After having a sumptuous dinner at his uncle's house, Chen Zhiwen said goodbye and left. As soon as he left the door, a man in gray clothes suddenly 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, dark skin, and a pure northeastern accent.
"What's the matter?" Chen Zhiwen asked casually.
"Comrade, I wonder if you need foreign exchange coupons? I have some here?" the visitor said with a smile.
"I'm from overseas, what do I need foreign exchange certificates for?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
Foreign exchange coupons are currencies converted from foreign exchange of equivalent value. They are equivalent to RMB in domestic use. However, because they are not subject to restrictions and can buy imported goods or some special supplies, their value is much higher than normal cash. The country's introduction of foreign exchange coupons is actually to facilitate overseas people to use it when they return to the country, but it also gives some opportunities for "traitors" to buy high and sell low.
"Comrade, do you need to sell foreign exchange coupons? Our price is very cost-effective." The visitor asked again with a smile.
"What's your name?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"My surname is Hu. People here in the courtyard call me Mr. Hu, but comrades, just call me Hu San." Hu San said with a flattering smile.
As a bad guy who lives nearby, he has some insight into what happens here. When two cars appeared outside, he got the news. In this era, having a car is not only a blessing, but also expensive, and when he went to the alley When I checked outside, I saw the four circles on the car logo, and my hair immediately exploded.
Although he can't afford a car, it doesn't stop him from being a car fan. He knows some international brands, and he also knows that the 4th circle is Audi. This is one of the foreign luxury cars. He can drive such a car in China. The car must be either a big leader or a wealthy overseas businessman. The latter is more likely, because when a big leader comes here, there will definitely be a lot of people to greet him, and if it is a private visit incognito, he will not drive an Audi.
After arriving near Chen's house, he saw so many bodyguards who didn't look like locals, which confirmed his guess. So when he saw Chen Zhiwen coming out, he immediately rushed over. If you seize this opportunity once, you may save yourself a lot of trouble. 30 years.
"Hu San, you don't need to sell me foreign exchange coupons. I'll give you a business. If you do it, I guarantee that you won't need to make a living like this." Chen Zhiwen said.
"Say it." Hu San said excitedly.
"I want to buy some courtyard houses in China, but I don't want ordinary small ones. I want large ones. I can get as many as you want. As long as you can buy them, the benefits to you will definitely be great." Chen Zhiwen continued. said.
"Siheyuan? No problem. I wonder how big you mean when you say large area?" Hu San asked.
"At least a few hundred square meters, the bigger, the better." Chen Zhiwen thought for a moment and said, "Do you have all the information on the courtyard houses in Yanjing City or a clearly marked map?"
"Not really, but if you want it, give me three days and I'll sort it out." Hu San said happily, this is big business.
"Okay, tell him where you live, and he will come find you then." Chen Zhiwen pointed to an assistant and said, "You can communicate in the future."
"Okay, Chen Sheng." The assistant who was named agreed.
"Let's go, it's getting dark soon." Chen Zhiwen looked around and said. Yanjing City is located in the north. At this time, it basically starts to get dark before 6 o'clock.
In the domestic real estate industry, Chen Zhiwen is actually not in a hurry, but there are some things that are wrong. There is no such store in this village. This is the case with the courtyard houses in Yanjing City. When the national economy gets better in the 1990s, the cost of acquisition will increase significantly. Increase, and many may be protected by legislation, which money cannot buy.
But after all, this is not a big investment project, and it has no direct economic value. Chen Zhiwen will not talk to any mainland officials about this matter. It would be too wasteful to buy a courtyard house with favors. Use money if you can solve the problem with money. If that doesn't work, use U.S. dollars.
After returning to the State Guesthouse, before Chen Zhiwen arrived at his residence, he found a familiar figure fishing on the small lake opposite, so he walked over.
"Sheng Bao, why are you so interested in fishing here?" Chen Zhiwen also sat down next to him, picked up an extra fish tank nearby, put on the bait, and fished with him.
