Rebirth of the Industrial Tycoon - Vol 2 Chapter 675
Chapter 675 Grab the Order
On the second day of the Thailand Agricultural Expo, all the exhibitors were surprised by the huge order of 5 billion baht.
5 billion baht, equivalent to more than 1 billion RMB and 130 million US dollars according to the exchange rate at that time, such an order placed in the international agricultural machinery market is enough to make all agricultural machinery giants break their heads.
However, Kubota took the order silently, without even hearing any rumors before.
A discerning person will know at a glance that Kubota has already reached an internal transaction with Thailand, and the two parties did not announce the news until the negotiation was reached.
Such a large order suddenly appeared, and many exhibitors immediately began to inquire about the details of the transaction.
After the end of the exhibition that day, Yue An hurriedly came to Li Weidong’s room.
“Have you figured it out?” Li Weidong said as he handed Yue An’an a bottle of mineral water.
Yue Anan picked up the mineral water bottle and took a big gulp before he said, “I have already inquired about the order of 5 billion baht. This time, the Thai Ministry of Agriculture, the agricultural association and the rural cooperative jointly paid for it. The money can also be regarded as a government procurement project.”
Li Weidong nodded: “Five billion baht is not a small amount. Considering the size of Thailand’s economy, it is a huge investment to be willing to spend so much money.”
“Yeah, I was wondering before, the government’s purchase of agricultural machinery for farmers is a huge subsidy, and Thailand is not a rich country like the United States and Japan, how can it be willing to pay such a large amount of money to subsidize farmers !”
Yue An’an lowered his voice and continued: “Later I asked friends who are familiar with Thailand and found out that Thailand is going to have a general election next year, and we need to consolidate the votes.”
“So it is! Then it makes sense to place this order of 5 billion baht.” Li Weidong showed a sudden realization.
The last general election in Thailand was in 2001, and the term of the Thai government is four years. Now more than three years have passed. It is about to enter the new year, and the next general election is about to start.
The current government wants to be re-elected. Of course, it needs to do something at this time to ensure its votes.
The Thaksin government is now in power, and Thaksin’s policies have always been biased towards rural areas and farmers. When he ran for election, he positioned himself as a defender of the rural poor. After he came to power, he also introduced many policies targeting farmers. preferential policies.
The more famous one, and the one that has been publicized by domestic publicists, is the policy of 30 baht to see a doctor, so that farmers in Thailand only need to spend 30 baht to go to a public hospital for treatment without having to pay other expenses.
Thailand implemented free medical care for all in 2006. Of course, the premise of enjoying free medical care is to pay medical insurance. However, the price of universal medical insurance in Thailand is not expensive, and Thai citizens only need to pay two-thirds, and the other third is borne by the Thai royal family.
However, the vast majority of poor farmers in Thailand do not participate in the universal medical insurance. Without medical insurance, they cannot enjoy universal medical care.
So Thaksin government launched a 30 baht treatment plan. As long as you are a Thai citizen, even if you do not have medical insurance, you only need to pay 30 baht to get treatment when you go to a public hospital.
Many Chinese are envious as long as they hear the word “free”, but in fact, the free medical care in Thailand is really comparable to that in India. Ranked first, whether it can be cured or not depends on the will of God.
Therefore, whenever Thais have some spare money in their hands, they will not queue up at public hospitals, but will choose private hospitals. The price of private hospitals in Thailand is not cheap. A CT scan and a B-ultrasound will cost more than 1,000 yuan.
Of course, the services of private hospitals are also really good. For the sake of money, doctors and nurses will greet patients more than relatives.
For such a thing as free medical care, the first thing is to invest money. If the state does not invest money, why is it free?
In addition to enough money, there also needs to be sufficient medical resources. The amount of medical resources will determine the waiting time of patients. With enough medical resources, patients can see a doctor as soon as they arrive at the hospital, and the doctor can chat with you for half an hour. There are insufficient medical resources. If you want to see a doctor, you have to wait in line for three months.
