industrial overlord

Chapter 586 Revisiting Frankfurt
March 2001, Frankfurt, Germany.

Lin Zhenhua, Li Mozi from the Machinery Committee, Gu Jiahua from Xingbei Heavy Machinery and others stood outside the gate of the International Exhibition Center, looking at the colorful billboards on the square, filled with emotion.

Lin Zhenhua pointed to the square and said to several colleagues: "The first time I came here to participate in the exhibition was in 1985. At that time, I was led by Vice Minister Gao Zuxing of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Director Zhu Jinwen of the Machinery Committee. Our entire exhibition There are only more than 40 people in the group, and the booth is in a corner. We stood at this position at that time, looking at the billboards all over the square, all of which belonged to Western powers, and there was no Chinese company. The sense of loss is still entangled when I think about it. Very good."

"It has been 1985 years since 16. At a glance, there are quite a lot of Chinese characters." Gu Jiahua said with a smile.

Indeed, looking from this position, you can already see a dozen advertisements of Chinese companies, the most striking of which is the big billboard of Hanhua Heavy Industry Group.The picture used to show the corporate image of Hanwah is a female welder standing on a high steel frame under a blue sky, holding a welding mask in her hand, with a confident and modest smile.This female welder is naturally Hanhua's trump card, Shen Jiale, and she has now become the image spokesperson of the entire Hanhua Group.

Xingbei Heavy Machinery also rented an advertising space on the square, but because Gu Jiahua was reluctant to spend money, the location of the billboard was relatively biased and the area was relatively small, so it was better than nothing.After all, Gu Jiahua is a person who came out of the system, and he is not as lavish as Lin Zhenhua in spending money.

Lin Zhenhua said: "Look at the advertisements of so many Chinese companies now, which have been gradually accumulated year by year. It is the first time we participate in the exhibition, and we are reluctant to advertise. I wrote a sign with a pen and hung it outside the booth. It is the largest. ads."

"I've heard Director Zhu talk about it." Li Mozi smiled, "It seems to say that 1000 million US dollars can build an industrial system, isn't that true?"

Lin Zhenhua also laughed: "When I wrote this advertisement, Director Zhu and Minister Gao were dissatisfied, saying that I was bragging and dishonest."

"This is the change of concept." Gu Jiahua said, "Back then we didn't understand the market economy, and we didn't understand any public relations and hype. It's not like now, where black people dare to pretend to be white. I think this is also true. It’s not appropriate, should the country also regulate it?”

"Uh...Mr. Gu, this is going to be far away, right? We don't care about advertising, let's focus on selling products. Let's go, let's go to the booth." Li Mozi laughed and made a With the gesture of "please", he walked to the Chinese exhibition hall together with Lin Zhenhua, Gu Jiahua and others.

Since the Machinery Committee organized a group to participate in the Frankfurt Equipment Exhibition in 1985, the country's enthusiasm for participating in overseas exhibitions has gradually increased.In the ten years since then, the Machinery Committee has organized domestic equipment companies to participate in the exhibition in Frankfurt every year, and the number of participating companies has also increased year by year.At the beginning, all Chinese companies shared one exhibition area. Later, as the scale of exhibitors continued to expand, the products exhibited also increased. Large enterprises such as Hanhua Heavy Industry began to rent booths independently, separating from the national exhibition area. .Later, more and more Chinese companies were separated and gradually formed a scale. The organizer of the exhibition simply designated a separate exhibition hall and named it the China Exhibition Hall.

As soon as Lin Zhenhua returned to Hanhua's exhibition area, He Fei, the director of the exhibition group, greeted him with several people.Lin Zhenhua took a closer look, couldn't help smiling, stretched out his hands to the person walking in front, and shouted in English: "Hello, my old friend, we meet again."

The person who came was Halore, Minister of Industry of the Republic of Usan, Africa. His first meeting with Lin Zhenhua was also at the Frankfurt Exhibition. He was the first customer of the Chinese Pavilion that year.In the next decade or so, Halloley and Hanhua have been doing business. Lin Zhenhua also privately sponsored Halloley's boss, Nale, who was the governor of the northern province of Usan at the time, to run for the president of Usan.Now that Naylor has become the president as he wished, and has been re-elected, Haroley has risen to heaven because of this. He has transformed from the Minister of Industry of the Northern Province to the Minister of Industry of the entire Usan Republic.

Halloley also walked forward with a smile on his face, hugged Lin Zhenhua, and said: "Mr. Lin, I am so glad to meet you. President Naler specially entrusted me to say hello to you on his behalf. You are welcome to come to our Wusan again if you have the opportunity. country to visit."

