In 1978, I was admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 271 Hafei Hongguang is a success; Xie Wei is even more ruthless than a capitalist!
"Section Chief Chen, you know I'm very busy..."

Xie Wei looked at Chen Rongjie with a helpless expression.

When this guy first invited Xie Wei to visit Factory 122, Xie Wei was busy speeding up the control program for the 2000-line program-controlled exchange and casually declined. Little did he know that Chen Rongjie, the head of the external relations department, not only did not give up, but also stuck with Xie Wei.

It seemed as if he wouldn't leave unless Xie Wei went to Factory 122.

"Xie Wei, I know you're busy. It will only take up half a day of your time. The car is waiting outside."

Chen Rongjie smiled ingratiatingly.

This is the fourth time they've invited Xie Wei to Factory 122; there might be a fifth or sixth time.

Section Chief Chen believed that his sincerity was far greater than that of Liu Bei's three visits to Zhuge Liang's thatched cottage.

"Give me a hint, what exactly is going on?"

Xie Wei knew that a direct refusal wouldn't work; Chen Rongjie and Li Rui were cut from the same cloth, although their shameless tactics were nowhere near as effective as Principal Li's.

"You previously proposed using the factory's technical foundation and equipment to manufacture a van that is in high demand in the market and can carry both people and goods. The factory has already manufactured a prototype, and the factory leaders specifically asked me to invite you over to give some feedback."

"Stop it!"

Xie Wei simply didn't believe it.

Chen Rongjie had previously explained his reasons, saying that he asked Xie Wei to offer his opinions.

If Xie Wei didn't have a sense of measurement, he would really think his opinion was very important.

"real……"

"If you don't give us a hint, we'll just keep dragging this out!"

Seeing that Chen Rongjie was using the same old excuse, Xie Wei interrupted him directly.

Seeing Xie Wei's unyielding expression, Chen Rongjie hesitated for several seconds under Xie Wei's firm gaze. Thinking that Xie Wei would find out if he went to the factory, he simply said, "The prototype has been successfully manufactured and meets the requirements, but the factory doesn't have the money to invest in production."

Want money?

Xie Wei began to quickly calculate in his mind.

They were afraid that Factory 122 would find out about the school selling weapons and technology.

Factory 122 was also a military factory, producing helicopters and bombers, and it belonged to the Third Ministry of Machinery Industry.

Was this something done by the Third Ministry of Machinery Industry or Factory 122?

Once this door is opened, other institutions will likely try to get a share of the funding from Harbin Institute of Technology through various means.

Don’t worry about scarcity but inequality.

While everyone else is short of funding and the country can't provide much research funding, Harbin Institute of Technology has more than 4 million yuan in funds that it can freely dispose of.

This is like a fat cow falling into the hands of a pride of hungry lions whose eyes are practically glowing green.

"The product is already developed, but the market prospects aren't great. Even if the Ministry of Machinery Industry doesn't provide funding, there shouldn't be any problem getting a loan, right?"

Xie Wei pondered for a moment, guessing that Chen Rongjie had been pushed to his side by Liu Debao and Zhang Mingqiu, and he was unsure whether it was the Third Ministry of Machine Building or Factory 122 that had designs on the school's funds.

"Don't even mention it! You know what the situation is like at the Third Ministry of Machine Building... We have talked to the banks about loans, but they're not optimistic about it..."

Chen Rongjie glanced awkwardly at Xie Wei, whose probing was almost entirely undisguised.

"I really don't have time today... How about this, I'll see if I can find some time tomorrow afternoon."

After receiving Xie Wei's reply, Chen Rongjie did not linger any longer.

The factory had no choice.

Several banks in Harbin not only need to provide loans for the technological upgrades of key factories in Harbin, but also for the construction of Harbin... The Harbin Municipal Government guaranteed a loan of 7000 million yuan for the telephone network system of the post and telecommunications bureau's program-controlled exchange, and the Harbin Institute of Technology and its affiliated enterprises received more than 2000 million yuan in loans. These were not originally in the banks' budgets.

As a result, major banks in Harbin have become more stringent in their loan approval processes.

Even a greeting from a superior is not allowed.

As for the Third Ministry of Machinery Industry, the J-7 needs to be improved, and the J-8II is also under development. The supporting radar, air-to-air missiles, etc. also require a lot of funding. Even the Y-10 has stopped receiving funding.

Where would the money come from to support Factory 122's investment in automobile production?

"How about it?"

Upon seeing Chen Rongjie return, Huo Guoqiang hurriedly asked.

Upon hearing the news of Chen Rongjie's return, Lin Tao and Liu Jianyun also rushed over, demonstrating how much they valued the matter.

"Xie Wei agreed to come, but it might be a bit risky to get investment from the school-enterprise office. Xie Wei is very cautious about this matter."

