Chapter 698

June 14, Lu Fan returned to the grassland and immediately began preparing the provincial investment promotion and business environment optimization conference.

The business environment is an important component of the development environment and a concentrated manifestation of a region's economic soft power and overall competitiveness.

Currently, the business environment problems in the grassland have become the most strongly reflected issue among all market entities, the most prominent impact on regional image, and the most serious constraint on high-quality development, and have become an issue that must be resolved in purifying and repairing the political ecosystem.

The 'National Provincial Business Environment Research Report 2026' shows that the grassland's business environment score totals only 44.90 points, ranking 26th nationwide, 33 points behind the top-ranked province.

The '2026 National Business Environment Report for 296 Prefecture-Level and Above Cities' shows that only Yike City in the grassland made it into the top 100.

The data cannot reflect the full picture; let's look at two examples. According to the Economic Reference News, the four major investment projects in Ximeng have run into trouble due to procedural issues. Zhelimu City was fined nearly 60 million yuan for land-use problems, its corporate legal representative was detained for several months on suspicion of illegally occupying farmland, and the actual controller may also be arrested and imprisoned by the police on the same charge.

Although these problems exist, they cannot be blamed entirely on enterprises. The root cause is that, in order to get projects into production quickly, the government allowed 'let's board first, buy tickets later' on many project land-use issues during investment promotion; but after enterprises poured in huge funds and began operations, they could not make up the ticket due to policy changes, leaving them completely trapped in a dilemma.

Seeing a spot and knowing the whole leopard, deeper problems have caused the grassland's business environment to rank at the bottom nationwide. There are eight disadvantage indicators: the government integrity index ranks 26th, the fair competition and innovation indices rank 27th, the financing and opening-up indices rank 28th, and the judicial fairness index, government-enterprise relations index, and social credit index all rank 29th.

The quality of the business environment directly affects the rise and fall of market entities, the gathering and dispersal of production factors, and the strength of development momentum; it can be said that, in the new development stage, the business environment has become the 'critical point' of high-quality development in the grassland, and whether high-quality development can be achieved is directly tied to whether the business environment can be improved.

June 15, Lu Fan invited Governor Luo Shiyu, Discipline Inspection Committee Secretary Du Wenlong, Organization Department Head Shang Youyang, and Deputy Provincial Governor Zhao Ziren to his office to discuss matters related to optimizing the business environment.

After everyone had gathered, Cheng Haohao handed out several reports to the leaders, and Lu Fan said, 'The problems in the grassland's business environment are truly laid bare before us—various forms of extortion, graft, and buck-passing keep emerging, having become the biggest stubborn problem constraining grassland development. We must face the problems head-on without avoidance, analyze them without shifting blame, and solve them without perfunctoriness; otherwise, talking about economic development would be empty talk.'

Luo Shiyu said, 'I deeply feel what the secretary said; many of our indicators are at the bottom nationwide, and the business environment has indeed reached the critical moment for heavy-handed rectification!'

We must work hard to correct the stubborn problems in work style, closely watch the key few, key fields, important links, and service windows, closely watch those widespread, strongly reflected, and persistent prominent problems, persist in combining regulation and punishment with educational guidance, resolutely eliminate the 'work-style virus' that pollutes the business environment and the 'bad apples' that destroy it, and genuinely correct cadres' views on development, performance, power, and the masses.

Lu Fan looked at Du Wenlong and asked, 'Does the Discipline Inspection Committee have any leads on the problems in the business environment? They need to be substantial.'

Du Wenlong replied, 'Secretary, I had the letters and visits bureau and each department compile a summary; there are a total of 12,500 reports of various types, among which the higher-level reports include: the former chairman of the Provincial Energy Power Investment Group Co., Ltd., accused of bribery in bidding and irregular participation in project tendering; the vice mayor of Qingcheng City, who irregularly contracted municipal projects for relatives and friends and accepted bribes; the vice mayor of Yungu City, involved in government-business collusion and abuse of power; and the former deputy secretary of the Wuda Municipal Party Committee, who held shares in enterprises and profited illegally……'

After hearing the report, Lu Fan said with a hint of displeasure, 'Tens of thousands of complaints are left lying there unattended, with no one inquiring, supervision lacking, being too lax, too loose, too soft—this is also an important reason why the problems persist.'

Du Wenlong explained, 'Secretary, the provincial Discipline Inspection Committee lacks manpower and cannot cover everything. Some issues, after being fed back to the city and county levels, often receive no response. The provincial Discipline Inspection Committee will definitely attach great importance, deeply reflect, arrange with determination, inspect with sternness, enforce with an iron fist, strengthen supervision, establish a routine supervision mechanism, ensure that reforms are thoroughly implemented, and will not allow perfunctory cover-ups or fraud from below.'

Lu Fan nodded and said, 'I know your tasks are heavy and your workload large, which makes it all the more necessary for the municipal and county levels to have an account for everything, to have every matter settled, to have every affair receive a response, and to seriously pursue responsibility for those who disobey orders, do not stop despite bans, or neglect their duties.'

