Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 903 Let's talk about the budget first.
After smoothing out the donkey's hair, Yang Kangnian finally got to the point.

He asked Chen Fan, "I heard from Director Lan of the Provincial Tourism Bureau that you are planning a big project?"

Chen Fan flicked off the ash from his cigarette and nodded at him, "That's true."

Yang Kangnian smiled and asked, "Could you tell me about this plan?"

Chen Fan clicked his tongue, thought for a moment, and said, "To be honest, there's really nothing to keep secret. You asked me to be in charge of the management and development of Yunhu Tourism Company, right? The core of this job, to put it bluntly, is how to attract more tourists to visit Yunhu."

Yang Kangnian nodded repeatedly as he listened. "Back then, you told me that you wanted to build a film and television city in Yunhu. Once the film and television city is completed, it will not only provide filming locations for film studios across the country, but also serve as a tourist attraction, drawing tourists from all over the country and even overseas to visit and tour."

I only agreed to recommend this project to my superiors after hearing your description.

Later, when considering candidates for the general manager of Yunhu Tourism Company, I thought about it for a long time, and when I saw you, I suddenly had a brilliant idea. In terms of the management of the film and television city and the understanding of tourism, looking at the whole of Yunhu, or even Jiangnan Province, who is more suitable for this position than you?
However, I also know that your position is not in the same system as tourism work, and I don't know if you can succeed, which is why I didn't tell you or secretly suggest it to my superiors.

Surprisingly, it actually passed.

Chen Fan waved his hand and said, "Let's just leave it at that, no need to mention it again."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "The other day I was talking to Director Lan about work, and we talked about how the key to developing the tourism industry is to focus on foreign tourists."

Given the current domestic environment, even if ordinary people wanted to travel, they wouldn't have the financial means.

Furthermore, the reception environment in various regions urgently needs improvement. It is common for hotels to be insufficient to accommodate guests, in addition to issues such as transportation and shopping malls.

Here's a simple example: Imagine an overseas tour group with forty people. Forty people isn't a large group; some large buses can fit over 50 people on one bus, so a group of forty wouldn't even fit on one bus. In contrast, some large overseas tour groups require three or four buses to transport the tourists simultaneously.

Now I'm asking you this: if this tour group of forty people arrives at Yunhu, can Yunhu accommodate them?

At this moment, Chen Fan was particularly patient with Yang Kangnian.

You must explain it clearly to him and make him understand the implications, so that when it comes time to pay, he won't hesitate or be reluctant.

Chen Fan glanced at Yang Kangnian, who was deep in thought, and felt secretly pleased with himself.

First, explain the current predicament to him, and then talk about the beautiful scenery that tourists bring in and that generates spending. Putting everything else aside, just the fact that you can earn foreign exchange will make him willingly open his wallet!
A few minutes later, Yang Kangnian threw away his cigarette butt, suddenly looked up, and asked, "Xiao Fan, do you think building large buses is a viable business?"

Chen Fan was immediately dumbfounded.

After a long while, he said in an annoyed tone, "Uncle Yang, you are now the commissioner of Yunhu Administrative Office, no longer the secretary and director of Yunhu Automobile Factory. Such a large area is under your jurisdiction. When will you be able to change your mindset?"

Yang Kangnian chuckled and said, "Turn, turn, it'll definitely turn around."

He took out a cigarette, offered one to others, lit one for himself, and then said, "I'm saying this from the perspective of the commissioner of the administrative office. You don't know how much I've been working on this factory industrialization and food supply project lately; I haven't been sleeping or eating well at all."

I go to bed late every night and get up early in the morning. I only get four or five hours of sleep a day. I'm so busy that I'm even more tired than when I was building the machinery factory.

But some things can't be solved by just being tired.

Just like when blast furnaces were built everywhere to make steel back then, if there were no qualified technical conditions to guide all the parts factories to produce qualified products, the industrialization of the factory might end up in a mess.

But that's the difficulty. Others may not know what those small factories were like before, but you should know very well. For example, just look at the dozens of agricultural machines you bought for Lujiawan from the Gufeng County Agricultural Machinery Factory—that'll tell you what their situation was.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Fan couldn't help but click his tongue, "It really is a bit of a disaster."

Upon hearing this, Yang Kangnian immediately became excited and pointed at him, saying, "Right? You think so too, don't you!"

He sighed deeply and said, “The industrialization of factories breaks down all the parts and components. One or several factories are set up for each part, which supply the car factories. The car factories then focus on assembly and final quality control.”

If this move goes well, the Yunhu area can develop a complete automotive industry chain, and might even be able to compete with Shiyan or even Changchun for the title of "Automobile City".

With an automotive industry chain in place, if we develop a textile industry chain around cotton mills, a shipbuilding industry chain around water transport companies, and an electrical appliance industry chain around home appliance companies, wouldn't Yunhu take off?!