"Does Chen Sheng also like fishing?" Bao Yugang asked in surprise.
"It's okay. I often go out to sea to go fishing. If Bao Sheng is interested, we can come with him. A cruise ship I booked in the United States will probably arrive in Hong Kong next month." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. He had booked a cruise ship in the United States before. , which itself was also picked up during the economic crisis. The whole thing is basically completed, only the decoration is left.
"Okay, that's what I asked for." Bao Yugang nodded and said.
"Bao Sheng's expression seems to be a little worried?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"At noon before, a deputy minister of the Ministry of Machinery wanted me to place an order for several 50,000-ton shipping bulk carriers in China." Bao Yugang sighed and said, "You also know, Mr. Chen, that I am not optimistic about the future. In the shipping market, I am already working hard to clean up old ships.”
"What's the price of a 50,000-ton cargo ship?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"The current international market price is around 35 million U.S. dollars. The domestic quote is 30 million U.S. dollars. If it were normal, I wouldn't care, but now it's very embarrassing." Bao Yugang said helplessly.
"If there are a few ships, it would be more than 100 million US dollars, which is indeed a bit much." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, even if he is worth more, he is not willing to lose 100 million US dollars. His domestic investments are all economical. Efficiently, you may not make much, but you will definitely not lose money, and because many parties make profits together, it can become an industry in the long run.
For Pao Yugang, this amount of money is also a very large amount. In the original history, he only spent a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to almost 500 million US dollars, to acquire Wharf.
"But I thought about it carefully and decided to place this order, with a smaller quantity at most." Bao Yugang shook his head and said: "Actually, I know what the country thinks. The country should be able to build ocean-going freighters, but there is no overseas shipping. The company is willing to place an order, which leads to a lack of visibility, and no one buys it. What follows is a vicious circle, so someone needs 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. , we can naturally enter the international market.”
"In that case, you will lose money." Chen Zhiwen said.
"I won't lose too much. Although I'm not optimistic about the shipping market, I won't give up all shipping. A certain scale is still needed. If you buy some new ships, you can 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. For such a populous country, the demand for shipping will definitely be high in the future." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and suggested. Anyway, he If you don't plan to do shipping, then tell Bao Yugang, who has a good relationship with you, about this opportunity.
"Domestic export? Do you mean container ships?" Bao Yugang asked.
"Yes, I predict that domestic exports of industrial products will not be low in the next few years, which will definitely require container ships. If you are sure to place an order domestically, it is best not to place an order for a tanker or a bulk carrier. It is best to order a container." Chen Zhiwen said.
"That's not bad. After placing the shipping order, we can then lock in the domestic export shipping orders. Thank you Chen Sheng for reminding us." Bao Yugang seemed to think that this was okay, reducing his own risks, and said with a smile.
"I just suggest that you don't take any responsibility. If you make money, just treat me to a meal. If you lose, don't ask me." Chen Zhiwen shrugged.
"Why wait to treat you to dinner later? I heard that the Quanjude roast duck in Yanjing 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 relevant information about yesterday's appointment, and Chen Zhiwen also entertained them personally.
This information includes many home appliance factories in Yanjing City, including those that produce fans, washing machines, refrigerators, kitchen appliances, etc. Chen Zhiwen only took a rough look at them, and then selected some with good locations and scale. More than a dozen companies are preparing to arrange for some professional-level engineers to check it out. This type of investment belongs to the technical category and is not what he is good at.
"Director Lin, there are many things involved in the joint venture to build a factory. Even if I decide it, it will take a certain amount of time to negotiate the terms. However, I will promote this matter as soon as possible." Chen Zhiwen collected the information. Later, 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 must be determined first. OK.
"Of course, we are very happy to cooperate with an international electronics group like Midea." Director Lin said with a smile.
"Okay, I hope we can confirm our cooperation as soon as possible." Chen Zhiwen paused and said, "There are two more things I want to discuss with Director Lin."
