country would definitely not sign such a mandatory contract and recover the cost. The request is very fair, as for the future, it can only compete with many parties to see who is stronger.