Rebirth of the Industrial Tycoon

Li Weidong dared to spend more than 20 million to buy the loader factory. Naturally, there is a way to revitalize the loader factory. Before he bought the loader factory, he had planned to buy the technology from Russia.

The heavy industry technology of the former Soviet Union was still world-class at that time. In terms of construction machinery, even if it was not comparable to the United States, Japan and Germany, the gap was not too big, and it was basically the same starting line.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia and Ukraine were the two largest successors of the former Soviet heavy industry system.

Then both countries began to play shock therapy, and Ukraine completely self-destructed martial arts, bringing down the once powerful industry.

In the process of privatization, Russia has also scrapped more than half of its heavy industries, leaving only a few industries such as military industry, mining and oil.

In 1992, the Soviet Union had just disintegrated. Relying on the legacy of the former Soviet Union, the level of Russia's heavy machinery manufacturing industry was still very strong at this time.

The key is that it is less difficult and cheaper to import technology from Russia.

In this era, I went to Russia to buy technology. As soon as I opened the vodka, I took a few sips of tons of it, and I drank the old Maozi. Then I threw the box containing the US dollars in front of the old Maozi, and it was done.

If the technology is imported from the United States, Japan or Germany, it is inevitable to have a protracted negotiation, and then have to accept various additional conditions.

Think about Huanghai Petrochemical's introduction of equipment from Mobil. It took a year to talk about it, and there was no result. If it wasn't for Li Weidong's coercion with the spicy soy sauce field, Huanghai Petrochemical would have to wait two or three years to buy the equipment it needed.

Another important reason for Li Weidong to buy technology from Russia is that he knows acquaintances.

When Li Weidong was working on second-hand machinery and equipment in his last life, he met several Russian counterparts who were also second-hand machinery and equipment, but they were mainly targeting the markets of Eastern Europe and the CIS countries, while Li Weidong was targeting the Chinese market.

Due to the different markets they face, there is no competition between Li Weidong and Russian businessmen. Instead, there are many opportunities for cooperation.

Now that Li Weidong needs to buy technology from Russia, it is more appropriate to find those acquaintances in his previous life.

...

The trains between China and Russia are much more comfortable than domestic trains, all of which are of soft sleeper standards. Moreover, there are also a lot of Chinese villains in the car, and it is not boring to watch the scenery and play poker along the way.

Li Weidong did not understand Russian, so he hired a Russian translator named Liu.

Translator Liu is in his thirties, and he was a bad guy a few years ago. At first, he made some money. Later, when he had bad luck, the goods were confiscated by the Russian checkpoint under the pretext of confiscating the goods. The other party also pointed a gun at the head. , was beaten to death, and since then, translator Liu has never dared to be a daddy again.

After the train entered Russia, more and more Chinese began to get off the train, and more and more Russians got on the train.

In the evening, Li Weidong came to the dining car, looked at the Russian dishes on the table, and had no appetite.

"Good mushroom soup, why put cream and lemon!" Li Weidong drank two mouthfuls of soup,

Finally focused on mashed potatoes.

In the dining car, many Russians are also eating, and they eat well, including fish, meat, and red wine.

"This old man eats well! I feel like he eats better than us." Li Weidong said subconsciously.

"Isn't this normal? The old man is already richer than us Chinese!" Translator Liu replied.

Li Weidong frowned inexplicably. In his perception, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia's economy has plummeted. Russians should live in dire straits. wine? This is not the way of life of the poor at all.

Translator Liu on the opposite side said: "I heard from the Russians before that their country wants to give everyone money, 10,000 rubles!"

"10,000 rubles? That's that much! It's probably equivalent to a year's salary for ordinary Russians!" Li Weidong asked in surprise.

"However, it is not cash, but something called privatization coupons. It seems to be used to buy shares in the company. It is not registered, does not report the loss, and can be transferred." Liu Yi said.

Li Weidong instantly understood that Russia was about to start privatization.