But it's easier said than done. Because I was most familiar with Yunnan Automobile Factory, the first thing I did was work on the automotive industry chain.

Our Yunqi factory has the highest quality control for cars in the country. This is what you said back then. If the car door doesn't close properly or the window leaks air, don't underestimate these small problems. But they leave customers with the impression that this factory is full of problems and will suffer sooner or later.

When we were developing industrialized factories, almost all of them had outdated machinery and equipment, and the workers' skill levels were not high. Most of them could not meet the product quality standards of Yunqi Factory.

I'm so worried, I can't even eat.

He took a deep drag on his cigarette, then looked around. "I really didn't eat anything. I only had a steamed bun and a bowl of porridge this morning, and I didn't eat anything at noon. I even started hallucinating, like I could smell chicken soup?"

Chen Fan glanced at the casserole chicken simmering on the coal stove not far away, hesitated for two seconds, and said, "There are chickens on the stove, want to eat some?"

Yang Kangnian immediately turned to look at the coal stove, grinned, and said, "Then let's eat something?"

A few minutes later, the two sat facing each other across a small square table. A clay pot was placed in the middle of the table, and each person had a bowl and chopsticks in front of them, along with a bottle of plum wine carefully brewed from bayberries.

It is not plum wine, but a light-aroma baijiu made from plum blossoms that bloom most brightly in the heavy snow of winter, which are picked by hand and carefully processed. It is made from plum blossoms and other grains and has the characteristics of pure floral aroma, sweet and mellow taste, natural harmony and refreshing aftertaste.

In terms of taste and quality alone, it is definitely not inferior to top-tier baijiu such as Moutai and Fenjiu. If you find the right person, such as a refined person who likes to be cultured and appreciates the subtle plum blossom fragrance, you can probably sell it to them for a hundred yuan a bottle and the deal will go smoothly.

But at this moment, Yang Kangnian grabbed it in his hand, and had it drink one cup in the left, one cup in the right, one cup in front, one cup behind, and then two more cups.

Before even touching their chopsticks, they had already downed six small cups, making Chen Fan's eyes twitch.

Is it because you can't eat?

"Your wine is good."

Yang Kangnian poured another glass, then picked up his chopsticks, took a piece of chicken and put it in the bowl, and said with a smile, "Your conditions here are not bad, with wine and meat. I thought you were having a hard time in the wild."

Chen Fan controlled his threatening expression, forced a smile, and silently repeated to himself, "You can't catch a wolf without risking your cub, and you can't catch Mayor Yang without risking your chicken."

For the sake of tourism development, I endured it.

Taking a deep breath, Chen Fan picked up his wine glass, took a sip, and said, "These are from my two apprentices. They were worried that I wouldn't eat or rest well in the wild, so they specially had them brought over."

Yang Kangnian's eyes were full of envy. "Your apprentice is really good."

He shook his head, his expression complicated. "My apprentice is no good. He just comes to my house to freeload, sometimes even taking things with him. I can't say anything about it." Chen Fan looked at him strangely and asked, "What kind of person is your apprentice? It's one thing to be disrespectful to his master, but to sponge off his parents like this?"

The phrase "living off one's parents" is used aptly.

Yang Kangnian shook his head and sighed, "Not only does he sponge off his parents, eating and drinking their food, but sometimes he even brings his wife to my house to eat and drink my food. I shouldn't have married my daughter to him in the first place."

Chen Fan was speechless. After all that fuss, it turned out to be his son-in-law. What was the point of saying anything more?

His apprentice hadn't heard of him, but his son-in-law did.

Since Yang Kangnian left Yunhu Automobile Factory, two people have taken over his position: one is Zhao, the former secretary of the trade union, who was promoted to the position of factory secretary, and the other is the person who took over his position as factory director.

The person who succeeded Yang Kangnian as the director of the Yunqi Factory was his son-in-law. Hmm, his parents also seem to be leaders in the administrative office, but I don't know their specific positions.

Chen Fan felt he shouldn't have asked that question. Your apprentice is already very talented, only slightly inferior to me. Can you please stop with this Versailles-like attitude?

Yang Kangnian drank his wine and ate his meat. After a while, he continued, "I just heard you say that there are large buses abroad that can carry more than fifty people. I was thinking, could we open another branch factory in Yunqi Factory to produce these buses?"

He looked at Chen Fan and said, "Buses are mainly used for public transportation on both long and short distances. Relatively speaking, the requirements for comfort are not high, so the requirements for product quality are naturally not too high either."

If this type of bus has potential, could our automotive supply chain factory first produce this type of product with lower requirements? After accumulating certain technology and capital, we can gradually upgrade our equipment, select skilled workers with excellent skills, supply vans to Yunnan Automobile Factory, and eventually transition to supplying sedans?

what do you think? "

Chen Fan nodded indifferently and said, "Sure. Anyway, no matter what kind of vehicle it is, there's no worry about sales. And the buses you mentioned really have a lot of potential."

