1988: Back to the human world for a few years

Chapter 535: Story. Reason. Motivation (3)

In that fictional timeline, starting from the 34th year of reform and opening up, Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions quickly launched a "Thousand Enterprises Helping Thousand Villages" plan after realizing the positive significance of strong village enterprises in strengthening the collective economy and rural revitalization... At that time, Dongda was making every effort to alleviate poverty, so this plan of "Thousand Enterprises Helping Thousand Villages" was also regarded as the highlight of targeted poverty alleviation in Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions.

Against this backdrop, Huai Shang Group, one of the top 100 local companies, cooperated with Hefei Chaohu Economic Development Zone to jointly establish an operating and development entity to reorganize resources and develop industries in the three local villages of Dongwa, Dagui and Nihuang. Under the guiding ideology of "making rural areas more like rural areas", three villages were gradually formed, renamed after winter melon, pumpkin and watermelon, collectively known as the Three Melon Commune.

Among them, Pumpkin Village is engaged in e-commerce, responsible for creating high-quality pumpkin varieties and various derivative products around them, attracting various local people to return home to start businesses;
Winter Melon Village focuses on folk customs, and Watermelon Village focuses on food, attracting city dwellers to move to the countryside. They focus on tourism, especially weekend tourism and short-distance tourism, to attract online and offline traffic for the Three Village Commune.

At that time, industrial capital was flowing into the countryside and it was also a critical moment for Dongda to fight poverty. Therefore, Sangua Commune, which has the characteristics of "rural entrepreneurship and innovation" and "poverty alleviation", was sought after by all walks of life as soon as it was established under the promotion of Huai Shang Group. Even the total investment in the early plan was as high as 3 million yuan (a total investment of 8 million yuan), and the construction period that was almost a complete reconstruction was only 36 months... This once again proves the strong advantages of Qiangcun Company in fund raising, resource integration, and work efficiency.

In short, after three years of construction and four years of operation, Sangua Commune has transformed from a dilapidated mountain village into a national key rural tourism village that receives 800 million tourists annually, with e-commerce, folk customs, food, and beautiful scenery as its focus. It has also become a national-level Bantang Hot Spring Health Resort, as well as an industrial cluster for some tea, health products, food, and handicrafts.

It is precisely because such a huge contrast and achievements were formed in just a few years that, in that imaginary timeline, Sangua Commune was successively rated as "One of the Top Ten Nationally Famous Characteristic Towns" and "National Key Village for Rural Tourism", and was even jointly rated as a "National Classic Case of Tourism Poverty Alleviation" by the Poverty Alleviation Office and the Tourism Bureau; for a time, it was the talk of the town.

But the reason why Sangua Commune was selected as a "classic case" is not only because of their achievements and business reconstruction of "creating something out of nothing + man conquers nature". In this project, the innovative cooperation model adopted by Qiangcun Enterprise has also pointed out a new path for later comers.

This pattern is roughly like this:

Qiangcun Company is responsible for the conception of the project and the initial fund raising. The local competent authority invests in the project through its state-owned capital platform and provides various policy support. When the project matures, the local competent authority will repurchase it.

In this way, Qiangcun Company obtained satisfactory early project dividends and high-premium equity transfer fees through its own resources and expertise, which can be said to be a huge profit;

The local authorities also did not lose out. Not only did they fully mobilize private capital and make great contributions to the local targeted poverty alleviation work, but after the project matured, although they had to pay a high premium for the equity transfer fee, the local authorities also gained a high-valued, high-quality asset that can operate sustainably and healthily. You know, the catering, leisure, health care, and deep processing of high-quality specialty agricultural products industries driven by the two traffic points of "tourism" and "e-commerce" of Sangua Commune can directly provide nearly 10,000 jobs, and indirectly generate even more jobs. This alone is enough to attract local authorities.

This "three-gua operation model" of deep cooperation between local authorities and enterprises is a seemingly ideal win-win model. In this case, Huai Shang Group undertakes work similar to that of an urban investment company, which can also greatly alleviate the financial pressure of local authorities.
After all, a large-scale project requires a relatively long period from project initiation to profitability and then to stable operation, and the project may not necessarily succeed. If private capital is willing to bear the initial infrastructure construction costs of the project, undertake the resettlement of villagers, and the introduction and expansion of commercial supporting projects, and objectively reduce the incidence of non-performing assets of local authorities through the equity repurchase model, it will undoubtedly be a great thing.

Of course, a scientific model must have a reasonable exit mechanism. In addition to the agreed share premium transfer, as the early investment and operation operator of the project, the development zone also reserved 137 acres of land in Sangua Commune for Huaishang Group through coordination and consultation as an exit balance mechanism... In this way, the Sangua model has completely formed a closed loop and has the possibility of large-scale replication.

