Reborn since 1993

Chapter 370: Holding the Emperor hostage to order the princes

Gu Xiguang glanced at Yao Zhengru and other people from Pingyang and the provincial government, nodded, sat down and spoke to everyone first.

"These are some comrades from the Publicity Section of the Yanjing Economic and Trade Commission. Tomorrow, some Yanjing media may come over to interview and film the Torch Group. I hope the Torch Group can cooperate!"

Gu Xiguang's words were vague, but Yao Zhengru, Li Weimin and other people in the official career would surely hear the hidden meaning in Gu Xiguang's words. How could the media that could let him speak out personally be of small importance?

"Torch Group will definitely cooperate!" Zhang Xiaocheng said on behalf of the Torch Group, and then arranged personnel to accompany the people from the Propaganda Department to film the Torch Group.

After the door of the conference room was closed, Gu Xiguang asked directly, "What is the current situation of Torch Group?"

"At present, Torch Group has made every effort to increase its production capacity. The upstream and downstream industrial chain companies in Torch Industrial Park have more than 15,000 employees. It is expected that by the end of the year, the number of employees in Torch Industrial Park will be close to 27,000!"

Zhang Xiaocheng said to the group of people from Yanjing, "From the start of sales to today, the revenue of the entire Torch Group has exceeded 8 million yuan. The current orders of the Torch Group have exceeded 30 million, and the lighter advertising business is also increasing rapidly.

The daily production capacity of Torch Group has now increased to 1.2 million lighters. By next month at the latest, the production capacity will increase to 2 million lighters per day. Next year, the daily production capacity will reach 4 million lighters, and the annual production capacity will reach the expected 1.5 billion lighters. The number of employees in the entire Torch Industrial Park will also reach the expected full capacity of 56,000 people!"

Upon hearing this, smiles appeared on Gu Xiguang, He Heng and others' faces, and they started to applaud. According to the current momentum of Torch Group, it should not be difficult to achieve the goals set when Torch Group was first established.

At this time, Yao Zhengru coughed and said, "When Torch Group was first established, space was reserved for the second and third phases, or even greater production capacity.

If the sales of lighters can meet expectations, the Torch Group will also expand as expected, increasing its production capacity to 3 billion lighters, 5 billion lighters, or even a larger annual production capacity. The upstream and downstream companies in the entire Torch Industrial Park, as well as lighter retailers, agents and other practitioners, may have a scale of around 200,000 to 300,000!
Of course, this is the best expectation. It can open up the domestic market and sales channels abroad, allowing overseas users to accept Torch Group's products!"

Yao Zhengru added one more sentence at the end, but in the conference room, it was obvious that Gu Xiguang, He Heng and other people from the Yanjing department were breathing heavier.

What Yao Zhengru said was actually what Li Dongling wrote when he proposed the Torch Group plan. Being able to take over the entire lighter industry chain means being able to make it a pillar industry for a place.

For a city, the profits brought by this industrial chain may not be too much, but for a district or a county, there is no problem in relying on this industrial chain to support the county.

In fact, in the past, a certain place relied on the lighter industry chain, which, at its peak, supported more than 660,000 practitioners. Even in the era of automation, the number of practitioners was around 60,000 to 70,000, supporting the local GDP of 70 billion. It was truly the livelihood of millions of boatmen.

However, it was a bit unrealistic for Torch Group to say that it would become an industry with 200,000 employees when it was first established. Li Dongling only showed this plan to Zhang Xiaocheng, Yao Zhengru, Wu Yaoguo and other people who had close ties with Torch Group.

Now that Torch Group's initial goals are about to be completed, it can naturally take advantage of the opportunity to propose subsequent projects.

Torch Group is one of the national key industrial park projects that the provincial capital and Yanjing are paying attention to. The second phase of expansion also needs to be reported to them. Even if the higher-ups will definitely not block such projects, the necessary procedures still need to be followed. The rules of the underworld sometimes not only constrain oneself, but also protect oneself!
Moreover, Yao Zhengru was not saying this out of nowhere, but had already discussed it with Li Dongling, Zhang Xiaocheng, Wu Yaoguo and others.

Even for Gu Xiguang, who had seen a lot of things and had participated in the reorganization and merger of countless large companies, he couldn't help but take a deep breath when he heard that the Torch Industrial Park was going to be built to employ 200,000 or even 300,000 people.

An industrial park with an annual revenue of over 10 billion and 50,000 to 60,000 employees and an industry with a revenue of over several billion, even a large amount of foreign exchange income, and able to accommodate 300,000 employees are two completely different concepts!

If it really achieves that goal, in a certain sense, Torch Group will almost be able to dominate the domestic lighter industry.

Even if Yanjing wants to modify some of the rules of the lighter industry, it needs to inform Torch Group in advance. After all, this is related to the jobs of hundreds of thousands of people. Behind them may be hundreds of thousands of families and millions of jobs. Who dares to ignore it? !