"I would also like to ask Mr. Haroley to send my regards to President Naylor. If he visits China, he must visit our Xunyang." Lin Zhenhua also extended the invitation politely.However, he can only say that he asked Nale to drop by Xunyang to have a look. After all, he is the president of a country, and going to China is considered a diplomatic event, which is not up to Lin Zhenhua to decide.

After the two exchanged pleasantries, Haroley turned his body sideways, pointed to the two black men behind him and said to Lin Zhenhua: "Mr. Lin, I came here today to ask you for help. Let me introduce, this It is Mr. Mubila, the deputy governor of the National Bank of the Republic of Goma, and this is Mr. Nuzama, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry. is my good friend, so I suggest that they first consider choosing Chinese companies as equipment suppliers.”

Mubila and Nuzama hurried forward and shook hands with Lin Zhenhua.Lin Zhenhua heard that there was business, so he didn't dare to neglect, so he quickly ordered He Fei to prepare a negotiation room, and asked people to invite Shao Fengwei, the chief engineer of Xingbei Heavy Machinery.Hanhua Heavy Industries does not produce large-scale thermal power equipment itself, and among the participating companies, only Xingbei Heavy Machinery provides such equipment.

After the guests and hosts were seated, Lin Zhenhua introduced each other to everyone, and then Mubila began to introduce the details of their bidding.

The Republic of Goma is a country located in central Africa, with a land area of ​​150 million square kilometers and a population of more than 6000 million. It is considered a big country in Africa.Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1960, the domestic political situation has continued to be turbulent, and the economy has not been developed for a long time. It has become one of the least developed countries announced by the United Nations. In 1997, after the new president of the Republic of Goma took office, he made great efforts to stabilize the domestic situation, and at the same time proposed a three-year plan for economic development.By last year, the first three-year plan had been successfully completed, and the domestic economy had been greatly developed. The new president immediately proposed the second three-year plan, preparing to build a number of new industrial projects in the country.

The development achievements of the Republic of Goma have been appreciated by the United Nations and other international organizations. The World Bank promised to provide low-interest loans to the Republic of Goma to support several projects in the second three-year plan of the Republic of Goma.The second thermal power plant project in Equateur province that Mubira and Nuzama came to the Frankfurt Equipment Exhibition to invite bids is one of the projects supported by the World Bank loan.

The World Bank was established in 1945 with the purpose of financing the reconstruction of war-torn Europe and restoring the global economy.With the recovery of the European economy, the World Bank's service objects have gradually turned to the third world countries, focusing on providing project financial support for less developed countries to help them develop their own economies.

The interest rate of the World Bank loan is very low, and the loan conditions are not harsh, so it is welcomed by the third world countries that are short of funds.However, the World Bank loan is not easy to get. In order to prevent borrowing countries from abusing these low-interest loans, the World Bank has stipulated a set of very strict procedures, one of which is very important, which is to require international bidding for projects constructed with loans. Therefore, it is necessary to shop around to avoid inefficiency and corruption in the use of loans.

After Mubila introduced the project situation, Nuzama took over the conversation and said: "The Republic of Goma has always had a lot of technical exchanges with your country. We have two fertilizer factories and one pharmaceutical factory owned by enterprises in your country. The main equipment used in the construction and two machinery factories also came from your country, so we have always been very satisfied with the quality and service of your country's products."

"Thank you Mr. Nuzama for your affirmation." Lin Zhenhua responded with a faint smile.He knew that it was not a good thing for Nuzama to start with such words, because after this kind of praise, there must be a legendary "but". He didn't know what kind of "but" Nuzama planned to say.

"But..." Nuzama popped out the word "but" as expected, and he said: "The main advantage of your country's products lies in its low price, and there is still a considerable gap with Western countries in terms of technical level. Our The second thermal power plant project in Equateur Province, as a project funded by the World Bank, has certain requirements in terms of equipment technical level, so..."

When it came to this, Nuzama dragged on for a long time and stopped talking. The subtext was naturally: You understand.

Halloy couldn't hold back his face, and he said to Nuzama: "Minister Nuzama, what do you mean by this? Didn't we agree before this that we want to give Chinese companies a chance to bid. China Although the product technology of the company is slightly inferior to that of Western countries, the price of their products is very low. For the Republic of Goma, isn't it important to save some money?"

Nuzama shrugged and said: "Halore, I'm very sorry. As I said, this is a World Bank project after all, so the technical requirements are very high. The funds provided by the World Bank are sufficient. Our Republic of Goma is only relatively backward in economy at present, and our economy will develop in the future, and we don’t want to build a technically...uh, not modern enough power plant.”

"So, what kind of technology does Mr. Nuzama think is modern?" Lin Zhenhua smiled brightly, as if Nuzama's words did not offend him.He knows that Chinese products have always given people a low-end and cheap impression, and Nuzama, who has received a western education, must also see it this way. Now it is time to change the image of Chinese products.

(End of this chapter)