In short, relying on this composite model of "local competent authorities + enterprises", "enterprises + farmers" and "Internet + agriculture, rural areas and farmers", Sangua Commune has ushered in its most glorious moment. It has not only been promoted by Hefei as one of its city's business cards, but has also revived the trend of building characteristic towns that had been somewhat sluggish across the country. Many of them have followed suit and used the Internet to enter the era of characteristic towns 2.0 (some places call it XX characteristic industrial park or XX industry e-commerce incubation base).

Well, everything seems so good, as if everything is developing in an orderly manner in a positive and healthy direction.

However, in that fictitious timeline, in 2023, which was the eighth anniversary of the establishment of Sangua Commune, this hugely costly project not only failed to complete the equity transfer and exit process, but instead ushered in a wave of drastic changes.

On November 2023, 11, Sangua Commune published an article on its social media, saying that the project of Sangua Commune had encountered operational difficulties and that Hefei's city card had a serious illness;

On December 12, Sangua Commune issued another statement, saying that its account had been cancelled by Anchao Economic Development Zone. The words between the lines were all about expressing indignation at their own experience and calling on all sectors of society to pay attention to this matter.

This is a pilot model for township revitalization.

Such a new fulcrum for urban-rural integration development,
Such a characteristic town that was highly praised and recommended by the organization;
Such a dazzling city business card,

It seemed like I fell from the clouds to the bottom of the valley overnight...

………………

Yang Mo was still preparing for his emotions when Mr. Zhao couldn't help but interrupt him: "What? The account was cancelled? Boy, explain it to me clearly. How could such a good project be cancelled? "

It's no wonder that given Mr. Zhao's age and status, he's still as impatient as a young man.

As an old Red Army soldier who has climbed snow-capped mountains, waded through grasslands, and fought in countless battlefields, it is difficult for young people in later generations who live more and more sophisticated lives to understand their feelings for their country and class.

Precisely because they witnessed and experienced the misery and suffering in rural areas before the founding of the People's Republic of China, most people of Mr. Zhao's generation have an insistence that outsiders cannot understand on ensuring that the people at the grassroots level in rural areas can live a good life.

To use a saying from later generations on the Internet, it is because one has been caught in the rain that one always wants to hold an umbrella for others; it is because one knows how difficult it is for most people at the grassroots level in rural areas that one is unwilling to give up any opportunity that can help these farmers live a good life.

This is actually the reason why Mr. Zhao, although he has no direct subordinate relationship with Yang Mo, and even models such as financial transaction of property rights are actually a bit over the line at the moment, is still willing to give this young man a lot of support, both overtly and covertly.

It's simple. Most of what Yang Mo has done in the past three years has been to directly or indirectly help the rural grassroots in Dezhou and Lanling to improve their economic conditions. And the visible economic development of the rural grassroots in these areas is worthy of Mr. Zhao's selfless support for this young man.

Therefore, when Yang Mo told those two stories earlier, Mr. Zhao, who sensed the deep meaning behind them, on the one hand took the setbacks suffered by the island country in the stories as a warning, and on the other hand, he was extremely happy about the strong village company model that the young man "hypothesized" in the stories.

It's very simple. As long as you sort out what Yang Mo has done before, you will find that his approach is highly similar to the Qiangcun Company model in the story. It also uses collective economy as a breakthrough point, relies on the state-owned enterprise system and the administrative system to make a living in the early stages, and transfers the core links of the industry and the circulation links to the grassroots level.

Therefore, in Mr. Zhao’s opinion, Qiangcun Company is a panacea, a panacea that can revitalize the rural grassroots and even regional economy without seriously increasing the national burden. This is also confirmed in the first half of the third story... The administrative system only needs to provide policy support in the early stage to effectively leverage private capital, and then turn the three originally poor and backward villages into prosperous villages within a few years, while creating at least thousands of additional direct jobs. Is there a better win-win model than this?

Therefore, Yang Mo's sudden turn for the worse just now was very difficult for him to accept emotionally.

He really couldn't think of a way to achieve this goal if even such a model could not effectively leverage the development of the collective economy and enable countless rural grassroots to get rid of poverty and become rich?

Yang Mo was already the person with the most ideas, the most achievements, and the most persuasiveness in this area that he had ever met. If even the strong village company model he had assumed in the story could not succeed, then...

Do the 8.4 million grassroots people in rural areas really have no hope of living a good life?
This is what Mr. Zhao finds most difficult to accept.

It feels like you have been lost in chaos for countless years, and you clearly see the light is within your reach, but when you really reach out to touch it, you find that the door that was half opened is suddenly closed. This strong gap, the despair before hope, is the most devastating.

