My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 114 How could I do this?
It turned out to be an economic reform meeting of several relevant departments in the city.

Although I wasn't sitting in a large auditorium with thousands of people on several floors, the side conference hall was also quite nice.

I walked up, stated my name and unit, and immediately signed in to attend the meeting.

But Rang Weidong, dressed in a beige suit, and his secretary, dressed in a dark blue suit and skirt, were definitely the most eye-catching among them.

Damn, Rang Weidong, who just came back from Yuezhou and Shanghai, really felt that he had to wear formal clothes to talk to people subconsciously. This outfit is the best for him.

Unlike in Shangzhou, where the old revolutionary style of wearing military coats over shoulders is popular, he would of course also casually wear sportswear and old military uniforms.

May is already summer in Jiangzhou, and the temperature of over 20 degrees is definitely not uncomfortable. Except for a few old cadres who still wear sweater vests over their shirts, almost everyone wears Zhongshan suits and white shirts.

Therefore, even though Weidong was just one of the "masses" in the audience, he definitely stood out from the crowd.

He actually looks a bit like a foreign businessman.

It made many people look sideways.

The content of the meeting was mainly about the foreign trade department taking the lead in summarizing the gains and losses of the Guangdong Trade Fair.

Weidong was also a bit eye-opening. Forty years ago, it was not complicated to hold such a meeting in a city with a population of one million.

All domestic sales are a matter of unified purchase and sale, which is considered as the job of safeguarding the people's living needs. Only takeout is the main purpose of making money.

At this moment, domestic demand is not considered a core economic task at all. Even the meaning of reform and opening up is to produce as much as possible for export.

They are all so poor.

Therefore, foreign trade departments are distributed all over the country and control all channels for takeout.

It is now a very important and powerful economic department.

At the Guangdong Trade Fair, a large-scale exhibition that showcases domestic products to foreign businessmen, all regions must go through foreign trade before they can exhibit and sell their products.

Therefore, even the Commercial Bureau responsible for the purchase and sale of domestic products, the Industrial Bureau responsible for basic industries such as steel and oil, and the Light Industry Bureau responsible for textiles, daily chemicals, and daily necessities, had to listen to the Foreign Trade Bureau on this matter.

Even though he had been in the tax compound for forty years, this was definitely the first time for Weidong to listen to a meeting speech seriously.

Besides, the old security guard with a broken hand will definitely not listen carefully to these economic conditions and foreign trade data, which have nothing to do with my monthly salary of 3,000 yuan.

Now I understand immediately: "At this Guangdong Fair, Jiangzhou City achieved a total foreign trade export volume of 1200 million US dollars, a 37% increase over last year, and an import volume of US dollars. This is also the first time we have included import data at the Guangdong Fair. All this is due to our first independent exhibition after the establishment of the separately planned city..."

Oh, before, we had to follow the province as our subordinates, and foreign trade work had to be subject to unified planning and arrangements by the province and the ministry. Now the planned cities can do it on their own.

Although there is still a lot less freedom than the foreign trade business in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, which is decentralized to foreign-funded enterprises and some self-operated enterprises, it is already much more relaxed.

Not to mention Shangzhou, even Chengdu can't compare.

When Wei Dong heard this, he had already made up his mind to set up this sanitary napkin company in Jiangzhou.

I also heard that among Jiangzhou City's over 70 million US dollars in exports, agricultural and sideline products such as pig bristles and sausage casings are still the main source of foreign exchange earnings. And then there's the -type motorcycle, which just hit the market this year and has successfully entered the Southeast Asian market, with orders for units...

The whole audience applauded.

That’s right, the order for 200 motorcycles is something that Jiangzhou City is very happy about right now, but it is still far less than the sales of pig bristles and sausage casings that have been sold for more than half a century.

The situation is now so backward that it is almost zero.

All previous imports were arranged and adjusted uniformly by relevant departments. It was almost impossible to see any company importing things on its own at the Guangdong Trade Fair, and there was no foreign exchange to buy. Before last year, there was no such import right. Who would dare to spend precious foreign exchange to buy things casually?