The privatization of Russian enterprises began in 1992. At that time, the strategy adopted was free privatization. Russia evaluated the state-owned assets accumulated by the former Soviet Union for more than 70 years. The form is distributed to every citizen free of charge.

Citizens holding privatization vouchers can buy shares in privatized companies and transfer them.

How can ordinary people know which shares of private companies to buy, so more than 600 privatization bond investment funds emerged in Russia, and eventually two-thirds of the privatization bonds fell into the hands of privatization bond investment funds.

This kind of indiscriminate issuance of money will inevitably lead to inflation. Inflation as high as 2,600% in two years has caused most investment funds to eventually collapse, and the privatization bonds of the entrusters have also been wiped out.

After the failure of free privatization, Russia adopted the strategy of paid privatization, mainly targeting large state-owned enterprises.

Today's Russia has not started privatization, and there is no inflation. Russia's economic situation is acceptable. Although there is no economic growth, it still has a GDP of more than 500 billion US dollars.

In comparison, China's GDP at that time was only 400 billion US dollars, which was 100 billion US dollars less than that of Russia after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. On average, Russia's per capita GDP is almost ten times that of China!

As said from the media, as soon as the Soviet Union disintegrated, the Russians could not even afford bread, which is obviously impossible. The so-called hundred-footed worm dies and does not become stiff. When the Soviet Union just disintegrated, Russia was still a thin camel than a horse. big.

From an economic point of view, the larger the economy, the stronger the ability to resist risks and the slower the decline.

Just like Japan, after 30 years of loss, people's living standards are still very high, because they have a solid starting point and can withstand the toss.

So with the size of Russia's economy at the time, even an economic collapse was a process that took several years.

This time is not the time to buy dips in Russia, because Russia's economy is still very strong.

At least in terms of the income of the Chinese, it is obviously very difficult to bargain for a country whose total GDP is one-fourth higher than its own, and its per capita GDP is ten times its own.

Although the landlords in the village have declined, their houses are still not affordable for the poor tenants.

...

Li Weidong got off the train in Yekaterinburg.

Yekaterinburg is the third largest city in Russia and the central city of the Urals industrial zone.

There are four major industrial zones in Russia, of which the largest and most developed is the Moscow Industrial Zone, whose industries are mainly automobiles, aircraft, rockets, steel, electronics, and military industries.

Followed by the St. Petersburg Industrial Zone, mainly engaged in food, textile, paper, shipbuilding, aerospace, and petrochemical industries.

The Urals Industrial Zone is the third largest industrial zone in Russia, mainly oil, steel and machinery.

The fourth largest industrial zone is the Novosibirsk industrial zone, where the main industries are coal, oil, gas and steel.

What Li Weidong wants to buy is loader technology, and naturally he wants to come to the Ural Industrial Zone of the machinery industry.

And the acquaintance Li Weidong was looking for happened to be in Yekaterinburg.

The man's name was Alexander Beresovsky, and his father was a local bureaucrat in Yekaterinburg.

In a previous life, Li Weidong helped Alexander to sell a second-hand oil drilling equipment, and earned a fortune for information fees.

At the end of the 1980s, when it was still in the Soviet era, Alexander Beresovsky started a business of "dead man".

However, unlike China's grandfather, Alexander did not use light industrial products such as clothes, shoes and socks, but electronic products such as video game consoles, walkmans, and video recorders.

At that time, Japanese electronic products were popular all over the world, and due to ideological reasons, the Soviet Union would not import Japanese electronic products. Therefore, when Japanese electronic products entered the Soviet Union, it was all smuggled by men.

And those who have the ability to bring Japanese electronic products into the Soviet Union are definitely not ordinary people with ordinary identities, but often people with backgrounds like Alexander.

It's not difficult to find Alexander. Since Alexander is a master of electronic products, Li Weidong only needs to find a small vendor who sells Walkmans, and then he can find Alexander by following the clues.

At this time, Alexander was thinking about buying a small business through privatization, and then expanding his foreign trade business.

Although Alexander is a relatively well-known "poor man" in Yekaterinburg, he is based on his self-employed status.