Seeing that Mr. Zhao was a little excited, Yang Mo glanced at Gao Qingfeng, who had a relatively calm expression but a frown on his face. He quickly calmed his hands and signaled the old man not to get excited: "Mr. Zhao, don't be anxious yet. It's not too late to be anxious after I finish telling the story and sort out the causes and consequences... There has never been a perfect model in the world. The only thing we can do is to figure out the various deficiencies here, and then try to fix the deficiencies as much as possible at the beginning, or understand what choices we should make when necessary."

Hearing Yang Mo's words, Gao Qingfeng gave him a slightly surprised look, but Mr. Zhao's emotions quickly calmed down.

"You are right, there is no perfect model in this world. If there is one... it must be a trap!"

Mr. Zhao thought for a moment, then took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth in a slightly irritated manner, then handed out two cigarettes: "But you kid, stop talking about trivial things all day long, just get to the point... Why did the Sangua Commune suddenly fail?"

Obviously, at this point, Mr. Zhao no longer believed that this story was a "science fiction" made up by those intellectuals. There are not many decent economists in China today. How could these folk literati make up such an insightful and logically rigorous "story"?
If these three stories were really made up by folk writers, he would immediately recommend that person for the Mao Dun Literature Prize and the Sun Yefang Economic Science Award without hesitation; even if that person is within the administrative system, he would even go against all odds and apply for a July 1st Medal for him.

only……

snort!
I dare to report it to you, old man. Do you dare to bring the person to me?

Thinking of this, Mr. Zhao glanced at Yang Mo.

This kid's ability and intelligence are beyond reproach, but he is too timid. If the old man had your ability in economic development, based on the current situation in DZ City, if the old man had a noble person like you to support him, the first thing he would do would be to sideline Tian Guangyue and You Yakun, the two useless guys, and then do what he wants.

How could he be like you? As long as it is beyond the business scope of the Urban Property Fund Company, he will not ask about it. He only sneaks around in the name of Ye Tao in private. Even when talking about the current content that can be made into a formal report in the organization, he has to use the name of a "novel story" to prevent thieves.

I tui~!

He doesn't have any of the vigor and fearlessness that young people should have!
Isn't the moral here in Qi and Lu quite tough? How come someone like you who is so timid and cowardly appeared?
Yang Mo caught the disappointment in Mr. Zhao's eyes and couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart, but he could only pretend that he didn't see anything. He followed the old man's instructions and explained the changes in the Sangua Commune in the story: "Mr. Zhao, whether you are willing to admit it or not, different positions have different perspectives. Not to mention that the decision-making motivations of the public economic system and the private economic system are very different; just talking about the state-owned system, the decision-making motivations between the administrative system and the central enterprise system, the administrative system and the local state-owned enterprise system, the central enterprise and the local state-owned enterprise system, and the administrative system and the village collective are all very different, not to mention that local top 100 companies like Huai Shang Group are no longer pure strong village companies."

At this point, Yang Mo shrugged: "So, the cooperation between local authorities and private capital like in the story is actually more of a product based on certain environments and conditions."

"In the story, the Sangua Commune project was proposed at a critical time for Dongda's poverty alleviation campaign, and the local authorities attached great importance to the performance assessment in this area. The country, provinces and cities all supported various targeted poverty alleviation projects, so Sangua Commune was able to obtain a lot of policy support during this period, so that many links that should have gone through formal procedures and repeated evaluations were given the green light all the way... This also caused the main investor of Sangua Commune, Huaishang Group, to misjudge some things and laid the seeds for future changes in Sangua Commune."

"But the good times didn't last long. The reason why the advantages of the national system of the University of Tokyo frightened Western society was that it could relatively easily accomplish many miracles that seemed incredible to Europe and the United States."

"So, in that story, it was only in 2017 that Dongda's poverty alleviation campaign was successfully concluded, and the focus of the national work also changed from the original targeted poverty alleviation to the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas; therefore, the policy support for Sangua Commune was no longer as strong as before, and the revenue of Sangua Commune also began to decline significantly."

At this point, Yang Mo explained: "Mr. Zhao, Brother Gao, one thing that needs to be emphasized is that before this, Sangua Commune enjoyed policy support from the administrative system, not only in terms of taxation, land, water and electricity infrastructure, and bank loans. More importantly, the local competent authorities also spared no effort to help Sangua Commune promote in the media, and through administrative and business means, coordinated travel agencies across the country to tilt passenger flow towards Sangua Commune... This is also the main reason why Sangua Commune has such a huge initial investment, and it is a non-natural landscape tourism project without historical and cultural endorsement, but it can still exceed 800 million tourists per year in a short period of time. "

"So, when the administrative system no longer gives full support in terms of publicity and travel agency coordination, the number of tourists visiting Sangua Commune will naturally drop significantly... In fact, this is not difficult to understand. As mentioned earlier, since Sangua Travel Agency can be rated as a national-level Bantang Hot Spring Health Resort, it naturally has a large number of health and wellness hot spring projects."