The province is about to convene a conference on optimizing the business environment; we need to catch typical cases, strengthen deterrence, and promote reform through cases. Du Wenlong, the ten typical leads you just reported will be handled personally by the Provincial Discipline Inspection Committee and turned into ironclad cases. We must also gather some prominent problems and shortcomings, make them very strong, and play them as short video clips at the conference so that leading cadres across the province will blush and break a sweat, thereby deterring petty offenders!

Du Wenlong replied: "Okay, Secretary, I'll arrange it shortly and conduct a large-scale open and covert inspection across the province."

Lu Fan also instructed Luo Shiyu: "At the meeting, the Provincial Government will issue the 'Several Measures for Further Optimizing the Business Environment', with extraordinary strength, extraordinary measures, extraordinary work style, and extraordinary determination, to thoroughly rectify prominent problems damaging the business environment, target policies to clear bottlenecks, exert great effort to punish 'fly corruption and ant corruption', remove 'stumbling blocks' hindering development, and genuinely enhance the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security."

Under Lu Fan's personal deployment, the province's conference on optimizing the business environment is being prepared in full swing.

On June 16, the Provincial Discipline Inspection Committee established 10 supervision and accountability teams, which were dispatched to 18 provincial-level departments and all city leagues, carrying clues to conduct open and covert inspections and visit-and-discuss sessions, to centrally rectify prominent problems such as units and staff neglecting public demands, low work efficiency, lax work style, inadequate implementation of systems, missing supervision and management, suspected breach of trust, and insufficient streamlining of delegation.

The Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Discipline Inspection Committee, Lin Changping, personally led the team to Wuda City, where he promptly convened a meeting to rectify the business environment, attended by municipal leaders and relevant departments.

At the meeting, Lin Changping frankly pointed out the problems existing in Wuda City's business environment, demanding that the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, in accordance with the province's unified arrangements, take immediate action, rectify each item, and achieve a clear closed loop.

Municipal Party Secretary Guo An stated that Wuda City highly values the feedback from the supervision and accountability teams, and will certainly, in line with the requirements of the Provincial Party Committee, Provincial Government, and Provincial Discipline Inspection Committee, genuinely rectify the city's business environment problems, strengthen supervision and inspection, dare to be meticulous and tough, promote rectification to become routine, institutionalized, and long-term, ensuring that all responsibilities are fulfilled and problems thoroughly rectified.

After the meeting, a shocking scene unfolded across the city!

In the Municipal Party Committee's small meeting room, a tense and solemn talk was quietly unfolding.

Lin Changping, with a solemn expression, his gaze locked on Liu Rui opposite him, got straight to the point: 'Comrade Liu Rui, the Provincial Discipline Inspection Committee has some matters to verify with you; please truthfully explain how you used your positional convenience to seek benefits for others in borrowing funds, undertaking projects, obtaining operating and sales rights, and accepted huge amounts of property.'

Hearing this, Liu Rui was shocked beyond words, and replied in a trembling voice: 'Secretary Lin, this must be a misunderstanding, or else someone is framing me out of revenge.'

Lin Changping coldly said: 'You have worked in Wuda City for over thirty years; as I understand, you have some loud nicknames—'Crouching Tiger'! And 'Three-Dares Secretary'—you dare to drink any liquor, take any money, and employ anyone!'

These nicknames vividly reflect your myriad corrupt practices—embezzlement, bribery, damaging the business environment and political atmosphere—and also express the people's strong condemnation and disgust toward you.

Liu Rui, without solid evidence, the Provincial Discipline Inspection Committee would not have come after you; I came to Wuda this time precisely to ascertain your problems.

Neglecting illness and avoiding treatment makes disease incurable; persisting in error cannot be saved. If you do not understand that 'those who know the times are outstanding,' fail to see the trend that disciplinary enforcement will only grow stricter, and take chances by persisting in mistake, you will only sink deeper into the wrong path, becoming a typical case for the province and even the nation—there are already corrupt officials sentenced to death on the grasslands!

I hope you will soon realize your mistakes; voluntarily confessing is the only way out!

Lin Changping, battle-hardened, with a gaze like a torch; even just his look seemed like thousands of blades piercing the heart, which left Liu Rui at a loss, further compounded by his verbal 'spiritual attack'.

Only to see large beads of sweat continuously rolling down his forehead, his heart filled with fear and despair, feeling like a prey fallen into a trap, no matter how he struggles it is futile, his heart as cold as ashes.

For an ordinary person to resist the Discipline Inspection Committee's interrogation is nothing short of a pipe dream; a single move could break you, because most people are guilty conscience when they do wrong.

Liu Rui, having been in office for over thirty years, had enjoyed a smooth career and rapid rise, basically smooth sailing, but his ability to withstand pressure was extremely poor; he had already been frightened out of his wits, unable to utter a single coherent sentence.

Seeing this, Lin Changping did not want to waste time, directly announced that Liu Rui would be placed under custody. The Discipline Inspection Committee staff, like hawks catching chicks, escorted him out of the meeting room and took him to the Provincial Anti-Corruption Education Base.