Yes, the $30,000 is for Weidong to spend!
Because he took a ride with the Jiangzhou exhibition group to bring the equipment back, the order was then credited to Jiangzhou.

The foreign trade official reading the script, who was dazzled by the people around him, added, "Has the comrade from Dongsheng Leather Shoe Company arrived? Please tell us about this imported equipment and where did you get the foreign exchange quota?"

It's not a question, but I'm mainly wondering why there is no such $30,000 quota in the entire city.

At this time, when leaders at the ministerial level or above come on state visits, they are only given twenty dollars each.

Just like the old leaders of Shangzhou City, who would talk to Rang Weidong while sitting by the fire and wearing a military coat, now even the meetings in the planned cities are very casual, and there is no strict order even for teacups that have to be arranged in a line.

Some people immediately looked around and signaled Weidong to speak.

He is the talent?
"Oh, I was originally discussing importing toilet paper production equipment with this ink company, but it was too expensive. Their main idea was to invest and build a factory in the mainland and set up a joint venture, but our province is too far away, and they only want to cooperate with coastal areas. So I had to settle for another machine from them. It's a second-hand machine that was sent in for demonstration at an exhibition, so there's no need for foreign exchange. I guess they already have an office in Yuezhou and need cash."

There were sighs everywhere in the audience. The joint venture could be said to be the most hoped-for thing at the moment.

Because of its backwardness, the mainland can only provide manpower and land. Foreign capital invests money and technology. In recent years, the only foreign joint ventures Jiangzhou has been able to attract are two motorcycle companies from Japan.

They have indeed tasted the sweetness. Relying on Jiangzhou's local military industry foundation, they can immediately gain an advantage in the domestic market with their low prices and high quality, and can also export.

So someone immediately asked: "Toilet paper production equipment? What's the matter? Can't paper mills produce it? How much does it cost?"

Rang Weidong explained, "At the time, he quoted a price of $600,000 to $700,000, and it would definitely require foreign exchange. I thought, 'Let's buy a small machine and figure out the steps. Maybe we can start production, and then the hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign exchange can be used to buy more important things.'"

If I didn't have the confidence to earn 30,000 to 40,000 yuan a week, I wouldn't be able to say such things.

If the $30,000 purchase went wrong, Weidong wouldn't be too upset. But to everyone present, it sounded like a fairy tale. Maybe it could work?

Do you dare to spend $30,000 without rigorous proof?

For everyone present, 70,000 yuan is an absolute huge sum of money.

Even if it is put into the public account, it is a huge number that is not easy to circumvent.

You just spend it so lightly?
What’s more important is that this young man chose a very cunning and unique path. He didn’t want to be suckered into buying things worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, but only chose a partially cheap one to develop.

It will result in much less losses than the imported production lines that are often deceived nowadays, and it will have a higher chance of success than the pure self-reliance emphasized before.

Anyway, someone immediately applauded: "That's a good idea. We can give it a try. Are there any signs of progress now?"

The representative from the Commerce Bureau replied: "I tried the equipment yesterday and it can produce products right away. They are very soft!"

In Jiangzhou, where there isn't even a single foreign-related hotel, no one has ever seen toilet paper rolls.

Wei Dong almost burst out laughing, but he tried hard to hold back his serious introduction: "Yes, my idea was that I saw their paper towels and thought they were good. Some high-end hotels in Yuezhou already have them. The toilet experience is very good. You can tear off a section of the cylindrical ones and use them. It's very convenient..."

At this time, someone finally realized: "Oh! I've seen it in the movies. Yes, yes, that's right. Some people even go to the toilet to steal that thing."

Amidst the chatter, Weidong expanded on the topic, "They also have a product that comes in packets. You can pull it out and use it to wipe your face when you cry, wipe your mouth when you eat, or wash your hands. It's highly absorbent and you can just throw it away after wiping, ensuring it's always clean and tidy. It's said to be widely used abroad and a staple in hygienic lifestyles."