And the medical resources of a country, how many people can afford to see a doctor, this is not a public health problem, but a mathematical problem.
If the medical resources are only enough for 100 people to see a doctor every day, and the 101st patient comes, it must be done tomorrow. The thousand and first patient would have to wait ten days, and so on.
In a hospital, a city, a province, or even a country, the amount of medical care can be calculated by numbers, and these numbers are not deceiving.
No matter how you use inferences, estimates, or other cases to justify, numbers are numbers, and one plus one equals two, which cannot be changed by any external force.
There is no country in the world that dares to say that it has a surplus of medical care. So those who say that free medical care will not run on medical resources are pure nonsense.
This is like an expressway. It is normal to charge a fee in normal times, but once it is a holiday, the expressway is free, and then the traffic jam will become a problem. Everyone should know what to do.
In the countries that implement free medical care in the world, there is no doctor without queuing. The only difference is that the waiting time is longer and the waiting time is longer.
Free medical care like in developed countries in Europe is still good. Although it takes several weeks to see a doctor and several months to get an examination, the medical level is still there, and it can be cured anyway. it is good.
And the worst free medical care is that the patient queues up, sees the doctor, and has an examination, but the doctor has no ability to cure the patient’s disease.
Here, it is said that the disease cannot be cured, it is not the kind of intractable disease that is really difficult to treat, but simply the low level of medical treatment.
The medical level of a country can be estimated by looking at the country’s medical investment.
Medical care costs money. Equipment and medicines cost money, not to mention the investment needed to train a doctor. If you don’t want to spend money, there will be no good equipment, no good medicine, and no good doctor.
If you invest one billion yuan to build a hospital, you can have one or two buildings, MRI and CT are readily available, doctors also have doctorate degrees, and basic diseases can be treated.
And I invested 1,000 yuan to build a hospital, then I rented a garage, and the examination all depended on a stethoscope. When seeing a doctor, the doctor consulted the “Barefoot Doctor’s Manual” on the spot, even if it gave you free medical treatment, you dare to go!
Therefore, when a country is chanting for free medical care, it has a pitiful investment in medical care. The end result is that patients have been queuing for a year and a half, and when they arrive at the hospital, the doctor tells you that my level is limited, and I cannot cure your disease.
Thailand’s public hospitals are like this. Most of the doctors are young, with average skills and experience.
Because all qualified doctors go to private hospitals to make money, doctors are also human, and they also want to eat well, wear well, use well, live in a luxury house and drive a good car. They have spent so much time and effort to study medicine, and have accumulated many years of experience in public hospitals. , why don’t you go to a private hospital to make money? If there is no money, what will my son study medicine in the future?
If you can meet a senior doctor in a public hospital in Thailand, 80% of it is of a relatively poor level, and the kind that private hospitals do not want.
The key is to go to your Thai public hospital to see a doctor, be patient and wait.
Thai people’s character is inherently slow, they are not in a hurry to do anything, and the work efficiency of the hospital is also very low.
If Chinese doctors dare to use the sales of Thai doctors to see a doctor, they don’t need the patient to beat you, and the hospital has to fire the doctor first.
But it is also because Thai people have such a slow personality, so patients are also slow, and when they go to the hospital to see a doctor, they are at ease as soon as they come. The doctor is not in a hurry, and the patient is not in a hurry. who runs slow.
However, for poor farmers, the policy of seeing a doctor for 30 baht is a real benefit. Anyway, there is no free medical care, and they can’t afford to see a doctor. Chance.
The poor have never been short of time, and their time is not valuable, and some of them spend time in the hospital.
In addition to the 30 baht policy of seeing a doctor, the Thaksin government also gave farmers a lot of subsidies, such as fertilizer subsidies, seed subsidies, agricultural machinery subsidies, pesticide subsidies, etc. When purchasing grain, they were worried that farmers would suffer losses, and they also formulated a relatively high grain purchase prices.
It is also because the Thaksin government’s policy is biased towards poor farmers, so the farmers in Thailand are very supportive of Thaksin.
