Chapter 703

The first battle was victorious, as expected.

Afterwards, Lu Fan visited the Development and Reform, Finance, Education and other departments nonstop, seeking funds and projects.

Given Lu Fan's current position, whichever department he visits must be received by the top leader in person, and the due respect must be shown—this is basic etiquette and also the "face" he ought to have.

The Education Department was very interested in the grassland's education reform, praised Lu Fan's boldness, and said it would soon organize a research team to go to the grassland for study after implementing free education province-wide first.

Regarding the grassland's application for 25 projects and 3.5 billion yuan, Minister Chen Shaobo said he would give it priority consideration and fully support the grassland's education cause.

After the work talk, Minister Chen Shaobo specially hosted a banquet for Lu Fan's entourage, fully releasing goodwill.

Over the next few days, Lu Fan shuttled between departments, gaining various achievements big and small. However, these were merely intentions reached among leaders; to turn funds and projects into reality, the deputy provincial governor and provincial departments must strengthen coordination with superiors, involving much tedious work, inevitably involving "human relations and worldly wisdom."

July 9, Lu Fan returned to the grassland.

On the way to the airport, Lu Fan asked Wang Yubin beside him: "How many years have you been doing coordination work in Yancheng?"

Wang Yubin hurriedly replied: "Secretary, I was in charge of the specific work of the Beijing Office in 2021, and officially became its director in early 2022."

Lu Fan suddenly asked: "How many deputy secretary-general positions are vacant in the Provincial Party Committee now? Are you interested?"

Happiness came too suddenly; Wang Yubin was dazed for two seconds, then his face lit up with joy, and he excitedly replied: "Secretary, I'll go wherever you send me! As long as you think I'm capable, I will devote myself to death!"

Lu Fan showed displeasure: "Promoting you is a work necessity, an organizational act; don't spout feudalist nonsense—you must serve the people and serve the grassland's development!"

Wang Yubin hastily corrected: "Secretary, I was wrong! I must thank the organization for its cultivation and trust; I will surely take my post to contribute, fulfill my duties with courage, be proactive and strive to lead, act earnestly to uphold my original aspiration, and absolutely not disappoint your expectations!" He understood a principle: what should be said must be said, what should be expressed must be expressed—this is a matter of political stance; attitude matters more than work.

July 10, the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee convened to study and deploy current key work, review matters related to the provincial investment promotion conference, and discuss related personnel issues, mainly the appointments of seven mayors, mixed with some adjustments of provincial-level cadres; the meeting passed unanimously.

July 12, the Provincial Party Committee Organization Department issued a document:

Li Chengjing appointed Deputy Secretary of the Yike Municipal Party Committee, nominated as mayoral candidate;

Han Shangjun appointed Deputy Secretary of the Jiuyuan Municipal Party Committee, nominated as mayor;

Cai Jinjun appointed Deputy Secretary of the Ximeng League Party Committee, nominated as league leader candidate;

Wei Ruodai appointed Deputy Secretary of the Zhelimu Municipal Party Committee, nominated as mayoral candidate;

Li Zhengyang appointed Deputy Secretary of the Hetao Municipal Party Committee, nominated as mayoral candidate;

Chen Kaiming appointed Deputy Secretary of the Yungu Municipal Party Committee, nominated as mayoral candidate;

Guo Xiao appointed Deputy Secretary of the Qiuiling Municipal Party Committee, nominated as mayoral candidate;

Wang Yubin appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the Provincial Party Committee;

Zhang Bingkun appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the Provincial Party Committee

……

The two Provincial Party Committee deputy secretaries-general are one the Beijing Office director and the other the Haiwu Municipal Party Committee secretary, both personally selected by Lu Fan.

Thereafter, Lu Fan's attention and work focus shifted entirely from personnel adjustments to economic and livelihood work.

July 15, the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government issued a notice designating July 16 to August 31 as the province's key investment promotion month.

After this major reshuffle, the leadership teams of all cities underwent tremendous changes; everyone rallied, hoping to shine in investment promotion work to win Lu Secretary's favor.

Consequently, all regions and relevant departments went all out to implement development as the top priority, do well in investment promotion as the top task, and enhance the business environment as the top competitiveness; a vigorous investment promotion campaign swept the province, with all levels and departments pulling out all stops, offering the most preferential policies and real money, coordinating efforts to fully push investment promotion work.

On this hotbed of investment and entrepreneurship in the grassland, a new striving melody was sounded.

The Provincial Commerce Department recently issued a notice launching the province's 2027 key investment promotion project recognition; recognized annual key investment promotion projects will be supported per the "Grassland Province Measures to Further Strengthen Investment Promotion Work." According to the policy, qualifying major foreign investment projects and domestic advanced manufacturing projects receive a maximum reward of 20 million yuan!

The Yike municipal top leader led a team to promote investment, strengthening cooperation with the Greater Bay Area, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and other regions, focusing on the photovoltaic, new-energy battery, and biomedicine industrial chains, introducing a batch of anchor enterprises, supporting them in bringing in and nurturing complementary enterprises, and driving cluster development of upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain.

The Jiuyuan municipal Party secretary and mayor both took the field, using the new-energy battery industry as an example, actively pursuing "business-to-business investment attraction," successively attracting a batch of key industry enterprises to sign and settle, striving to build the industry from scratch and gradually cover the full upstream-midstream-downstream industrial chain layout.