Some people began to find it hard to accept. Why would someone who wipes his butt also wipe his mouth?
Really, nowadays in mainland China, if you have the conditions to use toilet paper when going to the toilet, it is the kind of wrinkled paper that is a bit rough, and the experience of wiping your mouth is not very good.

Therefore, you will never see toilet paper on the dining table. Banquets where conditions permit will use hot towels, while ordinary families use sleeves. Parents often beat their children because of this.

The main thing is that I just feel a little awkward.

The third brother has his left and right hands.

Amidst the various opinions, some people still said that production was possible and that paper mills could participate in the reform.

Everyone is asking if anyone has come to the paper mill.

Weidong quickly reversed course: "But sorry, maybe due to translation issues, we only discovered we bought the wrong machine when we checked it last night after it was shipped back. We were on site near closing time and didn't have time to confirm. This machine isn't for producing tissues..."

The whole place immediately became so quiet that you could almost drop a pin. The faces of those people from the Commerce Bureau looked as if they had held back a shit. What the hell!

If this were public funds, he would be convicted and sent to jail.

Weidong made it difficult to disclose: "Some comrades saw it yesterday. That product is for women's lesbians' inner parts... it's really good. No other manufacturer in China is producing it. Even in Shanghai, only foreign-related shopping malls sell similar products made in Japan. The correct name for the product should be sanitary napkins."

The atmosphere in the whole place was so awkward. What was going on?

There are actually people asking about this secretly. It seems that he is even more straight than Rang Weidong before.

Fortunately, the female cadres these days are also really tough: "Is it the YJ belt?"

Weidong was so embarrassed that he almost fell out of the conference room.

Reluctantly, she nodded. "Yes, the price in Shanghai is 50 cents to 1 yuan per piece. I need to change about three or four pieces a day, but it won't affect my daily work. We will strive to reduce the price to around 10 cents to benefit women across the country."

The whole audience was also very embarrassed. The speaker who was reading the script raised his hand and was ready to tell the guy in the suit to stop talking. It was easy to have a vivid picture in his mind.

But after hearing the latter part, all the female cadres in the audience applauded enthusiastically!
Lesbians have suffered from this for a long time.

Even Shen Cuiyue, who had been trying to be transparent, applauded, but frowned. Maybe she thought it was unacceptable for the man in our family to be involved in this business?
It's not quite appropriate.

But several female comrades had already taken the lead: "Okay, comrade, when can you launch the product? What difficulties do you have that you need support for? Please tell us all. Our Light Industry Bureau will do its best to assist you."

"The Women's Federation is definitely the most responsible party. We must participate in this matter."

"If you build a factory in our district, I will definitely help you make it a success!"

"You're asking for technical support from universities? We at Jiangda have it!"

"We are the experts in industrial machinery, right? The Institute of Technology will complete the task as soon as possible. What are your needs?"

After dragging the machine back last night, Weidong pondered over it repeatedly: "There will definitely be difficulties. First of all, the production capacity of one machine is at best that of a small workshop. After obtaining the raw materials, we will definitely need to copy this equipment in large quantities. As long as we can mass-produce and sell this product, it will... be no less than the production and sales status of a motorcycle factory, and even have a greater market demand than motorcycles."

Anyway, in his mind, there was already a panda holding an X sanitary napkin and talking about the day and night use types.

But the situation was clearly out of his control. The Commercial Bureau official was even a little surprised to have regained what he had lost. "That's impossible. Selling this... well, there's no problem with market demand, but can it outsell the motorcycle factory?"

The person next to him had already imagined it: "How can it be impossible? The people have a huge demand for daily chemical products. Can this be sold nationwide?"

Wei Dong nodded with certainty and affirmation: "Yes!"

The female cadres have already applauded enthusiastically!

Men don’t know shit, this is a basic need!

(End of this chapter)