The former Soviet Union also had self-employed, but the Soviet Union did not allow the legal existence of self-employed until 1986, so Russia's private economy was not as developed as China's at that time.

The private economies of the two countries have also moved towards two different paths.

China's private economy has grown from small to large, from weak to strong, and has developed step by step along with the entire process of reform and opening up.

And Russia's private economy relies on privatization in "shock therapy" to forcibly transform state-owned enterprises into a private economy.

There was a knock on the door, and a young and beautiful female secretary walked in. She first gave Alexander a wink, and then said, "Sir, there are two Chinese people outside who want to see you, saying that they have business to discuss with you. ."

"The Chinese? Are they also dumping supplies?" Alexander immediately thought of China's dumpster.

Then Alexander nodded: "Please come in!"

After a while, Li Weidong and Liu Translator walked in.

After the two sides introduced each other, Li Weidong first handed over the gift that he had already prepared, two boxes of beautifully packaged black tea.

"Mr. Beresovsky, this is Chinese black tea, I hope you like it!" Li Weidong said.

"Black tea! I like black tea the most!" Alexander took the black tea with satisfaction.

What Alexander said was the truth. He really liked black tea very much. Li Weidong knew this and gave him black tea. It's just that this Alexander has a heavier taste. He likes to add yogurt to black tea.

Alexander was also quick to talk. After he accepted the tea, he asked, "Mr. Li, I heard that you have a business to discuss with me. I don't know what business it is?"

"I want to buy some technology and equipment related to heavy machinery from Russia. I heard that Mr. Beresovsky is very well-connected in this area, so I would like to ask you a favor." Li Weidong said, putting a Russian The purchase list of Alexander was handed to Alexander, and it was the technology and equipment that Li Weidong wanted to purchase.

Alexander showed a surprised expression, and he said, "Mr. Li, you are so well-informed that you know that my uncle is the director of the Isette River Engineering Machinery Factory!"

"The Isset River should be the river that passes through Yekaterinburg! I can't believe that Alexander will make second-hand machinery and equipment later. It turns out that his uncle is also the director of a construction machinery factory!"

Li Weidong secretly said in his heart, but he did not reveal any information on his face.

Although Li Weidong does not know how the technology of the Isette River Construction Machinery Plant is, as a heavy industry enterprise in Yekaterinburg, the technology should be stronger than that in China.

I saw Alexander smiled slightly, and then said, "Mr. Li, I don't know much about heavy machinery, but according to my guess, the things you want to buy should involve core technology, right?"

Li Weidong nodded: "If it wasn't for the core technology, I wouldn't have to travel all the way to Yekaterinburg."

Alexander replied: "Mr. Li, with all due respect, if it involves core technology, you may be disappointed. This core technology and related equipment cannot be easily sold to other countries."

"It's up to people! I won't let you work in vain." Li Weidong smiled indifferently and continued;

"I heard that your country intends to implement the policy of privatization of enterprises. Once the Isette River Construction Machinery Factory is privatized, it is still unknown whether your uncle can continue to be the director of the factory. So it is better to take advantage of the present. Your uncle is still the director of the factory, and when he is in power, he makes a fortune for himself!"

Alexander shook his head: "This privatization is only for small and medium-sized enterprises. The Isette River Engineering Machinery Factory is a large enterprise and is not within the scope of privatization."

"Even if this year is not within the scope of privatization, what about next year? What about the year after? Once the precedent of privatization is set, it will not be accepted in the future. The privatization of large enterprises will be lost sooner or later." Li Weidong said.

Alexander fell into silence. He knew that what Li Weidong said was the truth. According to the government's propaganda on privatization, the privatization of small and medium enterprises was indeed the first step, followed by the privatization of large enterprises.

Instead of waiting for the company to be privatized, it's better to make a fortune now, when my uncle's words are still counted!

Alexander took a deep breath, pointed to the purchase list in his hand, and asked, "Mr. Li, how much are you willing to pay for this, and how much can my uncle and I get out of it?"

"I can give out a million dollars for the things above!" Li Weidong replied with a smile.