The rural population of Thailand accounts for 70% of the total population, so as long as the votes of the farmers are in control, they can basically be elected. It is with the support of the majority of Thai farmers that Thaksin became the first Prime Minister of Thailand to serve a four-year term. and the successfully re-elected Prime Minister.
The Shinawatra family, where Thaksin belonged, also relied on the support of Thai farmers to give birth to three prime ministers.
However, it is precisely because the Thaksin government’s policy is biased towards poor farmers that it has touched many interest groups, especially the middle class in some cities, and has a sense of deprivation, so they are more opposed to Thaksin, which eventually led to the future red The situation of the confrontation between the shirt army and the yellow shirt army.
This is also very understandable, such as free medical care, those who live in cities originally paid medical insurance honestly, and then went to enjoy medical services in public hospitals.
Later, with the policy of 30 baht for medical treatment, a large group of farmers who did not pay medical insurance came to public hospitals, while those who originally paid medical insurance had to queue longer and even spend more money to go to private hospitals. How can there be no complaints in this heart?
I pay so much money for medical insurance a year, why should I use it for the poor who pay 30 baht to see a doctor?
There are many other policies that harm the middle class. So these people whose interests were damaged formed a yellow shirt army and united against Thaksin, while the peasants who supported Thaksin formed a red shirt army, and the two sides eventually fought.
This is essentially a problem of social resource allocation. It is necessary to take care of the poor and disadvantaged groups, but the pie is only so big, and there is simply not enough to divide it. The more divided and the less divided, naturally there will be opposition.
Therefore, if you want to help the poor and disadvantaged, you must first build up the economy, make the pie bigger, and make enough for everyone to share, and then divide the pie to be successful.
The purchase of 5 billion baht this time is actually another pie, and this time the pie is given to farmers who grow rice in Thailand.
Westerners have two labels for Thailand, one is massage and the other is rice.
Rice is the mainstay of agriculture in Thailand, and there are a lot of people who are engaged in rice cultivation in Thailand. If you manage these rice farmers, you can get a large number of votes.
5 billion baht was also a huge amount of money for Thailand’s finances at that time. If it wasn’t for votes, there might not have been such a strong agricultural subsidy.
Li Weidong continued to ask: “This is a huge order of 5 billion baht. I haven’t heard the slightest bit of wind before, and it suddenly fell into Kubota’s hands. There should be an exchange of interests between Kubota and Thailand, right?”
“It’s because of the railway. Thailand has always wanted to build a high-speed railway to connect Bangkok and Chiang Mai in the north, but Thailand’s technology and funds are not enough to build such a high-speed railway.”
Yue An went on to introduce: “Japan’s high-speed rail technology is unparalleled in the world, and the Shinkansen has been successfully operating for so many years, so Kubota received this huge order of 5 billion baht on the condition of helping Thailand build high-speed rail.”
Bangkok is the capital of Thailand, and Chiang Mai is the former capital of Thailand. These are the two most important cities in Thailand. The construction of high-speed rail between the two cities is of great significance.
In Li Weidong’s memory, Thailand has always wanted to build a high-speed railway between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. In 2015, it also bid for the whole world. At that time, China, Japan, Germany and other countries capable of building high-speed railways also came. Enter the bidding.
China’s offer was originally the cheapest, but in the final stage, Japan lowered the price very low, and the cost per kilometer was almost the same as that of China. However, in order to cut off this high-speed rail order, Japan also sent supporting services, and finally won the high-speed rail project.
The railway between Bangkok and Chiang Mai is more than 680 kilometers long. The price quoted by China is almost 84.5 billion yuan, and one kilometer is 124 million yuan. The price is already very low.
And Japan will lower the price, and naturally there will be no profit. This is destined to be a loss-making business. So Japan can only have a shrinking configuration, saying that Thailand is not suitable for building a high-speed rail with a speed of more than 300 kilometers per hour, and reduce the speed to 180 kilometers per hour.
The speed was reduced by one-third for no reason, and the Thais must not do it, so the two sides began to argue. The start date has also been postponed again and again.
