Chapter 2615

After finishing this glass, Old Huang came in with two more dishes. He placed them on the table and saw that the bottle of liquor was already half empty. He said, "Engineer Li, the dishes aren't even all served yet, and you've already drunk half the liquor. Drink slowly, take care of your health."

Li Yimiao smiled and said, "It's fine, Old Huang."

Old Huang went down. Li Yimiao pointed to the two dishes and said, "Director Su, eat."

These two dishes were braised fish chunks and scrambled eggs with chives, also home-style dishes, with generous portions. Su Xinghui was also a bit hungry, so he began to eat heartily.

Old Huang came in again. He brought two small plates, one with fermented bean curd and the other with pickles. He said, "These two plates are on the house, no charge. If you finish them, ask me for more."

Li Yimiao nodded and thanked Old Huang. Old Huang went out again, and this time he closed the door behind him.

Li Yimiao ate a pickled radish and said to Su Xinghui, "Director Su, if it weren't for what you said to Li Jun last time, I wouldn't have dared to ask you for help. Thinking it over, only you might be able to help us with this matter."

Su Xinghui said, "What is it? Just say it. If I can help, I definitely will."

Li Yimiao nodded and said, "It's about the factory's joint venture with foreigners. Director Su, you heard about it last time. I feel that this time, we cannot enter a joint venture with that Japanese company."

Su Xinghui said, "Why?"

Li Yimiao said, "These foreign companies have no sincerity in cooperating with our factory at all. The conditions they proposed are too harsh; they are completely making us work for them for free. If we could learn technology by working for free, that would be fine, but according to their conditions, it's impossible for us to learn their technology at all!"

Su Xinghui said, "Oh, has Ono Company already proposed conditions?"

Li Yimiao nodded and told Su Xinghui the conditions he had heard that Ono Precision Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd. had proposed during the negotiations.

The conditions proposed by Ono Company were indeed very harsh. The technology they brought to cooperate with Hujiang Machinery Factory was technology from ten or twenty years ago, and the core technology was still in their hands. The chips for those CNC machine tools were all shipped directly from Japan by them, and some core components were also shipped by them.

In addition, they also required that the management personnel and key technical personnel of the joint venture factory be transferred from their home country, and the management style was to be completely copied from their own. However, Li Yimiao knew that in reality, the management style they proposed was heavily discounted compared to their own in Japan.

For example, the workers' benefits were far worse than those in Japanese factories, and they also required the joint venture factory to lay off almost more than half of the staff, with no compensation for the laid-off workers.

The Japanese side was also unwilling to bear the original debts of Hujiang Machinery Factory. In short, the Japanese side would not bear any historical burdens of Hujiang Machinery Factory.

Not only that, Ono Company also wanted to take away more than half of the profits. Besides these visible profits, the prices of the chips and core components they shipped from Japan were also set according to market prices. The prices of these things sold to China were already set high, and the profits were exorbitant. Calculating it this way, eighty to ninety percent of the profit from producing a machine tool was taken away by the Japanese.

This means that Hujiang Machinery Factory could only eat some leftovers, while still bearing huge historical burdens and not being able to learn core technology. Can such cooperation conditions be accepted?

Su Xinghui asked, "These cooperation conditions shouldn't be public yet, right? How do you know?"

Li Yimiao sneered and said, "They are negotiating, there must be people from the factory participating, how can this be hidden from people?"

Su Xinghui nodded and asked again, "Then what is the opinion of your factory leaders? And what are the city's plans?"

Li Yimiao said, "This is exactly the problem, otherwise I wouldn't have come to you. Previously, several companies from the United States and Germany also came to talk about joint ventures. Their conditions were also quite harsh, but not as harsh as this Japanese company. The city and the factory were not inclined to cooperate with them, but this Japanese company's conditions are even harsher, and now there are voices in the city and the factory saying they are inclined to cooperate with them."

Su Xinghui asked, "Are there really such voices in the city and the factory?"

Li Yimiao smiled bitterly: "What good would it do me to lie? I'm not a factory leader, and I don't get a penny of benefit from cooperating with anyone. I just can't stand this kind of thing. Isn't this an unequal treaty that humiliates the country and forfeits its sovereignty? It's not the Qing Dynasty anymore, nor is it the Republic of China!"

Li Jun said indignantly, "Yes, doesn't this amount to selling out our factory? Selling out us workers? I don't know who got the benefits!"

Li Yimiao said, "Who got the benefits? Won't we know after a while when the cooperation is negotiated? I've heard that in a certain province, a factory imported a batch of equipment from the Japanese, and the price was several times higher than the market price. Less than two months later, the factory manager's son was sent to Japan to study, and the factory's leaders all went to Japan for inspection. After they came back, their homes were full of Japanese electrical appliances."

Li Jun said angrily, "There's such a thing? This is outrageous! Isn't this as obvious as lice on a bald head? This is using power for personal gain, exchanging national interests for personal interests!"

Li Yimiao said, "Who says it isn't? But what can we do? When they want us to work, they say we are the masters, but when it comes to making decisions, we are just small workers!"

Speaking of this, Li Yimiao raised his glass in indignation and drank it in one gulp.

Su Xinghui pondered for a long time and asked, "Engineer Li, what favor do you want to ask me for?"

Li Yimiao said, "You are the Deputy Director of the Policy Research Office of the State Planning Commission. I know that this place can pass words to big leaders. I hope that the matter of our Hujiang Machinery Factory can be known to big leaders, to see if they will manage it or not."

Su Xinghui picked up his glass and said, "Come, Engineer Li, I'll toast you, for being able to care for the factory and taking the factory as your own responsibility."

Li Yimiao smiled bitterly and picked up his glass: "Sigh, if I, a small worker, said such things in front of others, I would probably be laughed to death. Eating Chinese cabbage every day, yet worrying about the factory leaders' business. The key is that no one appreciates my kindness!"

Su Xinghui said, "Engineer Li, I can help you with this matter. However, your factory has fallen into such a predicament now. If you can't enter a joint venture with a foreign company, what is the way out?"

Li Yimiao said, "How could there be no way out? The factory has reached this point, and backward technology is certainly one reason, but it is not the only reason. There are many reasons that led to this result. One main reason is that the factory's management style has big problems and needs reform."

Su Xinghui said, "Then tell me, how should it be reformed?"

Li Yimiao said, "The factory's burden is very heavy now, and a big reason is that there are too many redundant personnel and people are idle. Many people are connections of factory leaders or even some city leaders, stuffed into the factory. Many of them serve as middle-level cadres. These people take money without working, and even undermine the factory. Can the factory be run well like this?"

"For example, the people in the factory's supply and marketing department, those in charge of procurement buy raw materials that are more expensive than other factories, and those in charge of sales are also incompetent, have no ability, and can't get orders. Can the factory not lose money? We should follow the management style of modern enterprises, let capable people go up, and incompetent people go down..."

Li Yimiao spoke eloquently for more than ten minutes, stating all his thoughts on the reform of Hujiang Machinery Factory. It could be seen that he had been thinking about these ideas for a long time, so he spoke very fluently, without hesitation.

Su Xinghui nodded repeatedly. In fact, Hujiang Machinery Factory shouldn't be like this now. Their technology is indeed behind foreign countries, but this is caused by historical reasons, and it doesn't mean they have no competitiveness in the country at all.

For example, in the production and installation of large-scale complete sets of chemical equipment, Hujiang Machinery Factory's technical strength is still leading in the country. It's just that due to poor management, they have no advantage in cost compared to other similar manufacturers in the country, coupled with the ability problems of sales personnel, which is why they can't get orders.