My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 637 Elite Troops and Strong Generals are Like Loans

This makes the situation in the Three Kingdoms Kill game much better for Wei Dong.

The two brothers were woken up early in the morning by Mao from the guardhouse to go for a run outside. They ran to the car company on the way, which was only a few hundred meters away from the side gate.

Previously, the factory owners and foreign investors were at odds, and he, as a third party, had to mediate.

Now that Lao Cheng is on the same page with him and is cooperating and coordinating with foreign businesses, the entire joint venture has a different feel to it.

So when the two brothers, carrying magnetic stripe cards, dressed in sportswear and with towels around their necks, ran to the front door, it caused an instant sensation: "Boss Rang is back!"

"Boss Rang is back again! Hey, I never expected that!"

"Hello, sir!"

"Dong-ge, hello... Is there any news? I heard that an auto expo is going to be held, and Factory Director Cheng asked us to discuss it in a meeting."

This must be a college student.

Only by establishing its own management system can it achieve such seamless control.

Wei Dong swiped his card to greet them, and then, in a very down-to-earth manner, he joked, "I'm just a brick in the revolution, I'll move it wherever it's needed, and now I'm moving it back to the automotive industry."

But the focus was on talking to college students about getting jobs in factories.

Everyone else is envious and can't help but urge their own children to go to university, just to see how everyone treats university students differently.

Nonsense. Sometimes it's not that those in positions of power are arrogant, but rather that once the gap in mindset and perspective widens, communication becomes very difficult when people are on different wavelengths.

College students, at least, have no intellectual problems and can discuss matters clearly.

American factories have changing rooms. Mao stayed in the guard room and asked Weidong to go to his metal locker to get his work clothes and change. More than a dozen college students had already surrounded him and were enthusiastically expressing their stories.

This gave Wei Dong a sense of reassurance.

He patted each of them on the shoulder, offering encouragement and a few words of advice, before heading to the office area to meet with Collins and Lao Cheng.

Here, a series of managers warmly greeted them.

Even though the vast majority of them are still the original employees of Pingqi, their spirit and energy have clearly changed.

It's all right now.

Even Collins could speak a few words of Chinese, and he asked Wei Dong with a smile if he wanted coffee.

Wei Dong gestured and recited some words, wondering if he had really become too lazy to practice foreign languages ​​just because Qin Yu Ye and Feng Chu could communicate.

Old Cheng had to bring a translator, and upon meeting him, I couldn't help but give him a big hug.

Wei Dong was delighted and teased, "Not bad, it's starting to have a Western style now."

He rose from a branch factory manager in a third-tier factory to a high-ranking position in just over two years, something he had always thought he would spend his entire life in a remote mountain village.

Now he is the general manager of the largest automobile factory in Pyeongjong, and the joint venture general manager is responsible for dealing with foreigners. His daily interactions are all at the ministerial and departmental levels.

It's impossible not to feel it.

“There are definitely difficulties at work, and there are definitely superiors who resist and oppose me, but that's nothing compared to what we did back in Xishan. As long as you take the lead and know that we are following your banner, we will have to watch us achieve results, even if we have to hold our noses!”

Wei Dong understood: "Yes, that means I need to achieve even greater results so that Pingqi can perform better."

The three sat down at the white coffee table, with the college student translator squeezed behind the two Chinese vice presidents.

Collins cut to the chase: "The production volume is still too small. A production volume of 5,000 vehicles a year is simply a joke."

The contract the Economic Commission previously signed with this region stipulated that the number of vehicles could not exceed 10,000 over five years, as there simply wasn't enough money to import assembly parts.

Wei Dong was initially given two million US dollars directly in exchange for shares and the position of vice president. Now, thanks to the volume of computer exports from Shanghai, he has been allocated a foreign exchange quota of forty to fifty million US dollars.

The goal is to maintain a production capacity of 5,000 vehicles this year, which translates to just over a dozen vehicles per day.

It's a joke when it comes to modern production lines.

This production line, which cost 30 million yuan, was designed to produce 10,000 vehicles, and it has already reached a capacity of 7,000 vehicles.

I'm very free.

Old Cheng knew the difficulty of localization and that it was not a systematic matter that he could handle. So he focused on increasing the production capacity of the 212 and even tried to integrate the 212 production line into the Cherokee production line. This also boosted the business of the old factory workshops.

So it's understandable that Collins felt a bit helpless, but he also lost his previous temper when there was no conflict with the higher-ups.

Wei Dong had to mediate: "The root of the problem is still the localization of parts. From the perspective of your parent company, do you want to make money selling parts from Citibank, or do you want to make money selling cars here?"

Collins spoke easily with Wei Dong: "No matter how much RMB we earn in mainland China, it's useless. What can we do with it? Besides, we're not allowed to buy this or that!"

As the foreign shareholder in the joint venture, the more they sell, the more they receive, but all of it is in RMB. The already strapped banks simply won't convert all their quotas into USD for them.

Moreover, for the domestic market, the parts cost foreign exchange once, and now that you're making money in the mainland, you have to exchange it for foreign exchange again. It's pure exploitation!

They tried every possible way to refuse to exchange it.

If you can't exchange money for internationally circulating US dollars, then it's just worthless paper.

When Citibank invests in and builds factories, they don't care how much money you make or how much profit you generate.

They only need to keep selling parts to their own side, which further compels them to strictly guard against increasing the localization rate here, which is the result of cutting off their own source of income.

Therefore, without resolving this fundamental contradiction, localization will remain just a slogan.

Wei Dong had previously recommended that he organize the sale of goods to Collins' Citibank, where the goods would be sold and converted into US dollars.