Chen Rongjie took a sip of water before speaking slowly under the watchful eyes of the three senior leaders.

"What happened? Tell me in detail."

Huo Guoqiang was startled; Xie Wei was on high alert?
······
After finishing his work, Xie Wei made a special trip to the Department of Vehicle Engineering to see Professor Qiao Geli to learn more about the situation.

"...There are no problems with putting it into production, but there are still many tests to be done, and there are quite a few areas that need improvement..."

Professor Qiao explained to Xie Wei the details of how they, together with the engineering designers drawn from Factory 122, jointly designed and manufactured the prototype vehicle.

The Department of Vehicle Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology originally focused on the research of special vehicles used in aerospace. Developing a small van would be almost effortless, especially since most of the spare parts are readily available in China, so it wouldn't be a problem.

They produced a design proposal in less than three months.

It took just over a month to build the prototype, and then we kept conducting various tests.

"Extreme testing under extreme conditions hasn't been done yet... On city roads, the van can reach speeds of over 60 kilometers per hour even with a maximum load of two tons... As for passenger capacity, the standard is a capacity of nine people including the driver. The factory has also tested it; if you cram in as many people as you can, it can carry 17..."

"..."

Upon hearing the metrics mentioned by Kyogori, Xie Wei realized that raising this question in the first place was a serious mistake.

In those days, before the Road Traffic Safety Law was enacted, the state had virtually no legal basis for managing transportation, and it was common for trucks to carry passengers and buses to carry goods.

In any case, the entire transportation industry operates on the principle of loading as much as possible.

Because Xie Wei knew this, he insisted that the vehicle must have a maximum load capacity of two tons; he couldn't say anything about carrying people.

In his day, it was not uncommon to hear news of drivers carrying more than 30 people in a 7-seater van.

All he can do is, under his influence, try his best to make the cars produced have stronger safety performance.

"Xie Wei, although some tests haven't been done, our Hongguang 1.0 design is fully ready for market. Only by passing market testing and obtaining more data can we further improve it... Civilian vehicles are different from special military vehicles..."

Professor Qiao didn't care about the fate of this small van, but the development of the automotive industry could provide students with more opportunities to gain experience.

Factory 122 currently lacks the funds to invest in production.

"According to the previous agreement, if it's just technology-based equity, the school can only hold 8% of the shares. If the school-enterprise cooperation office can invest some money in production, the shareholding ratio will increase significantly..."

Professor Khogorli hopes that the Department of Vehicle Engineering will have a greater say in future collaborations with Factory 122. "Okay, Professor, I will make that suggestion to the university."

She Wei did not reply to Professor Jogori.

Financial support is definitely needed.

Xie Wei has different opinions on whether to directly invest and take shares or other methods.

He doesn't want the university-enterprise cooperation office to become a behemoth involved in countless industries, which would definitely not be a good thing for the currently poorly managed office.

There are no major problems now that the domestic market is almost untapped and all industries can develop wildly. However, once market competition becomes fierce, the school-enterprise cooperation offices that cannot keep up with management will be the first to run into problems.

This is also the root cause of why many factories that were very popular in the early 1980s disappeared from the market in the 1990s.

After saying goodbye to Professor Kyogoli, they went to find Zhang Mingqiu and Liu Debao.

Principal Li is still serving as principal, but the power of the school is held by two people.

Zhang Mingqiu is in charge of the overall work of the school, while Secretary Liu is more responsible for military technology research and development projects.

"Factory 122 approached the university many times, hoping that the university could provide some funding. However, this money was intended for the university's research and development projects, and it cannot even be used for the university's expansion!"

Liu Debao assumed Xie Wei was supporting funding for automobile production at Factory 122, and immediately became unhappy.

Zhang Mingqiu frowned and looked at Xie Wei, "You specifically emphasized before that these funds should be used for their designated purpose and not misappropriated."

"It's not misappropriation! The funds already in place have exceeded 2 million, right?"

The $8000 million allocated to Pakistan is earmarked for specific purposes. At the current exchange rate of 1.5:1, this amounts to 1.2 million RMB in dedicated funding. In addition, some of the money from selling rocket launchers and technology should have already been received. The school's funds should be far more than 2 million RMB.

"It has now reached 2.8 million."

The money was earned by Xie Wei, and Zhang Mingqiu did not hide it from Xie Wei just because he was still a student.

"If this money is simply placed in a bank, although the deposit interest rate is much higher than the rate offered by the government because of the large amount of money involved, it is still far less than the return on investment."

Xie Wei spoke up.

今年4月1日起，银行为了加大存款吸收力度，缓解资金不足的局面，调整了存款利率，从原本一年期的3.96%提升到5.4%；三年期从4.5%提升到6.12%；五年期更是从5.04%提升到6.84%。

For large deposits, you can directly negotiate interest rates with the bank; the interest rate for a five-year deposit can even be negotiated to be over 10%.

