Rebirth in 1960, My Industrial Age

Chapter 401 Seeking Advice and Jointly Establishing a Factory

Ding dong.

"Who?"

When Director Ding's wife heard the doorbell ring, she put down what she was doing on the chopping board, came out to open the door, and saw a young man standing outside. She asked in surprise, "Young man, who are you?"

"Hello, I am Zhou Xianyang from Feiyang Electric Appliance Factory. I came to apologize to Director Ding because of some issues that involved him. Is Director Ding in?"

Zhou Xianyang said with a smile that his appearance and temperament easily make people feel good; back in college, he took a few students to government agencies to discuss projects and make money, and he relied on his eloquence.

Moreover, since Director Ding is at the same level as his uncle Bai Kang and has been implicated, it's only right that they try to ease the tension.

“It involves my husband, Lao Ding. Young comrade, please come in first.”

Director Ding's wife felt that Zhou Xianyang didn't seem like a bad person, and since he was carrying a lot of things, it wouldn't be good for him to wait at the door, so she stepped aside to let Zhou Xianyang into the house.

This was the only thing Zhou Fengnian praised about Zhou Xianyang: he was eloquent, knew how to handle situations, and was very approachable, making it easy for people to lower their guard.

After entering the house, Director Ding's wife quickly called him out of the room.

When Director Ding came out, he was taken aback when he saw Zhou Xianyang, and then asked, "Young comrade, who are you? What brings you here?"

"Director Ding, I apologize for causing you trouble with some family matters the other day. My father mentioned it before, and I feel quite bad about it today, so I came to pay a visit..."

As Zhou Xianyang spoke with a smile, he placed the items in his hand in the living room; most of them were not expensive, but they were hard to buy, and the most precious item was the 50% off card from the department store.

These are shopping cards from Zhou Xianyang's two shopping malls. Using this card, he can basically buy things at a price lower than the cost price.

His department store had just opened and was already extremely popular, surpassing Tianqiao Department Store and spurring the development of the surrounding area of ​​Nanluoguxiang.

This is also why Zhou Fengnian told Zhou Xianyang not to worry about his mother anymore. He had accumulated enough merit over the years, and was just waiting for the higher-ups to give Zhou Yan an empty position.

"Comrade Zhou, could it be that your father is Vice President Zhou?"

Director Ding asked suspiciously. Lately, the project had been the only thing that had been bothering him, and the fact that the young man in front of him was surnamed Zhou immediately reminded him of Zhou Fengnian.

"Yes, Zhou Fengnian is my father. We've had several arguments for some other reasons. I'm sorry, Director Ding."

Zhou Xianyang continued to use this excuse, which was quite appropriate and useful. It wouldn't be their responsibility if outsiders knew; after all, You Lijun from your department was the one who caused trouble at home first.

Director Ding waved his hand and said, "It's alright, it's alright. Vice Dean Zhou was just fulfilling his responsibilities. Besides, the problem has been resolved now. Comrade Xianyang, it's a bit much that you brought all this stuff."

"It's nothing valuable, just a few things I picked out from my newly opened department store. Auntie, please come and browse around more often and give us some pointers."

As Zhou Xianyang spoke, he smiled and took out a document, continuing, "Actually, there's another matter I'd like to ask Director Ding about."

"Oh? What's the matter?"

"Here's the thing, I plan to open a telecommunications equipment factory, specifically a factory that manufactures mobile phones. However, we can't buy them domestically, so I can only try to find some foreign telecommunications equipment companies with decent technology to form joint ventures with."

Upon hearing Zhou Xianyang's intention, Director Ding became slightly more serious; since this was his responsibility, he readily accepted the information Zhou Xianyang had collected.

There are only a handful of companies that manufacture communication equipment, and not many overseas either, so the investigation is quick.

Director Ding said as he looked around, "This one doesn't seem like a good fit. We don't have any dealings with their country. If you choose this one, you'll waste too much time and energy."
This is alright, just so-so. Hmm, and Motorola? That's pretty good. They previously expressed interest in a joint venture, but it was rejected by the Fourth Ministry of Machinery Industry.

Director Ding looked up at Zhou Xianyang and said with a smile, "If I remember correctly, it was when Vice President Zhou was still there that he refused. Comrade Xianyang, you choose this one."

Zhou Xianyang continued, "They shouldn't have asked any questions. As long as Motorola isn't too greedy and only wants to jointly produce communication equipment, the Fourth Ministry of Machinery Industry should be able to agree."

Director Ding nodded and said, "Yes, these people were thinking quite boldly before; they practically wanted to take a bite out of the wireless communications factory. But if you lower your demands, can you persuade them?"