The latest news about this Thailand-Japan high-speed rail line is that by 2019, after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, Thailand’s economy will be affected, and there will be no relevant news. It is estimated that it will be over.
Li Weidong recalled carefully, and then said: “The cost of high-speed railways is very expensive. In the world, only developed countries can build this thing.
With Thailand’s financial resources, if you want to build a high-speed rail, you must need financial support. It seems that this is the role of Kubota. Kubota is also a big consortium in Japan, and it also makes construction machinery, which is influential in the Japanese political and business circles.
Thailand chose Kubota to build a high-speed railway, which is understandable, but how did Song Chengde’s Dayang Machinery Group get involved? Still got the order? ”
“Speaking of this, I will be angry!” Yue An An went on to say: “Dayang Machinery is a southern company, and they are good at producing agricultural machinery for rice planting. Kubota took this into consideration and chose to cooperate with Dayang Machinery.
The agricultural machinery produced by Kubota in Japan is too expensive. For example, the rice rotary cultivator, if 5 billion baht is bought in Japan, it can only buy more than 3,000 units.
The rice rotary cultivator produced by Dayang Machinery is much cheaper. If it is replaced with the equipment of Dayang Machinery, I estimate that if it is 5 billion baht, you can buy 9,000 to 10,000 units.
Thailand also has requirements for the quantity of agricultural machinery for this purchase. If all of them are produced and delivered in Japan, the quantity will be insufficient and the contract cannot be completed.
Therefore, Kubota cooperated with Dayang Machinery. Kubota provided key components such as engines and gearboxes. Dayang Machinery was responsible for producing the products, and then affixed the Kubota trademark and sold them to Thailand. ”
“It’s equivalent to being an OEM!” Li Weidong said.
“It’s OEM!” Yue An’an curled his lips with a look of disdain: “Only a OEM order can make a few dollars, I guess Kubota will still earn the bulk of the money, and Song Chengde is just drinking a sip of soup. But look at him. That villain’s triumphant appearance, I wanted to beat him up when I saw it!”
Li Weidong smiled and asked: “You just want to beat Song Chengde, don’t you feel jealous when you see the order of 5 billion baht?
“I must be jealous! If we get the order of 5 billion baht, we will be able to eat for several years! But it is useless to be greedy, this order is clearly given to Kubota by default, and it is not our turn…”
Yue An An suddenly stopped talking here, then looked at Li Weidong with a look of surprise, and then said: “Chairman, do you want to grab an order of 5 billion baht? Do you already have an idea?”
“As a business, as long as we have money to make money, how can we hand it over to others! What’s more, this is a large order of 5 billion baht!” Li Weidong then asked: “There is a saying in the ancients that if you are not an eunuch, you will suffer unevenly. You must have heard of it, right?”
“I know, it’s what Confucius said in the Analects of Confucius.” Yue Anan then asked: “Is this related to grabbing orders?”
“Of course it does, but don’t underestimate the wisdom of our ancestors!” Li Weidong continued: “Next, you have to do a few things. First, find a way to publicize the five billion baht agricultural machinery orders. Try to let every Thai know about it.”
“I guess I don’t need to do this kind of thing. It is related to next year’s general election. The Thai Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Association will publicize this as an important political achievement. They want every Thai to know about it.” Yue Anan said. .
“Then we have to help fuel the flames!” Li Weidong continued: “The second thing is to spend money to find some Thai experts, let them write articles, or go on TV shows, to discuss and analyze carefully, five billion baht. How will the agricultural machinery be distributed by the agricultural association!
The third thing is to find more reporters, take the discussion and analysis results of experts, go around various villages, and interview farmers’ opinions. In addition, you can also find some survey agencies to go to the countryside to investigate the results of public opinion.
The fourth thing, try to get in touch with the senior management of the Thai Agricultural Association, send more gifts, or invite them to take a bath and massage. ”
Yue An’an rolled his eyes and quickly understood Li Weidong’s intentions. He couldn’t help but give a thumbs up: “Chairman, you are a clever trick!”
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(end of this chapter)