Later, it was discovered that the implementation was very troublesome. Citibank had very strict control over imported products, which was almost like having the world supply the best daily necessities to support a comfortable and inexpensive life.

So if you want to follow the same approach as Yu Qili in exchanging airplanes, and try to exchange canned goods and textiles, you'll have to go through a lot of quarantine and inspections. It's very troublesome if there are too many types of goods.

With the computer OEM factory starting to export, they directly transferred the 50 million yuan export quota that the Economic Commission had given to Pingqi to use.

If the Shanghai plant can reach its maximum capacity of 100,000 units per month as required by Apple, it can achieve an annual export value of 2 billion US dollars!
Therefore, transferring 50 million to Cherokee would be no problem at all.

Even 10,000 vehicles a year is not impossible.

But is the purpose of developing the Cherokee to boost production capacity? Or is it to learn technology and force supporting manufacturers to improve their technology to achieve international production standards?

So Wei Dong leaned back in his chair, curious: "What do you want to buy?"

The result wasn't the rare earth or anything like that he had imagined: "Buying land, the board of directors has discussed it repeatedly. Investing in buying land and building factories, we are very sincere in expanding future investments, and this is indeed the confidence you have brought."

He then pointed out the window.

This area was transformed from the original lotus pond within the factory area into a garden. Four or five small villas were built along the perimeter and have already been completed and occupied. Two more low-rise apartment buildings are under construction next to it.

The living conditions of foreign investors improved immediately.

Especially those townhouses, which at least achieve the lifestyle of a modern alleyway, with parking spaces in front and gardens in the back.

It not only reduces the expenses of foreign executives staying in five-star hotels, but also allows them to return to the familiar life of their hometown.

I don't know what I was thinking before that I had to argue like that.

It's rare to find someone who understands the commodity economy and business models to cooperate with, and foreign businesses are also eyeing this huge market.

After listening to a few more words, Wei Dong learned that just last year, Jeep's parent company was acquired by Chrysler, which meant a change in management and the whole company was in turmoil. Chrysler did indeed want to push other models, such as sedans and commercial vehicles, into the market for production and sales.

The land grabbing and factory construction might be related to the construction of these townhouses, and the foreigners have also accurately grasped that there seems to be a loosening of the agreement.

They started to push their luck.

They might actually agree in Shanghai.

Pingjing is absolutely out of the question, making Wei Dong shake his head with a smile: "I haven't been in Pingjing for a year. I've been building houses everywhere. I'm not allowed to talk about buying or selling this land. Building a factory is fine. They've allocated land in the suburbs. If you want to build a factory, we can talk about it, but the localization rate has been on the table from the beginning. Foreign exchange is the most important thing in the mainland right now. It's impossible to earn foreign exchange twice for one car."

Collins frowned and asked, "What's the point of making more RMB by opening more factories?"

Wei Dong laughed and said, "How about this? You have so much RMB in your hands. Ask if there are any other Citibank businessmen who want to invest. We can just exchange it for you. I think the foreign exchange problem will only last for a few years. It will definitely ease up in a few years and won't be so tight anymore."

As a tax authority, we still have to post various data in the newspaper every now and then, every year. Wei Dong vaguely remembered that in thirty or forty years, import and export would be at the level of tens of trillions, and there would definitely be a trade surplus with more exports.

It's currently worth 30 billion US dollars annually, which is the most difficult phase; things should be better now.

Collins felt he had made new progress; he could open a new factory and invite other Citibank manufacturers to invest and exchange their investments for RMB. He happily made a phone call to report this.

Old Cheng finally put Wei Dong at ease: "With you here, it's like many impossible difficulties are easily solved. I can just focus on my work. There's a big difference between Beijing and the countryside. Sometimes I miss how simple things were back then."

Wei Dong understood: "We can't go back. I can't go back to selling cured meat, and you can't go back to the mountains to grind lenses. Look ahead. If you can lead Pingqi to increase the domestic production rate, Pingjing team will definitely care about this face and will naturally let you improve further."

Old Cheng was surprised: "Do I still need to mention it? I'm enough managing this factory now, with over ten thousand people. Look, my hair is getting grayer!"

Third-tier factories typically have around a thousand employees; factories with two or three thousand are considered large factories.

Wei Dong encouraged his cronies to push forward with all their might: "What's a few factories? The purpose of building factories is to promote the domestic automobile industry. Some people only focus on a few factories. They need to broaden their horizons and think about how to improve domestic cars. Since you're in this position, you should first become an automobile production expert. Then you can manage all the automobile factories in the country. It's not impossible."

Old Cheng's gray hair stood on end.

Wei Dong also started using pressure to motivate people: "You say that we can't make those car bodies, bearings, cylinders, and shock absorbers domestically? Is it because the quality isn't up to par, or because we lack the technical expertise for all the parts? I think a significant portion of it isn't that we can't do it, it's just that we lack the patience and high standards. If we find good talent, we should send them out to set up their own workshops, factories, or private factories to supply parts. Do you think that motivating someone to become a parts boss will inspire them to have the patience to make good products? This auto expo will drastically reduce the number of cars and significantly increase the number of auto parts. There are still more than two months left. I hope you can send out a lot of people to seize these opportunities, especially the college students I gave you. If we don't have enough, we should recruit more. There are so many universities in Beijing!"

When a lord assigns troops to a strong general, it's like a casino lending money at exorbitant interest rates—they take a cut and the interest keeps compounding!
Old Cheng, who had trained Wei Dong's production workshop team at the Xishan factory, thought for a moment and nodded emphatically.

(End of this chapter)