"I want to give it a try. If that doesn't work, then we'll have to settle for second best. This company's telecommunications equipment manufacturing level is probably the highest besides ours. If that doesn't work, we'll have to choose someone else."

Before digital mobile phones were invented, the "Big Brother" mobile phone was the most fashionable communication device in the world.

Even after the advent of digital mobile phones, the old-fashioned brick phone still occupies a large market share, and Motorola seems to be developing new technologies as well; however, while they are developing their own, they are also exploring digital mobile phones in China, hoping to form a joint venture to seek the technology.

However, their appetites were too great; they wanted to devour everything at once, which was naturally rejected by the Fourth Ministry of Machine Building.

What's the difference between him and that bastard who wanted to swallow up the Shenzhou Computer Factory back then?
"Since you've made up your mind, I'll help you make the contact and try to get them to send someone responsible over within a week."

After thinking about it for a while, Director Ding decided to sell it to Zhou Xianyang as a favor and to help him with this matter.

Although the incident last time made him very uncomfortable, Director Ding was a hundred times unwilling to make an enemy of Zhou Fengnian; moreover, he was implicated by You Lijun and was completely innocent.

Zhou Xianyang's apology this time was sincere, so there's nothing wrong with him showing some goodwill.

Zhou Xianyang smiled and thanked him, "Thank you so much, Director Ding. I will prepare a joint venture proposal as soon as I get back and try my best to negotiate this."

Director Ding waved his hand: "It's nothing. If you can close the deal, it'll be my credit."

After exchanging pleasantries with Director Ding for a while, Zhou Xianyang left at the invitation of Director Ding's wife to stay for dinner; it would be too impolite to stay for dinner on a first visit.

After everyone left, Director Ding's wife finally looked at the gift Zhou Xianyang had brought. She was astonished after seeing it and immediately said to her husband...
"Old Ding, that young comrade brought quite a few things. Just looking at the packaging, they must be expensive. And should we accept the card?"

Although Director Ding's wife was just a staff member and didn't have much ambition, she still knew about the 50% off card.

If she went to that department store and only paid half price, anyone else could probably make a lot of money with that card.
"Just accept it if it's delivered, it's no problem, I'm helping him out anyway."

Director Ding waved his hand, secretly nodding to himself. Vice President Zhou's son really knew how to handle things. He was genuinely humble, and he didn't show much of the arrogance typical of a second-generation rich kid.

In that case, it's okay to help out within the scope of my responsibilities.

------

After joining the GATT, China's economy seemed to have gained several more engines, and many foreigners came to this land to look for business opportunities.

Domestic reforms are ongoing, and numerous policies have been implemented to facilitate trade between China and the outside world in order to adapt to GATT (Customs and Trade in Services). Foreign capital and technology are also flowing into China steadily, but most of these foreigners don't seem to have any intention of doing business properly.

Their idea is to 'eat up' rather than to cooperate and achieve a win-win situation.

Therefore, cooperating with foreigners requires a battle of wits and courage. One wrong move and you could fall into their trap. You can't back out then, because you have to honor the contract, or you'll lose credibility.

Zhou Fengnian doesn't handle this kind of matter. Besides his official duties, he's currently in charge of several major national projects.

After returning to Beijing, he would occasionally visit his nephew's company to push forward the research and development of a special drug for diabetes. However, it was a bit slow for private pharmaceutical companies to apply for supercomputers, and Zhou Fengnian did not use any special privileges. It might not be until next year that it could enter the next stage of clinical trials.

If Zhou Fengnian were to use his power to act arbitrarily, cutting in line would be an easy thing to do. However, he also serves as the head of the biomedical research and development group in the high-tech development plan.

He was handling official business while simultaneously abusing his power for personal gain, and both were within the same field; even if Zhou Fengnian said he hadn't neglected his duties, some people probably wouldn't believe him.

So the pharmaceutical company that my nephew is nominally affiliated with is being studied gradually.

On the other hand, Zhou Xianyang's negotiations went very smoothly. After inviting Motorola's senior executives through the Ministry of Foreign Trade, he went to the wireless communications factory to poach people while negotiating.

The government agency did not say that resignation was not allowed, and Zhou Xianyang was also sensible, not poaching many people, all of whom were responsible for digital mobile phone related technologies.

The Fourth Ministry of Machine Building did not explicitly prohibit only wireless communication factories from manufacturing digital mobile phones. In addition, after Pan Heng submitted a report allowing foreign investment to participate and exchanging the mobile phone market for the communications business market, the Fourth Ministry of Machine Building soon agreed to this.

This was also a key factor in bringing about the joint venture; without this policy and digital phone technology, Motorola wouldn't have agreed so easily.

Finally, Zhou Xianyang was also very shrewd and brought in the wireless communication factory as well, so the new joint venture could be considered to have a state background.

