For the financial company's affairs, Li Weidong wrote a detailed plan and planned to seek policy support from the state.

In front of the conference room of the National Development and Reform Commission, Li Weidong stopped, straightened his collar and cuffs, and then stepped in.

In addition to several leaders in the conference room, people from the Macroeconomic Research Institute, the National Investment Project Review Center, and the Innovation-Driven Development Center were also present. In addition, official media such as the Economic Herald and Reform News also sent reporters to the scene.

It has the momentum of a think tank seminar.

"Chairman Li, let me introduce to you..."

After the introduction, just as Li Weidong was about to take a seat, a secretary-looking person hurriedly walked in and whispered a few words in the ear of the leader.

The leader's expression changed slightly, he looked at his watch first, and then said, "Go and make arrangements right away."

The secretary left in a hurry, and the leader walked up to Li Weidong again and said: "Chairman Li, something has happened. The superior leaders are also very interested in this briefing. However, he has many things to do and does not have time to come in person, so he plans to

We will attend this briefing via videoconference. We will immediately send people to prepare the video equipment, and the briefing will have to be delayed for a few minutes."

Thinking about it, there were only a few senior leaders of the National Development and Reform Commission, so Li Weidong asked: "I wonder which leader is attending the meeting?" Li Weidong asked immediately.

The other party said a name, and Li Weidong nodded silently, thinking quickly in his mind.

When a superior leader comes, the previously prepared explanations must be overturned and completely streamlined. The leader's time is precious, but he doesn't have that much time to listen to you. You have to pick out the important content and impress the leader as much as possible.

In the next few minutes, Li Weidong quickly reorganized his reporting language.

The video equipment was ready, and after a few more minutes, the briefing officially began.

"Dear leaders, let me briefly introduce my plan. After investigation, our Puppy Group found that there are many small and medium-sized enterprises in the upstream supply chain. Their development is restricted due to lack of funds. As small and medium-sized enterprises, bank loans are relatively cumbersome.

So we plan to set up a financial company to raise funds from financial institutions, and then invest the funds in these small and medium-sized enterprises in the form of loans to provide them with assistance, thereby promoting the development of the entire supply chain..."

Li Weidong made a quick introduction, and someone in the audience immediately started asking questions: "Chairman Li, I have read your report in detail. I have a question. The problem of complicated loans for small and medium-sized enterprises does exist, but financial companies

Financial institutions can also do things like lending. And financial institutions are also more experienced in risk assessment and capital supervision."

The implication of this person is that for things like lending, there are professional financial institutions with more relevant experience and more controllable risks. Even if the policy is given, it should be left to them. Why should it be left to you, a non-professional?

Li Weidong immediately replied: "What we do is completely different from what financial institutions do. Financial institutions issue loans for the purpose of making profits. Everything is based on profit first. If they can't make money or have high risks, they may not be willing to do it.

.

We, the Puppy Group, are engaged in industry. For our upstream supply chain, profit is not the primary goal, but to build a larger and more stable supply chain system. What we seek is the development of the entire industry. Of course, from another perspective

From one perspective, the development of the industry will also bring us profits."

Someone else asked: "Chairman Li, you just mentioned risks. My question is about risks. Our country's financial industry started late and the regulatory system is not sound. Even large financial institutions have many regulatory deficiencies."

Wherever you go, there will be many risks. You are in the manufacturing industry, how do you view potential financial risks?"

The subtext of the other party is that large financial institutions cannot avoid risks, so why should you, a manufacturing company, avoid risks?

Li Weidong had long expected that someone would ask about financial risks, so he immediately replied: "My view on risk is different from that of financial institutions. Financial institutions consider risks at the monetary level, and everything is based on money."

measure.

I view risk from the perspective of the supply chain. As long as the supply chain is stable enough, then the risk of any link in the entire supply chain is controllable. So what we need to maintain is the resilience of the entire supply chain, not

Gains and losses on a monetary level.”

Li Weidong briefly answered a few more questions, but he knew that these answers to questions and doubts could not impress the leader of the video call. If he wanted to convince others, he had to start from the national development level.