"These things are worth a million dollars? That's a lot!" Alexander couldn't help but look carefully at the purchase list.

The purchase list includes not only related technologies of loaders, but also technologies such as excavators, cranes, hydraulics, pile hammers, and conveying pumps.

Li Weidong continued: "In addition, I will not pay in US dollars."

"Don't need US dollars? Do you want to use rubles? We don't care about that!" Alexander shook his head and said, obviously disgusting rubles.

"It's not rubles," Li Weidong denied.

"Could it be your RMB? It's not as good as rubles!" Alexander said with a smile.

"To be precise, I don't plan to pay with currency." Li Weidong explained in combination: "I plan to use the equivalent canned food in exchange for these items on the purchase list!"

"Canned food?" Alexander was slightly taken aback.

Li Weidong nodded: "Yes, it's delicious canned fruit!"

...

There was once a legendary man, a white wolf with empty gloves, who bought a plane from the Soviet Union with canned food, and made a net profit of hundreds of millions.

Now Li Weidong also intends to exchange canned food for the technology and equipment of the loader from Russia.

Russia is relatively cold, and fruit is always a relatively expensive commodity in Russia. In the Soviet era, it is good to say that Ukraine provided fruit for Russia. Now that the Soviet Union has disintegrated, Russia relies on imports to obtain fruit.

Russia alone can only produce apples, strawberries and blueberries, which is obviously not enough for Russia's needs.

At that time, the transportation of cold and fresh food was not developed, and the imported canned fruit was always very marketable in Russia. As long as the price was reasonable, it was not difficult to sell it.

Alexander frowned, and he said, "Why do I want so many cans of fruit? Why don't I just give us dollars!"

"Mr. Beresovsky, if I were you, I would choose canned fruit!" Li Weidong went on to explain: "Do you know how much canned fruit can you buy in China for one million dollars?"

"How much can I buy?" Alexander asked cooperatively.

Li Weidong stretched out five fingers, and then said, "Five thousand tons! If you use a train, it will take about eighty carriages!"

"So much!" Alexander was a little surprised.

Li Weidong went on to say: "If it is in Russia, how much can you sell for 5,000 tons of canned fruit?"

Russian fruit is expensive, and canned fruit is also expensive. When 5,000 tons of canned fruit is shipped to Russia, the value will be doubled, which means several times the profit.

Of course, it is not an easy task to transport 5,000 tons of canned fruit to Russia. Russian customs, border quarantine, stopovers, etc. are all obstacles.

However, Li Weidong believes that all this will definitely not be difficult for Alexander, the poor man. He has a background, and it is not easy to get through the relationship on the way.

At this time, Alexander also realized that if he could transport these 5,000 tons of canned fruit to Russia, it would bring him several times the profit. Even if he needed to spend some relationship, he could make a fortune. That's way better than giving $1 million outright!

Li Weidong then persuaded: "If I pay US dollars directly, it is nothing more than two methods of cash and remittance. These two payment methods will cause some trouble for you, right?

But it's different when we barter. There is no financial exchange between us, and you sell canned fruit, which is also a legal income, and you don't need to bother to launder the money. "

This sentence instantly moved Alexander.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a large number of wealthy people were born in the CIS countries, and most of them were doing shady business.

As described in the movie "Lord of War", let alone guns and tanks, gunships with missiles can be sold!

Since the source of this money is unknown, we must find a way to launder the money, so the crime of money laundering in Russia has always been rampant.

Later reports said that financial giants such as Bank of America, ****, Citi, HSBC, Standard Chartered, etc., also participated in the money laundering crimes of Russian rich people.

In this transaction, if Li Weidong directly gave Alexander a favor, then the money can also be regarded as commercial bribery, which is illegal income.

However, if the money earned from selling cans is legal income, it is a normal business practice in any country as long as there is no hoarding.

Five thousand tons of canned food can be shipped, and the price difference can be made several times. The key point is that this income can be directly cleaned up. This transaction is so cost-effective!

As a senior man, Alexander made a decision in an instant.

This business must be done!