Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

There are two main reasons why this happens.

One is the level issue.

New China lacks talents in this area, and at the same time, it does not understand these things. To put it bluntly, it is still a problem of cadre ability and the backwardness of Chinese education. They say they are doing economic accounting for factory operations, but they themselves do not understand it. From top to bottom, most of them are illiterate, and those who are on the front line of production are

The workshop directors, section chiefs and other cadres were basically illiterate, so the reports they produced contained a lot of errors.

They don't know how to calculate assets, how to calculate costs, including the depreciation of machinery and equipment, and everything is a mess.

Another is a question of attitude.

Many cadres are accustomed to production during wartime. In wartime, costs are unconstrained; for the sake of victory, many other things can be ignored. It's like an arsenal producing cannons: Investing 100 and only producing 10, but as long as it benefits the war effort, it's acceptable.

But things are different in the era of peacebuilding.

There must be a budget for costs and outputs.

If an investment of 100 yuan could yield over 100 units, but the actual output is only 50, then there must be something wrong. This report can be used to review the production process.

However, many cadres in the early days of New China did not have this kind of thinking.

They only know how to produce whatever the country wants and do whatever the country tells them to do. For example, when the Jinpu Railway was being repaired, the country told the Ministry of Railways to repair it, and the Ministry of Railways immediately started repairing it.

As a result, serious problems arose.

The Ministry of Railways knew the government would provide 140 million cubic meters of timber for the project, so they calculated the repair work based on a mileage of 14000 kilometers. However, after the actual repairs, it was found that this calculation was more than ten times the actual amount needed.

As a result, a lot of things were prepared but not used. A lot of people were mobilized, but in the end, not enough people were needed. The result was a lot of waste - a lot of good things, and it also conflicted with many other construction plans.

So much so that Song Shaowen, the former Minister of Agriculture of North China and later Director of the Planning Bureau of the Finance and Economic Committee of the State Council, once said at a meeting of the Finance and Economic Committee: The biggest waste in our country is in our economic institutions. This problem is not due to anything else, but

This is because our economic departments don't do calculations. They put policy first and calculations second, practicing political leadership instead of economic leadership. They only care about outputs, not inputs and costs.

Song Shaowen calculated that half of the investment in many construction projects in the early days of the People's Republic of China was wasted. This waste was not because the cadres wanted to waste. It was because the cadres in the early days of the People's Republic of China had no concept of cost accounting and did not make accurate calculations.

Later, they found that so much investment was not necessary at all, and ended up wasting a lot of investment.

This is the problem that has emerged in New China. Whether it is the national economic department or the state-owned enterprises, when problems arise in the production process, they do not analyze the problems from the perspective of economic accounting, but from the perspective of politics. They want to solve any problem with political means.

Whether it is the leaders of the economic sector or the leaders of public enterprises, when faced with the problem of low production efficiency, they do not look for problems from the perspective of production process or economics. Instead, they want to use the political enthusiasm of workers to improve production efficiency. However, this political enthusiasm can only solve the problem temporarily.

The real problems are obscured by this political enthusiasm.

To truly solve the problem, we must start from production.

And the basis of this is economic accounting.

Only with the most accurate economic accounting can production efficiency be improved. That's why Wei Hongjun raised this issue at such an important meeting. The economic accounting problem of state-owned enterprises must first be addressed at the central level.

Central leaders, including those in central economic departments, must first change their mindset and understand the concept of economic accounting. Only when central leaders change their mindset can they influence the leadership of public enterprises below them.

Only by working together and truly integrating the concept of economic accounting into production can this problem be solved. It doesn't matter if the foundation is poor, as long as everyone's thinking keeps up, the basic problems can be made up. The only worry is that the leaders of the economic departments and the leaders of the state-owned enterprises cannot change their strategic thinking.

Think in the era of war and build with the mindset of fighting.

"Yes, not just state-owned enterprises, but any production unit should pay attention to economic accounting issues."

Mao Zemin spoke.

Dao: "Our cadres must understand that this is not a war era, and they must quickly change their thinking from war thinking to construction thinking. Our country is very poor now, and every penny is precious. Therefore, we must attach great importance to every penny of national investment, and we must clearly understand that

To know whether national investment is being wasted, each production unit must have clear economic accounting.

Mao Zemin was not a cadre from the military.

Ever since joining the Party, I've been responsible for economic issues. Starting with managing the funds of a workers' cooperative, I've moved on to managing publishing houses, magazines, and even the central bank. Later, when I moved to Xinjiang, I oversaw construction, and when I moved to North China, I was responsible for North China's economy.