It wasn't exactly that he pulled them in; rather, he sensed that the Fourth Ministry of Machine Building wanted to get involved, so he took the initiative to bring it up.

The final negotiation resulted in Zhou Xianyang holding 45% of the shares, Motorola holding 38%, and the wireless communication factory holding 17%.

Zhou Xianyang invested 20 million RMB, Motorola provided 15 million RMB and corresponding equipment and production lines, and the wireless communication factory provided some technical assistance.

The location has not yet been announced, but it has been confirmed to be a city in Dongshan Province. The announcement will be made when Bai Yuhao takes office next month.

Motorola appears to have contributed the lion's share, including a significant amount of money and equipment, but its actual shareholding is relatively small, barely exceeding one-third.

However, he obtained a technology license, meaning that in addition to the joint venture factory in China, their parent company could also produce digital mobile phones.

They were also discussing telecommunications business, which was related to whether China's telecommunications business could enter Aramco. That's why Pan Heng rushed back from the Guangdong Special Economic Zone to negotiate properly.

China was the first to benefit from digital communications, and they made a fortune from it. Three Southeast Asian countries, small East Asian countries, and two European countries are now using Chinese digital mobile phones and communication technology.

Although some telecommunications companies in the US are anxious, their anxiety cannot change reality. If they cannot develop the technology, they still cannot develop it. It will take at least two or three years for them to close the technological gap with China in this area.

However, if they don't impose policy sanctions in two or three years, even their domestic telecommunications business may be lost.

Therefore, after learning about the technology licensing opportunity, Motorola quickly came to China to negotiate with Zhou Xianyang.

The Fourth Ministry of Machinery Industry now realizes the importance of communications services. If mobile phone technology cannot be permanently monopolized, then it should develop communications services as soon as possible.

After Zhou Xianyang secured this joint venture factory, his future revenue is basically stable; moreover, it will replace his Feiyang Electric Factory and become his main source of income next year or the year after.

Zhou Xianyang controls the daily operations of the factory and the enterprise. However, Motorola also sends people to supervise them. They tried to fight for it, but they couldn't win in any aspect on Chinese territory, so they had to give up and asked for financial supervision and other powers instead.

A large portion of the mobile phones produced by this joint venture factory will be sold to Amer, and Zhou Xianyang also plans to innovate and try to make them different from those produced by the wireless communication factory.

Copying directly would only get him scraps; he planned to have the new factory deepen its research and development on the existing technology to produce more powerful phones.

However, this will probably take some time. Fortunately, Zhou Xianyang persuaded Motorola, and the latter also supported the decision. Research and development will begin once the new factory is built.

Zhou Xianyang's main sources of income are the two electrical appliance factories, followed by dividends from the energy storage battery factory. The dividends from the cinema he co-owns with Ren Zheng are too small to be worth his attention.

The two department stores can earn tens of millions, but they are not as good as the electronics factory.

Next year, Zhou Xianyang will have an additional 20 million yuan investment in a comprehensive electrical appliance manufacturing plant and a mobile phone factory. His income will definitely increase next year, and the income the year after next may triple.

These days, being able to do export trade, especially exclusive export trade, is incredibly lucrative. He holds the patent for MP3 music players, and nobody can take it away from him.

He's been so busy lately that he's barely home. His two children are either with his parents or being cared for by Zhou Yan.

Sometimes when Zhou Fengnian comes home late, he sees his grandchildren sleeping in the room and has to be careful not to make any noise, otherwise his wife will have to get up and soothe the two children for a long time.

Even so, when Zhou Xianyang took a break from his busy schedule to visit Bai Qing'an, he also got his wife pregnant, so Zhou Fengnian will have a third grandson or granddaughter next year.

A day off.

Today, Zhou Fengnian, unusually, did not work overtime but rested at home.

However, Zhou Yan gave him a difficult task, which made Zhou Fengnian frown when he was at home.

After looking at the test paper in front of him for a while, Zhou Fengnian sighed and waved to his youngest daughter, saying, "Linlin, come here, redo the test paper and let me see it."

"Oh? Dad, that's taking up too much time."

Zhou Linlin said reluctantly, "Didn't you say you'd take me to the movies today?"

"You can watch the movie this afternoon, but you need to finish your test first."

Zhou Fengnian sighed and said, "If this continues, it will be a problem for you to even go to high school, my daughter."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhou Fengnian heard Zhou Xianyang calling him from outside.

"Dad, are you in the study? I need to talk to you about something."

After saying that, Zhou Xianyang pushed open the door and came in, carrying freshly brewed tea.

Zhou Linlin was overjoyed. She used to hate it when her older brother teased her, but today Zhou Xianyang was like her savior. She didn't have to do the test!
(End of this chapter)