"Mr. Chen, please speak." Director Lin said.
Chen Zhiwen said: "Yesterday afternoon, I went to my uncle's house. He lives in a courtyard on the edge of Chaoyang District. After a casual chat about home affairs, I realized that it is very troublesome to install telephones in China. Later I asked I soon learned that the current program-controlled switches in China are imported equipment purchased from overseas at high prices. The cost must be too high. If this type of program-controlled switches can be produced domestically, I think many people can use the telephone. This will be beneficial to the future of the country. Developing the economy also helps a lot.”
"Midea Group's business also involves program-controlled switches?" Director Lin's eyes lit up. There is currently a shortage of foreign exchange in the country. Some consumer goods such as color TVs and cars can be purchased without buying them or with less. But many of them are necessities for economic development, no matter how expensive they are. They have to be purchased, such as heavy trucks for transporting materials, machine tool processing equipment, etc., and program-controlled switches also belong to the latter. Although they do not generate value themselves, they can quickly communicate between the north and the south, making economic activities more active.
In fact, there are such switches in China, but the technical aspects are very different from those abroad. The number of telephone calls that one device can serve is only a few hundred calls, while overseas ones basically have tens of thousands or more, and the efficiency is much higher. In today's reformed country, every company wants to earn foreign exchange, so it needs a phone even more, not to mention the large number of ordinary people.
"No." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said: "But is it possible to do research and development in China? And what I can do is provide funds, either in RMB or US dollars. In addition, I can also invite some experts in related fields from abroad to provide guidance. If If it can be developed domestically, it can also save a huge amount of foreign exchange.”
"Mr. Chen provides funds? How about cooperation?" Director Lin asked with great interest. As long as you can save foreign exchange, that's a good thing.
"Has Director Lin ever heard of the three-in-one-one-supply cooperation proposed by Shenhai City for Hong Kong-owned factories?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"I've heard of it." Director Lin nodded and said, "Some of Shenhai City's ideas are very groundbreaking. All investments are made by Hong Kong investors, and they are only responsible for processing. This really saves a lot of controversial troubles."
"My suggestion is the same. I will provide funds, test equipment, site investment or other needed things, and then the mainland will send people, such as some university professors and other talents, to work together to conquer relevant technologies. After the research and development results are achieved, , all the patents belong to me." Chen Zhiwen said.
Although many domestic talents are limited by the vision of the past few decades, the base here is too large, and there must be many powerful talents. These people are national treasures. Although it may not be difficult to poach people with US dollars, but If you dig too little, it will have little effect, and if you dig too much, it may have a bad impact, and selecting the right people is also very time-consuming and energy-consuming.
Therefore, it is better to use a model similar to the "three to one supplement" in Shenzhen City's manufacturing industry and entrust R&D in China. As long as the final patent belongs to you, it will be fine. However, the domestic patent law has not yet been perfected, so in terms of cooperation contracts, A separate contract is also required.
"If the patent belongs to Mr. Chen, then domestic production will also require a joint venture?" Director Lin asked.
"Yes, these are two things. First, I commission 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 built, 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, other overseas brands are not allowed to come in to jointly build factories to produce switches before we recover the costs." Chen Zhiwen added.
As a time traveler of later generations, Chen Zhiwen naturally knew that Huawei in later generations could develop switches and almost dominate the domestic market in the 1990s. So now that he has abundant funds, there is no reason why he can't develop them.
It’s just that the favorite trick of Western technology companies is that when the product is not available in the mainland, they will sell it at a high price, ten times or even dozens of times, and when it is developed domestically, they will immediately cut the price sharply, with the intention of destroying this domestic product. competitors.
In the 1980s and 1990s, many domestic manufacturers were screwed to death in this way. Chen Zhiwen had to guard against this. However, it was impossible to propose any exclusive supply agreement. The country would definitely not sign such a mandatory contract and recover the costs. The requirements are fair. As for the future, we can only compete with multiple parties to see who is stronger.
(End of chapter)
