The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 926: Top Ten Rich Merchants
A few days later.

Liu Tao set off for Jakarta.

This time he rarely went abroad, but it was because he was going to attend the China-ASEAN Economic and Trade Joint Committee meeting.

The China-ASEAN Joint Economic and Trade Committee meeting was held in Jakarta, Indonesia. Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia, as well as the largest city in Southeast Asia, located on the northwest coast of Java Island.

This is Liu Tao's first visit to Jakarta and also his first visit to Indonesia.

In the hotel suite, Liu Tao looked down at Jakarta, which is the economic center of Indonesia and gathers most of Indonesia's wealth and elites.

If we say that the Panshan Group has the smallest influence in Southeast Asia, the first one is Annan, followed by Indonesia.

In recent years, Panshan Group has been continuously expanding its trade in Indonesia, strengthening its exchanges with Chinese Indonesians, and supporting several Chinese families, all of which have armed forces.

This has also been the effective strategy of Panshan Group, which is to support the Chinese, enhance their strength, and increase their armed forces for self-protection.

Liu Tao checked the time and changed his clothes. About fifteen minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Liu Tao said in a deep voice.

Then, the door opened and a middle-aged man came in, "Boss Liu, the guests are here!"

"Fuxing, bring the guests in." Liu Tao said with a faint smile.

This middle-aged man is called "Ye Fuxing". He came from an extraordinary family and came to Jakarta eight years ago. After unremitting efforts, he eventually became the head of Panshan Group in Indonesia.

Ye Fuxing said: "Okay, Mr. Liu!"

After Ye Fuxing went out, he soon came back with ten people. These people included old and middle-aged people, with a big age gap.

"Everyone, this is the general manager of our Panshan Group, Mr. Liu Tao!" Ye Fuxing introduced.

These people hurriedly said: "Hello, Mr. Liu, welcome to Jakarta!"

"Fuxing, introduce these Chinese heroes to me!" Liu Tao said with a smile.

"Okay! Mr. Liu, this is the richest man in Indonesia, Mr. Lin Shaoliang!" Ye Fuxing introduced the first old man.

Liu Tao took the initiative to shake hands with the old man: "Mr. Lin, I have heard of your great name for a long time!"

Lim Shao Liang, who has been the richest man in Indonesia for many years, is a legend in Indonesia. He was born in a peasant family and sailed to Indonesia. After Indonesia's independence, Lim Shao Liang moved his company to Jakarta and founded a peanut oil factory, a soap factory, a textile factory, a tire factory, and a bicycle parts factory. He also established trade relations with Singapore and Hong Kong, quickly diversified and scaled up his business, and founded the Central Asia Bank of Indonesia in 1957 with the help of Thai financial giant Chen Bicheng. By 1967, Lim Shao Liang had established a large enterprise group in Indonesia with industry, commerce, and finance, becoming a giant in the Indonesian business community.

Lin Shaoliang has many titles, including "Cement King", "Real Estate King", "Finance King", "Banking King", "Trade King", etc.

To date, Sanlin, founded by Lin Shaoliang, has more than 600 companies in Indonesia and dozens of countries and regions, with business covering more than 70 industries, total assets exceeding US$200 billion and annual revenue of nearly US$250 billion.

What is commendable is that Lin Shaoliang has actively returned to his hometown to invest in construction over the past decade, and has also led Chinese businessmen in Southeast Asia to return to their motherland to invest in building factories and engage in charity. So far, Lin Shaoliang has invested at least hundreds of millions of RMB in building schools, water plants, and roads in Fujian Province, and has invested nearly 10 billion RMB in building factories.

When Panshan Group entered Indonesia, the first person they contacted was Lin Shaoliang, and the two parties have been cooperating for more than ten years.

"Hello, Mr. Liu!" Lin Shaoliang was very surprised. He didn't expect Liu Tao to be so young.

Ye Fuxing introduced the second old man: "This is Mr. Huang Yicong. Like Mr. Lin Shaoliang, Mr. Huang Yicong is from Fujian Province. Mr. Lin Shaoliang is from Fuqing, Fujian Province, while Mr. Huang Yicong's ancestral home is in Licheng."

Liu Tao naturally knew the detailed information about this old man, and his life was rich and wonderful.

At the age of 7, Huang Yicong followed his mother to Sulawesi, Indonesia to reunite with his father who was working hard there. After the Japanese occupied Indonesia in 1942, Huang Yicong, who was still in high school, was forced to drop out of school and started a business by reselling candies and bread from street to street. Through this step-by-step struggle, he successively opened a grocery store, a bread and biscuit workshop, and purchased coconuts for processing coconut desiccated coconuts. In less than 10 years, he became famous. In 1960, he had accumulated a lot of wealth and moved to Jakarta and founded the "Golden Light Company". The first core business he developed was edible oil and palm planting. By 1980, he was already the "edible oil" king of Indonesia. After accumulating capital in the edible oil business, he entered the field of pulp production and papermaking. By 1990, his papermaking industry was second to none in Indonesia and promoted papermaking to become a major industry in Indonesia.

Compared with other Indonesian conglomerates, Huang Yicong has closer ties with Hua Xia. As early as after the Bandung Conference, he followed the advice of his leaders and sent his children to study in Hua Xia. All of his children graduated from college in famous Hua Xia schools.

Huang Yicong is also the Indonesian Chinese entrepreneur with the largest investment in China. His two sons have been working in the Chinese business community for the past decade.

Under Ye Fuxing's introduction, Liu Tao shook hands with these ten Chinese tycoons one by one.

Liu Tao found it incredible that the ancestral homes of these ten Chinese tycoons were all from Fujian Province.

Liu Tao talked with them about the cooperation between the two sides over the past decade and future cooperation.

Then after drinking a few cups of tea, Liu Tao changed the subject and pointed directly to their biggest weakness.

There are many wealthy Chinese businessmen in Indonesia. They are all very rich, but they have a big weakness, that is, their armed forces are weak and their political status is very low. Once they face violence, they will appear weak.

These wealthy businessmen are just like children walking in the downtown area holding gold bricks. Who wouldn’t be envious? Who wouldn’t want to take their wealth for themselves?

"Boss Liu, isn't this too much of a worry? I have a very good relationship with him, and he has never expressed such thoughts." Lin Shaoliang frowned. They are good friends and their relationship is extraordinary. "Besides, we have about 20,000 armed forces, which is enough to protect ourselves."

"Yes, society is stable now, who would dare to go against the world's condemnation?" Others simply did not believe it and thought what Liu Tao said was too alarmist.

Liu Tao smiled faintly and said, "I have my reasons for saying this."

"As the saying goes, if you don't plan for the future, you will have immediate worries. Why don't you expand your armed forces just in case? After all, it's better to be safe than sorry." Liu Tao meant completely out of good intentions.

"Do you really have to wait until something happens, and then you can only watch and regret it in your heart?" Liu Tao said: "If that day really happens, you will at least have the power to protect yourselves, and you can even occupy the land and rule as kings!"

This sounds incredible, but it turns out to be true.

It is estimated that there is a high probability that it will happen in this life.

So he only hopes that tragedy will not happen and that he can seize the opportunity to prevent the painful lessons of the Chinese from happening again!

(End of this chapter)