"Hot springs are generally not cheap. With this thing to raise the profile of Sangua Commune, which completely adopts the market investment matching mechanism, the rest of the leisure and entertainment projects will naturally not be very affordable...Price is a natural mechanism for screening consumer groups. Since you want to go for the mid-to-high-end, the base of potential consumer groups will naturally be much smaller. In the past, you could rely on the support of the administrative system to help you attract customers nationwide. Now that this link is gone, Sangua Commune has to rely on itself, and the flow of people has naturally dropped sharply."

Hearing this, Gao Qingfeng couldn't help but ask, "Did the investors never think about this issue before the Sangua Commune project was launched?"

Yang Mo's mouth showed a strange arc: "Even the obtuse people like us from Qi and Lu can think of this problem, how could those smart people from Jiangnan not think of it?"

Gao Qingfeng was stunned. After connecting the past and the present, he suddenly thought of something and his face suddenly turned ugly.

Yang Mo ignored Gao Qingfeng's gloomy expression and continued to talk to himself: "Mr. Zhao, you also know that if everything in this world is developing rapidly in a good direction, then no matter how many problems there are, we don't have to be afraid. After all, we can use the incremental income to cover the stock losses!"

"But if the brakes are applied to this rapid development, then these problems that have always existed will naturally burst into flames one after another."

"So, when Dongda's poverty alleviation work was completed ahead of schedule at a speed beyond everyone's expectations and the focus of work shifted to the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas, Sangua Commune, whose revenue had plummeted, began to collapse."

"First, Huai Shang Group, the main investor of Sangua Commune, realized that Anchao Economic Development Zone valued more high-tech industrial projects with more comprehensive value. Projects like Sangua Commune that lacked strategic value were not the focus of policy support. So in 2017, not long after Dongda began to shift its focus to the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas, it started the withdrawal process."

"But the local authorities at the time did not fulfill their promise to deliver the land, but instead issued a lot of meeting minutes, promising to help the company solve a series of problems... The considerations behind this are obvious. The local authorities hope to wait until Sangua Commune proves that it can walk without a cane before initiating the equity repurchase."

At this point, Yang Mo paused and said, "I personally think that the considerations of the local authorities are not a big problem. After all, over the past few decades, numerous cases at home and abroad have told us a truth. The local authorities should just quietly do their job as invisible hands. Once they are allowed to intervene in the operation of specific commercial projects, the situation will only get worse... For projects like Sangua Commune, the local authorities initiated the premium equity repurchase procedure. In fact, it is more for the purpose of motivating and compensating early investors. Since it is essentially a buying and selling relationship, as a seller, you must at least prove that your product is fine."

Gao Qingfeng and Mr. Zhao felt uncomfortable hearing Yang Mo describe this relationship so nakedly, but they had to admit that although the words were a bit harsh, they pointed out the essence of the matter... The equity repurchase model of Sangua Commune is not the same routine as the Jews who built up the company and then sold it.

If it's a business, why do you put so many unnecessary decorations on it?
After thinking it through, I no longer thought that Yang Mo was making innuendos.

Before it is proven that your "product" is not problematic, although the local authorities refused to pay for it, they also expressed their willingness to assist you in discovering and solving problems. This is already very sincere. This is the University of Tokyo. If it were Europe or the United States, they would want the buyer to pay a high price on the one hand, and on the other hand, be willing to spare no effort to help you improve and perfect the product when problems are found... What are you thinking!

Seeing the two people nodding slightly, Yang Mo hummed softly and continued: "After all, Huai Shang Group has been in Dongda for so many years. After seeing the local competent authorities express such a position, how could they not know where the problem lies? Since the local competent authorities have released goodwill, he can only follow it obediently, so he no longer insists on starting the withdrawal procedure now, but stays and concentrates on solving the various problems currently existing in Sangua Commune."

At this point, Yang Mo's mouth curled up again: "It's just that, as the saying goes, preparation is the key to success, while lack of preparation leads to failure. If some things are inherently deficient, no matter how hard you work, it will be difficult to make up for it. So soon, Huai Shang Group, the main investor of Sangua Commune, encountered a series of embarrassing new troubles."

After a slight pause, Yang Mo glanced at Gao Qingfeng who was listening attentively, and said in a tone that was hard to tell whether it was understated or humorous: "Of course, a large part of these embarrassing troubles encountered were the hidden mines buried by Huai Shang Group itself in the early stage; the other part was caused by some unexpected changes that were quite Chinese..."

(End of this chapter)