In Helun, the "major investment promotion" mechanism implements a tiered package guarantee promotion mechanism for key investment projects—one project, one leader, one team, one plan, see it through to the end—to achieve full lifecycle management of investment promotion, enhancing the city's investment promotion efficiency and service level, and has successively signed 15 cultural and tourism projects worth over 100 million yuan each.

……

Within just two weeks, Lu Fan successively attended the centralized signing ceremonies of projects in seven cities.

August 2, the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government convened the provincial investment promotion and integrity-building conference, making overall deployment and mobilization for investment promotion work, releasing a strong signal: investment promotion efforts will not wane, the integrity-building project will be accelerated, multiple measures will be taken to launch the "Invest in Inner Grassland" brand.

Governor Luo Shiyu chaired the meeting; the top leaders of the four leadership teams and provincial-level leaders present attended collectively, with Lu Fan present and speaking.

At the meeting, attendees collectively watched a documentary on the province's investment promotion work.

Deputy Governor Zhao Ziren interpreted the "Grassland Province Investment Promotion Golden 25 Articles," including tax incentives, land-use support, fiscal subsidies, streamlined approval procedures, financial support policies, talent introduction policies, and other customized investment services, letting the nation see the grassland's determination and confidence in investment promotion.

Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee member and Organization Department Head Shang Youyang conveyed and explained the "Investment Promotion Performance Evaluation and Incentive Measures."

Deputy Governor and Public Security Department Director Zhao Jiping reported on the integrity-building project implementation plan, task list, and status of specific measures formulation.

The top leaders of the twelve leagues and cities respectively reported recent investment promotion results and introduced each area's characteristic resources, investment advantages, and key projects, covering modern energy and coal chemical processing, deep processing of agricultural and livestock products, high-end equipment manufacturing, digital economy, biopharmaceuticals, ecological environmental protection, new materials, modern logistics, tourism culture, and opening-up fields.

Finally, Lu Fan emphasized in his speech that, looking across the country, sparing no effort to attract investment, bring in projects, and compete economically has already become the "main theme." Faced with the situation of "no advance means retreat, slow advance also means retreat," the grassland must proactively adapt to changing investment promotion circumstances, seize the initiative, and actively seek cooperation through docking.

Lu Fan demanded that all levels province-wide vigorously promote the grassland horse spirit, muster strength, ride the momentum, and fully strive to achieve annual goals and tasks, seeking better results. He urged judging heroes by actual funds in place and projects launched, cutting meaningless evaluation indicators and awards, simplifying, avoiding balancing considerations, and conducting precise, pragmatic, on-site assessment and rewards—everything judged by results and practical effectiveness.

Lu Fan pointed out that we must firmly oppose formalism, not waste energy on lively events, strictly ban showy investment promotion conferences, signing ceremonies, and docking activities, and as much as possible adopt point-to-point methods for precise investment promotion, aiming to sign one household after talking with one household and have that household's project implemented.

Finally, Lu Fan earnestly said: "To vigorously promote investment promotion, a good business environment is essential, and a good business environment first means speaking with integrity and keeping promises."

Integrity building is a major project vigorously promoted by the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government; we must comprehensively grasp governmental integrity, business integrity, social integrity, and judicial credibility, and inherit the fine tradition of the grassland people keeping faith and fulfilling promises—know integrity, value integrity, keep integrity! All party and government organs must lead by speaking and keeping counts; promises made to investors must be sealed with spit and nail; promised matters must be fulfilled without fail. Every leading cadre should establish themselves with integrity and demonstrate it to others, serving as a spokesperson for the integrity of the grassland.

We must surely do well in the "second half" of landing project services, greatly compressing project approval processing time, providing comprehensive, full-process tracking service, treating foreign and domestic enterprises, state-owned and private firms, large and small, new and old equally, so that enterprises can settle down, take root, and thrive, striving to make the grassland form a scene where large projects stand tall and small projects spread everywhere—a pleasing sight.

After the meeting, the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government again held a provincial centralized investment promotion signing ceremony in Conference Hall No. 1, attended by 368 enterprise representatives from across the country.

Lu Fan, representing the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, delivered an enthusiastic speech, smiling as he said: "The grassland boasts beautiful mountains and rivers, abundant resources, and outstanding people; grasslanders are known for their loyalty, frankness, and generosity. Our party and government organs at all levels will lead by speaking and keeping counts; we will answer enterprises' requests with a spit-and-nail promise, never firing blanks; we will fulfill enterprises' promises without fail, never arbitrarily scaling back or discounting, turning the promised 'hand-grabbed meat' into a mere potato."

We will surely implement policies in earnest, fulfill signed contracts, repay owed debts, honor made promises, and execute effective judicial rulings, thereby maintaining government credibility through concrete actions and leading society to form an integrity-driven atmosphere.

Planting paulownia trees to attract phoenixes, the grassland, with utmost determination and greatest effort, is optimizing the business environment, opening its warm embrace, sincerely inviting more aspiring individuals to invest and start businesses on this hot land, to jointly plan cooperation and develop hand-in-hand with the nation's excellent and strong enterprises, and together depict the grassland's high-quality development "concentric circles."