So he was able to understand the importance of economic accounting.

Not only state-owned enterprises, but other production units and even grassroots governments should have this kind of thinking.

Bo Shuchun also said, "I agree with Comrade Wei Hongjun and Comrade Mao Zemin. The thinking of the war years cannot be brought into construction. Everyone here knows the difficulties of the national finances. Our fiscal deficit has been very serious in the past two years. Every penny we spend is...

They are all very valuable. So we must be responsible for every penny spent by the country.

“Economic accounting is a good thing.

Lin Dafeng, who had just been appointed Minister of the Fuel Industry Ministry, said: "Dear leaders, when I accompanied Soviet consultants to inspect power plants in Beijing, Zhangjiakou and other places, the Soviet consultants asked the power plant leaders about the coal prices and labor costs. The power plant leaders were almost completely indifferent to these questions.

It is not clear. The Soviet consultant said at the time that this was not a professional performance of a factory leader. This shows that our state-owned enterprises have no concept of cost budgeting. But this is not just a problem of their ability. It is that they themselves lack the understanding and knowledge in this area.

There is also a lack of talent in this area.

Soviet advisers have begun to enter China in large numbers.

The number of Soviet advisors entering China alone is already over 2000. According to the scope of Sino-Soviet cooperation, no fewer than 2000 Soviet experts will enter China in the next few years.

Because not only government departments would have Soviet advisers, but also state-owned enterprises and joint ventures would have Soviet advisers, and a large number of Soviet advisers would flow into aid projects, major universities, and the military.

The most conservative estimate is that there were more than 20000 Soviet advisers.

After these Soviet experts came to China, they were dissatisfied with all aspects of China. Because China's various foundations were too poor, the level of Chinese cadres was even lower than they imagined. When Lin Dafeng accompanied the Soviet experts to inspect the North China Electric Power Industry, he was ridiculed by the Soviet experts.

choke.

It's not just Lin Dafeng.

Chen Yu, who had just taken office as Minister of Heavy Industry not long ago, was also very dissatisfied with the leadership of the Shijingshan Iron and Steel Plant (Beijing Iron and Steel Plant) when he accompanied Soviet experts to inspect the plant.

Because the leaders of the steel mills only wanted to produce steel for the country, they did not pay much attention to the cost of producing steel and the problems in production. The cadres of the public enterprises in North China at least knew some industrial knowledge. But even so, their situation was not ideal.

Imagine the current situation of state-owned enterprises in other liberated areas.

They have no concept of cost at all.

Chen Yun listened to everyone's speeches. He said: "Everyone's speeches are reasonable. Economic review is a top priority for every production unit. We must pay attention to this matter. Of course, we are seriously short of resources now, and there is no way to do it in a short time. But

The first step is to let our cadres have the concept of economic accounting. With this concept, the cadres below will also do their best to cultivate talents in this area. My suggestion is that we issue a document on the name of the Finance and Economics Committee, the Planning Committee, and the Compilation Committee of the State Council.

The economic accounting document should first allow our cadres to have some preparation, and then we can consider formulating a plan to promote economic accounting in state-owned enterprises.

Chapter 785: Attitude towards Soviet Advisors

Wei Hongjun's proposal on economic accounting received everyone's support.

Finally, Chen Yun decided to issue three documents in the name of the Finance and Economic Committee of the State Council, the National Compilation Committee, and the Planning Committee: "Resolution on Production and Construction of State-Owned Enterprises in 1949", "Instructions on the Economic Accounting System", and "Instructions on the Careful Rectification of Original Records".

One of the instructions issued was that all public enterprises in the country must prepare for the compilation of original records. In other words, original records refer to the statistics of the property, staffing, and salary of public enterprises across the country. In short, everything in public enterprises must be registered.

This is to allow the central government to understand the actual assets of state-owned enterprises across the country, the actual number of workers in state-owned enterprises, and the salaries of state-owned enterprises. This will help the central government understand its own financial situation.

Another important point is the 1949 Resolution on Production and Construction of State-Owned Enterprises. One key point was that all leading officials in state-owned enterprises nationwide must learn what economic accounting is and how to conduct it. This gave state-owned enterprises nationwide one year to prepare for economic accounting.

The resolution gave a new description of state-owned enterprises, stating that state-owned enterprises are state-owned enterprises that are responsible for their own profits and losses and have independent accounting.

It is clear that no matter whether it makes money or loses money, every state-owned enterprise must do a good job of economic accounting.