So Li Weidong took the initiative and said, "In recent years, the domestic economy has developed rapidly, and people's wages have also been rising, which has caused the labor costs of enterprises to continue to increase. I, who work in the manufacturing industry, can feel this most.

The increase in labor costs has also caused many foreign-funded enterprises to move their factories to countries with lower labor costs. This is not a kind of industrial transfer. I think all leaders must have noticed this, right?

Japanese scholar Akamatsu Kaname proposed the Flying Geese Theory thirty years ago. The industrial transfer after World War II has been confirming this theory. According to this theory, the next industrial transfer will be from China to Vietnam and Cambodia.

Countries with cheap labor such as India.

But we are not as wealthy as Japan and South Korea. We are still in the developing stage. If the industry really moves overseas, it will be equivalent to handing over our jobs to others, and we ourselves will be hungry! So how should we solve the problem?

What about the issue of relocation of industries?

Some people say that we should develop science and technology industries, improve productivity levels, increase the added value of manufacturing, and use higher profits to make up for the profits lost by the relocation of industries. But don’t forget that we have 1.4 billion people, and our population is larger than that of all developed countries.

There are even more, and all the high-tech industries in the world combined may not be able to feed our 1.4 billion people!"

These words of Li Weidong immediately aroused the interest of the video leader.

Li Weidong continued: "We Chinese cannot always trade socks for planes, our workers cannot always receive low wages, and our manufacturing industry cannot remain labor-intensive.

Wage increases are irreversible and an inevitable result of economic development. Our labor costs will only get higher and higher, which will indeed make our manufacturing industry lose its international competitiveness. After all, capital pursues profits.

But labor cost is not the only factor in manufacturing costs. If workers' wages were low enough to bring about manufacturing, then Africa would have become the largest manufacturing continent! Who would it be for us, China, to eat the manufacturing industry?

We are able to develop manufacturing because we have other advantages, such as efficient systems, complete infrastructure, sufficient energy supply, hard-working people, etc. But we have these things, and other countries can also have them.

We can improve administrative efficiency, and other countries can do the same through scientific management and learning from us; we have complete infrastructure, and other countries can also build infrastructure as long as they are willing to invest funds;

We have sufficient energy supply, and other countries can also buy oil and natural gas from the Middle East. We Chinese are very hard-working, but people in other countries may not all be lazy. There will always be people who are willing to fight for a better life.

But there is one thing that is unique to us, and that is our huge size! We have a population of more than one billion, which not only provides sufficient labor for the manufacturing industry, but also has developed into a huge market. I think this is

Our core strengths.

Manufacturing has always been a field where quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes. For example, if we want to produce a certain product, we in China can produce 1,000K because we have huge production capacity. And when the product is produced, even if it cannot be sold in the end, it will not be sold.

It can be digested through its own market, at least without losing money.

Other countries dare not produce the same quantity because they are not big enough and they do not have such huge production capacity, so they dare not bet too much. Their market is not big enough. Once they produce too much, they will not be able to sell it.

If they go out, the entire industry will be finished. So they only dare to produce 50K, or even less.

If one side is producing 1000K, and the other side is producing 50K, then the production costs must be different, and the R&D funds shared equally for each product are also different. The purchase of raw materials, large-scale production, and every link will produce a cost difference. Add up all the items.

What ultimately results is the price advantage.

In other words, for the same product, because our output is larger, the cost will be lower, and it will have a price advantage in the international market. And if this advantage is expanded to a supply chain and an industry,

Or even extend it to the entire industrial system?

That will mean that our manufacturing industry will always be in an advantageous position in terms of price. No matter what industrial product it is, as long as our Chinese manufacturing is involved, we will be able to occupy a dominant position, even a monopoly! It is also for this reason that I just said

We’ve just been talking about the supply chain.”

"Chairman Li, I heard you say this. As long as we have manufacturing in China, other countries will not have to develop manufacturing!" Someone continued in a slightly mocking tone; "But in recent years, South Korea's manufacturing industry has developed.