With the school's current huge sum of money, the interest alone would amount to 2800 million yuan annually.

This is almost more than the school's annual funding.

Now that they have money, no one wants to go back to the miserable life of not knowing where their next meal would come from. Zhang Mingqiu and Liu Debao are even less willing to throw a tantrum and act like Principal Li to ask for funding.

They don't have that ability either.

"Investing? That's risky! Bank deposits not only offer higher interest rates, but they're also safe!"

In their view, depositing money in a bank is the safest option.

"Where does the money for bank lending come from? Without sufficient deposits, they can't issue loans... Currently, all the major banks in Harbin have tightened their lending policies, and even if you're willing to pay 20% interest, you might not be able to get a loan! Why is that?"

How could the two of them know why?
They're not involved in economic research.

Xie Wei explained to the two of them that even depositing money in a bank could lead to problems, especially since the school had negotiated a higher interest rate with the bank. In order to maximize profits, the bank would definitely allocate the money to units willing to pay higher interest rates.

"You mean, if the borrower defaults, we won't get the interest back, and we won't even get the principal back?"

Zhang Mingqiu felt that Xie Wei was exaggerating.

I've never even heard of it.

However, Liu Debao's face showed a thoughtful expression.

Yes. That's possible!

Even decades later, with improved laws, there are still many cases of deposits not being redeemed, let alone in the 1980s.

"It's impossible for a bank to use other users' deposits to cash out its own deposits when it can't recover loans made with our deposits, thus turning the unrecoverable loans into non-performing loans or bad debts..."

"Investing yourself carries greater risks."

Liu Debao understood Xie Wei's meaning.

"That depends on the investment team's grasp of the market... We can use the No. 122 factory's automobile project as a pilot project to accumulate experience."

"did you mean?"

Liu Debao was somewhat confused.

It's not like we're asking the bank to separately allocate the school's deposits to Factory 122, nor are we giving them money to take a stake. How can we cooperate?

“We’ll set up a dedicated management team to manage this special fund. Factory 122 is short of funds, isn’t it? We’ll lend part of it to Factory 122 directly, like a venture capital investment, with at least 24% interest on this part of the loan… In addition, we’ll use part of the funds to acquire a portion of the equity. Once Factory 122’s automotive industry develops, they can either buy back this equity themselves or sell it to other interested companies to recoup their investment…”

Xie Wei directly presented a portfolio investment strategy from the perspective of venture capital.

Since the purpose was to raise funds for the school, he did not intend for the school-enterprise office to be involved in the automotive industry for a long time, even though he knew that the profits of the domestic automotive industry would grow rapidly in the next 30 years.

This is the best time to cultivate an investment team.

Since the beginning of the reform and opening up, the backwardness of enterprise technology and the severe shortage of funds have been difficulties facing the entire country. At the same time, the reform and opening up has also brought various Western investment concepts and tools into the country.

Xie Wei, who was deeply involved in five rounds of investment negotiations during the entrepreneurial process, is very familiar with this investment method that has penetrated into various fields decades later. However, at this time, there are not many pioneers in China who dare to try it.

It wasn't until 85 that the Central Committee issued the "Decision on the Reform of the Science and Technology System," which explicitly allowed investment in high-tech enterprises with higher risks to be supported through venture capital, thus ushering in the era of venture capital in China.

In the same year, the Ministry of Finance and the State Science and Technology Commission jointly established China's first venture capital company—China New Technology Venture Capital Corporation—to specialize in investing in high-tech enterprises. Other regions began to follow suit, and capital gradually emerged…

"Wouldn't this violate national policy? Not only is there no precedent, but there's also no clear policy support from above."

After listening to Xie Wei's explanation, Liu Debao felt that this would reduce the risk to a lower level while maximizing the returns.

The problem is that no one has done this before, so does it violate policy?

"How could this violate policy?"

Xie Wei countered with a question.

There are no policies at all, so there's no chance to violate them.

After hearing this, the two looked at each other and smiled bitterly.

"The school has policies from higher authorities, allowing for independent project initiation, self-financing, independent operation, and independent accounting... At the same time, various departments at higher levels require enterprises to take initiative and solve problems proactively! Although the conditions are a bit harsh, the school also participated in the design and subsequent research and development... We obtained subsequent research and development funding, and Factory 122 obtained production funds, which is definitely a win-win situation!"

Would Factory 122 agree to this?

"We cannot agree!"

Before Xie Wei could finish his introduction, Huo Guoqiang slammed his fist on the table and stood up, angrily interrupting Xie Wei, "You're even more ruthless than a capitalist!"

(End of this chapter)