Of course, this is actually a bit difficult.

Although the resolution gave state-owned enterprises one year to prepare, it was still a difficult challenge for them. With the current quality of cadres in state-owned enterprises, it was basically impossible to complete accurate economic accounting. However, with this document, economic accounting

This will become a must-do for public enterprises, so that this concept can be gradually promoted.

Then came the "Proposal on the Establishment of Finance Majors in Local Party Schools" and the "Resolution on the Development of Finance and Economic Secondary Schools and Colleges."

New China can't wait.

Four years of university graduation is too long, and the new China cannot wait that long. Therefore, the meeting decided that the training of financial talents should take the path of short-term training and large-scale training. The training of formal financial education should also be based on two-year secondary vocational schools and three-year colleges.

In addition, all local party schools must offer specialized finance majors.

Let our cadres learn financial knowledge.

Of course, this is just a proposal and needs to be approved by the central government, because such a thing requires the joint efforts of many departments.

In addition to statistical issues and issues concerning state-owned enterprises, the meeting also discussed issues concerning joint-stock companies. In the early days of the People's Republic of China, joint-stock companies were everywhere in China and were not new. Not to mention those joint-stock companies that already existed.

Afterwards, a large number of joint-stock companies were established. The government adopted the joint-stock system in order to regain control of important enterprises from private capital, especially those in the resource sector.

The New Democratic Revolution, to put it simply, is a capitalist revolution. The capitalist revolution is to bury feudalism and overthrow the landlord class.

As for capital, the government makes a categorical distinction. Imperialist capital and bureaucratic capital must be dealt with, but the Party adopts a united approach towards the national bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie.

The main reason is that China has too little capital.

National capital still needs to be protected.

Therefore, the policy will not be to confiscate their enterprises directly, but to adopt the method of public-private partnership. The most typical example is coal mining enterprises. For private coal mining enterprises, the public-private partnership system is adopted. Then the government will increase investment, dilute the proportion of private shares, and increase government control.

This situation is common at present.

Even during the socialist transformation in history, these enterprises were not directly confiscated. This approach was always adopted.

But the government actually has no specific definition or policy regarding shareholding.

However, since such enterprises exist, the State Council must come up with specific policies regarding joint-stock enterprises. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference also needs to issue a "Joint Stock Enterprise Law." Wei Hongjun prefers clear policies.

Therefore, it was proposed at the meeting that there should be a clear policy attitude towards the various types of enterprises currently in existence. What type of enterprise is a joint-stock company, the ownership issues within the joint-stock company, and the management rights issues within the joint-stock company all require the government to address.

Definition. And how to solve the problems of such enterprises and how to adjust the leadership structure of such enterprises.

What is the role of the board of directors in the enterprise? Should this type of joint-stock enterprise establish a party committee? If so, what is the role of the party committee? In this type of enterprise, what do the workers belong to? Are they employees of these factories or are they the employees of these factories?

The owner? The management of property, profit and treatment of workers in joint-stock enterprises. After all, joint-stock enterprises are neither wholly public nor wholly private enterprises.

In addition to these joint-stock companies, Wei Hongjun proposed another type of joint-stock company: a public enterprise jointly established by governments or departments. How should such a company be defined?

How is their ownership defined?

Is it a high-level government agency or department that controls ownership? Or is it ownership of the company based on the proportion of investment? These issues will definitely arise in the future.

These theoretical issues now need to be discussed and a clear policy formulated in the end.

There are many issues that must not be vague in policy.

Once the central government is vague about its policies, the cadres below will be at a loss. While central government cadres understand the broader economic landscape, strategy, and propaganda and mobilization, they may not be familiar with the specific issues facing enterprises.

Therefore, there was no conclusion regarding the specific issues of joint-stock enterprises. Ultimately, Chen Yun decided to establish an Enterprise Research Division within the Finance and Economics Committee to specifically study the issues currently facing enterprises of various ownership structures across the country. Different ownership structures would inevitably require different policies.

After all, the government's control over enterprises of different ownership levels varies. Public enterprises are entirely government assets, and many current public enterprises even originated from party assets.

Just like a group of trading companies controlled by the Bureau of Foreign Trade, they were initially established with party fees and are veritable party assets.

But now they have all become public enterprises.

The government has strong control over these enterprises and sufficient power to determine their profits. However, the taxation of joint-stock companies, private enterprises, and the numerous individual businesses requires careful consideration.

After the meeting, Wei Hongjun held a meeting with the leaders of the departments under his charge.