"We still have to take it step by step. We can't rush things. Pingyang and Hanxi provincial capital have the same attitude as Yanjing. They definitely hope that Torch Group can develop, but we still have to be cautious! Of course, the Economic and Trade Commission and all major departments in Yanjing absolutely support Torch Group!"

At this time, Gu Xiguang didn't dare to agree to anything rashly. An industrial project involving hundreds of thousands of people was not something he could decide directly. He must report it to the Economic and Trade Commission or even the various departments in Yanjing.

But Gu Xiguang feels that, based on the situation in the past two years, the Economic and Trade Commission and other departments such as Development and Reform will definitely support the expansion of Torch Group. Even if the situation of the state-owned factories is worse, the Economic and Trade Commission and other departments may require Torch Group to expand more aggressively so that they can recruit more personnel.

Li Dongling was waiting for Gu Xiguang to say this. After he finished speaking, Li Dongling said, "Director Gu, Torch Group does have an urgent matter that needs the help of the Economic and Trade Commission and Yanjing!"

Hearing Li Dongling speak, Gu Xiguang's face suddenly became serious, and the others who were whispering because of Yao Zhengru's words also looked at Li Dongling.

Everyone knows why so many of them gathered here today. It’s because of Li Dongling. Although Li Dongling has praised many people just now, the Torch Group can be what it is today. But those who can get the inside information of the Torch Group know who is the real person in charge of the Torch Group’s projects!

Li Dongling spoke, which made everyone present take him seriously. Gu Xiguang said directly to Li Dongling, "Mr. Li is the largest shareholder of Torch Group, so just speak frankly!"

"Torch Group was not the first company to enter the lighter industry. Dongou and other places also did it, but they all ran into trouble in the end. They were targeted by America and Europe in the name of anti-dumping and were banned from overseas sales. They became OEM factories for Japanese, Korean and American lighter brands!

The lighter manufacturers in these places are mainly home workshops or family companies. They engage in price wars with each other and their product quality varies.

As a result, domestic lighter manufacturers are in disarray and are completely unable to stop overseas lawsuits. Moreover, domestic lighters are regarded as junk lighters overseas and cannot be sold at a high price. They are forced to work for overseas lighter manufacturers!"

Gu Xiguang frowned, while Gu Heng from the Foreign Exchange Department sighed. He knew that what Li Dongling said was true. Before, metal lighters produced in China were sued by overseas lighter manufacturers every other day, and then fined and banned from sale. In the end, they could not be sold at all and were forced to produce for American and Japanese lighter manufacturers to earn a meager production fee.

"What does Mr. Li want to do?" Gu Xiguang hesitated for a moment and asked.

Li Dongling laughed and said, "I had already said this when Torch Group was founded.

In order to avoid what happened to the lighter industry in the past and to prevent Torch Group from experiencing this, and to open up overseas markets so that the second and third phase projects of Torch Group can proceed smoothly, I hope that the Economic and Trade Commission, Development and Reform Commission, Foreign Exchange Commission, Customs Administration, Industry and Commerce Bureau, and other departments will take the lead in supporting Torch Group in establishing a Lighter Import and Export Association!
In the future, the Lighter Import and Export Association will formulate domestic lighter industry rules and product quality standards to avoid malicious competition. In addition, the export share, export price and customs settlement of major lighter companies each year will also be under the unified responsibility of the Lighter Import and Export Association! "

Gu Xiguang, He Heng and others couldn't help but gasp. Once the Lighter Import and Export Association was established, Torch Group almost immediately became the leader of the domestic lighter industry.

This certainly has its pros and cons. In the past, the lighter industry was leaderless and faced overseas competition and lawsuits on its own, resulting in complete failure.

If the Lighter Import and Export Association proposed by Torch Group is established, Torch Group will become the leader of the domestic lighter industry and will be qualified to deal with lawsuits against domestic lighters in America, old Europe and other places.

Another point is that once the resources of the domestic lighter industry are integrated, Torch Group will be able to challenge BIC and other old lighter manufacturers as a rising star, and even overwhelm and defeat them!
The era when China could only produce for foreign lighter manufacturers and earn meager fees will be gone forever. What Torch Group wants to do is not to produce for those foreign lighter brands, but to snatch their jobs, smash their pots, and completely drive them out of this industry.

Why should the place that produces 70% of the world's lighters have to follow the rules and standards of several foreign lighter manufacturers? Why can't the standards of the global lighter industry be set by the Torch Group?

The Lighter Import and Export Association is the Torch Group's sword to the domestic and overseas lighter industries. With the Lighter Import and Export Association in the hands of the Torch Group, the Torch Group can use the power of the emperor to command the princes and influence the entire domestic lighter industry!

(End of this chapter)