The country is booming, and the manufacturing industry in Southeast Asia has also been on the rise in recent years!"

Li Weidong sighed lightly and replied: "If it continues to develop, the development of China's manufacturing industry has indeed blocked the way for backward countries. The flying geese theory proposed by the Japanese has become invalid when it comes to manufacturing in China. Because the flying geese travel

The basis of the theory is that all participants must be wild geese.

If a giant dragon is mixed into a flock of wild geese, then all the wild geese will be eaten. Naturally, there will be no theory of flying geese. This is what is going to happen. Globalization has gathered all the wild geese, but there is a geese mixed in.

A newborn dragon, this dragon is not as big as a wild goose, but now, this dragon has grown up!

Unless there is another industrial revolution, which allows productivity to jump exponentially, it will be possible for backward countries to complete the process of industrialization. Otherwise, they can only become vassals of China's manufacturing. This will be the fate of new manufacturing countries.

As for South Korea's manufacturing industry, they are really lucky. In the past thirty years, they have made almost every step right, so they can take advantage of advanced manufacturing to create short-term high profits. But once this kind of advanced manufacturing

The advantage cannot be sustained. Can they still have such an efficient manufacturing industry?

The road South Korea has taken is not that easy. It is full of uncertainties. Their investment in advanced manufacturing must not make a wrong step. With the size of South Korea, once they make a mistake, there will be no

A chance to start over again.”

Li Weidong's words made everyone present fall into deep thought. Everyone understood the truth, let alone saying it from the mouth of a successful entrepreneur, it was even more convincing.

A few seconds later, someone else said, "Chairman Li, I quite agree with your point of view. Quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes, and large enough volume is indeed an innate advantage in developing manufacturing. But apart from us, India

It also has the same advantages!”

Li Weidong smiled disdainfully, and then asked: "It's not that I look down on India. Does India have a complete basic industry? If it can't even build the most basic industry, how can it take the path of manufacturing?"

…

Small countries have few resources and are small in size. If they want to enter advanced manufacturing, they can only rely on all-or-nothing. Therefore, they must not make a wrong step. Once they take the wrong path, they will not only miss the best time, but also not have so many resources to invest.

Even in the 1980s, Japan had a population of hundreds of millions and a per capita GDP several times that of the United States. However, after Japan selected the wrong technology tree several times, it fell into a lost thirty years and its manufacturing industry shrank across the board.

As for those countries whose size and foundation are far inferior to Japan's, once they go astray, the result will inevitably be the collapse of the entire industry.

In the past fifty years, many developed countries in Europe have lost some of their advantageous industries, and it is precisely for this reason.

In contrast, South Korea's luck is relatively good. They have never chosen the wrong path. The right technology tree has ensured that South Korea will develop into a developed country in just a few decades.

For example, many companies in Japan were betting on plasma TVs, while South Korea was betting on LCD screens. As everyone knows, Japan's plasma industry has become less popular, while South Korea has successfully developed a panel industry.

In the early 21st century, it was generally believed around the world that the industries of Japan and South Korea were highly overlapping. South Korea gradually developed after taking over Japan's industrial chain. People also regarded South Korea and Japan as

Competitors.

However, around 2020, academic circles gradually realized that the industrial chains of China and South Korea are really highly overlapping. In other words, South Korea's advantageous industrial chains are gradually being overtaken by China, and the market is also being cannibalized by China.

South Korea's traditional areas of advantage mainly include semiconductors, electronic products, home appliances, shipbuilding, automobiles, panels, etc. These are also rapidly rising industries in China.

Moreover, China's industrial rise is so fast that South Korea cannot react. South Korea's sudden trade deficit in 2022 directly stunned South Korea.

In contrast, when a large country engages in advanced manufacturing, its error tolerance rate is much higher. Taking the wrong path will at most result in some loss of time and money. If you start over, even if you cannot get ahead, you can still exceed the average level.

In the past few decades, the United States has produced the most useless technological products. The United States also has many products that are short-lived and quickly replaced. However, the United States is still the largest country in science and technology, and their huge size is indispensable.

without.
To be continued...