Putting aside everything else, just look at the Jiefang trucks and Dongfeng trucks running all over the streets. They are all used to transport people and serve as buses. Replacing these trucks and buses alone would create a huge market.

Your idea of ​​starting with something simple and then gradually upgrading is a good one.

Yang Kangnian slammed his hand on the table and grinned, "Alright, let's do it that way."

After he finished speaking, he realized, "Oh right, about the trip you mentioned earlier, let's continue. What were you planning to do?"

Chen Fan paused for a while before picking up where he left off, but the excitement of his earlier persuasive talk was gone.

Do it all at once, second time tired, third time exhausted.

He's exhausted now.

So he calmly said, "It's nothing. I just wanted to improve the infrastructure of Yunhu first, so that we can accommodate a foreign tour group of a few dozen people."

Therefore, a foreign-related hotel with beautiful scenery near Yunhu Lake must be built. I have already chosen the location, which is on the south bank of Yunhu Lake.

It should be larger in scale, not cramped with just a few dozen rooms, looking small and delicate, not grand at all.

Dayun Lake, Dayun Lake, facing such a vast lake, you have to muster your courage…

As he was speaking, he noticed that Yang Kangnian's expression was not good, and immediately asked, "Do you not have any money?"

Yang Kangnian nodded quickly, "The industrialization of a factory and the vegetable basket project have taken up the budget for this year and next. The joint venture capital for this film and television city project was borrowed from several factories by myself."

The administrative office simply doesn't have the funds to invest in another high-end hotel.

Chen Fan glanced at him and said calmly, "It's okay if you don't have money. I can find the money to invest in the hotel. Anyway, the foreign representative is here. You can arrange for someone to sign a joint venture contract with her later. The local government will provide the land and policies, and the foreign party will provide the funds. You will each hold 49% of the shares. Then bring in Lujiawan to hold 2% of the shares. Perfect."

He certainly wouldn't let Yang Kangnian have a free ride on a profitable business like a hotel; he wanted to keep what he could.

Not just hotels, but also passenger transport.

Chen Fan continued, "A hotel alone is not enough; we also need to solve the transportation problem. You should convene a meeting later to see if the city's transportation company is interested in setting up a separate international passenger transport company."

This company can purchase a batch of high-end Yunhu brand sedans, Yunhu minivans, and several large buses. Besides serving foreign guests, they can also provide services to various organizations. If anyone can afford it, renting the vehicles to them is also an option.

Yang Kangnian listened and nodded slightly, "Yes, that means setting up another taxi company. That's feasible. Anyway, there are taxis in major cities like the provincial capital, Beijing, and Shanghai, and individuals can rent cars. This isn't even a reform, so it's no problem."

He paused for a moment, then added, "Does this company not want foreign investment?"

Chen Fan blinked, looked at Yang Kangnian, and chuckled, "You guys decide, I won't interfere."

Yang Kangnian smiled meaningfully and said, "I was transferred from the automobile factory to the administrative office precisely to promote reform. Since the joint venture hotel is going to be built anyway, why not set up a joint venture taxi company as well? As long as the public party holds more than 50% of the shares, there is a public party manager, and the drivers are all our people, the higher-ups should agree."

Chen Fan smiled and nodded, "Okay."

It seems that Yang Kangnian has already seen through his intentions, which is to create an opportunity for Qianfan Company to invest in Yunhu, otherwise he would not have brought it up on his own initiative.

After all, setting up a taxi company is not a big deal. With the strength of the city's passenger transport company, it is not difficult to do so. There is no need to bring in foreign investment.

But Yang Kangnian still brought it up himself.

He's giving me a benefit.

But offering benefits is useless; the exploitation will still continue.

Having taken advantage of the deals, now it's time to talk about projects where there are no more bargains to be had.

Chen Fan coughed lightly and said to Yang Kangnian, "Planting the phoenix tree attracts the golden phoenix. Building hotels and setting up taxi companies are all preparations for overseas tourists to come and visit. But have you considered how to attract overseas tourists to Yunhu?"

Yang Kangnian blinked, picked up his wine glass, took a sip, and grinned, "You are the director of Yunhu Tourism Bureau and the general manager of Yunhu Tourism Company. This is something you need to consider. You can decide for yourself."

Chen Fan took a deep breath to calm his turbulent emotions and said with a fake smile, "My suggestion is to shoot a promotional video to showcase the beauty of Yunhu Lake to foreign tourists and attract them all!"

Yang Kangnian had probably heard Director Lan mention it before, so he pursed his lips, frowned, and said, "I don't understand these things, but if you say it's okay, then it should be okay."

He paused for a moment, then said, "I won't ask about the specifics. I just want to know how this promotional video will be filmed and what the budget is?"

Chen Fan smiled and said, "We'll talk about how to film it later. Let's talk about the budget first. Hmm, you can prepare one million first."

(End of this chapter)