Chen Yang was unaware of the kind of inspection team Zhou Shēngsheng had arranged for him, but no matter who they were, he would treat them well.
Putting aside Zhou Shēngsheng’s current status and position in Hong Kong, just for the fifty thousand US dollars he had exchanged for him, Chen Yang had to properly host the people sent by Zhou Shēngsheng to inspect the mainland.
This fifty thousand US dollars might not be much to Zhou Shēngsheng, but to him now, it was a desperately needed foreign exchange fund.
This money was directly related to the transformation of his business: the Shanghai Third Radio Factory buying a television production line, and his own factory in Jinling needing a television production line!
The entire country was in the midst of an industrial boom. Television production was not high, which was the perfect time for him to enter the market.
Even though everyone seemed to be living in poverty now, soon, in the 1980s, China's economy would enter a period of relatively high-speed development.
It was not that every household would have a color television, but the days when one out of ten households had a black and white television, and one out of a hundred households had a color television, were not far off.
This household television ownership ratio might not be high compared to developed countries, but with China's massive population base, even assuming four people per family, China had at least nearly two hundred million households.
Even if only one out of ten families could afford a black and white television, that would still be a demand of twenty million units, a terrifying number.
Currently, a television cost several hundred yuan, with the most expensive ones exceeding a thousand. This represented a demand of tens of billions, even hundreds of billions.
In his previous life, the Japanese had made a fortune in China. Chen Yang had to make his plans quickly. With just his two production lines, even running at full capacity, he wouldn't be able to produce many televisions in a year.
He needed to produce the first batch of televisions as soon as possible, establish the brand, then quickly recover capital to purchase more production lines, and then expand production capacity.
Doing business was like rolling a snowball: continuously investing, expanding scale, selling to make money, and then reinvesting to expand scale again…
Under the blast of the ship's whistle, Chen Yang watched Hong Kong gradually disappear from his sight behind him, listening to the sound of the waves hitting the ship.
At this moment, he felt a sense of grand ambition, akin to Cao Mèngdé gazing at the sea from Jiéshí. This time, he could finally embark on a grand endeavor.
“Brother, I'll stay in Shēnchéng. I need to quickly find people to get things started here. Bǎoguó can stay with me. Let's get the radio business up and running quickly.”
“Once the goods arrive from Wǎn Province, I'll coordinate with Huáng Lǐzhēn. If she can really get a television production line from Hong Kong, then my operations here might even start before Jinling and Shanghai.”
Upon arriving in Shēnchéng, Zhāng Wéiyáng, following the previous arrangements, was ready to get straight to business.
An official from the Industrial and Commercial Bureau of Wǎn Province had already arrived and was waiting for Chen Yang. Zōu Chéngguāng had accompanied the leaders to Yuè Province for an inspection.
It was called an inspection, but it was more about exchanging experiences. Those who were well-informed already knew that Shēnchéng in Yuè Province might be designated as a Special Economic Zone.
At this time, Shēnchéng was still a small fishing village, unaware of what a Special Economic Zone was, or what reform and opening up entailed, or how to develop the economy.
Therefore, they had to seek help from Wǎn Province, which had a thriving economy, hence this so-called experience exchange.
This was also a butterfly effect brought about by Chen Yang. In his previous life, people from Wǎn Province had no right to dictate Shēnchéng's economic development.
Shēnchéng's GDP alone was almost equal to that of the entire Wǎn Province, so there was no comparison.
Chen Yang reported his gains from the trip to Hong Kong to Zōu Chéngguāng and the assembled leaders on the spot. Hearing that Chen Yang had brought back fifty thousand US dollars and an order for over two million Hong Kong dollars worth of distiller's grains fish,
all the leaders' eyes lit up. In an era when foreign exchange was scarce, Chen Yang's move was a beacon for all the leaders.
In fact, from this era until the early twenty-first century, many people in China felt a sense of inferiority. Seeing the advanced science and technology and developed economy of foreign countries,
many felt that Chinese people were inferior and that Chinese products lacked competitiveness and were not as advanced as foreign goods.
At this time, many Chinese people felt a sense of self-doubt, leading to a surge in studying abroad. This trend was difficult to curb even after the country became stronger in later years.
It was precisely because they felt that foreign economies were more developed than theirs that during the initial stages of reform and opening up, they desperately, even at the cost of sacrificing some industries, sought to attract foreign investment.
Indeed, from a simple example, even in the twenty-first century, how many cars running on Chinese streets were of domestic independent brands?
It could be said that most were joint ventures!
Brands like Dongfeng Honda, GAC Honda, FAW-Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, Beijing Hyundai…
They bore Chinese place names, but in essence, they were cars manufactured by foreign car companies. They built factories on Chinese soil, hired Chinese workers, used various local Chinese equipment, and built cars to sell to Chinese people.
Then, after everything was done, a car sold for hundreds of thousands, and most of the profits in the entire process went back into the pockets of foreigners.
Therefore, the rapid economic development in the early stages of China was not without its cost.
China's vast consumer market of over a billion people had, in essence, been largely carved up by many foreign enterprises.
Did anyone truly believe that capitalist enterprises would so benevolently help build a country? They all came with a purpose, aiming for your consumer market.
The initial investment was nothing compared to the later returns.
Of course, under economic globalization, this was also an inevitable trend. While foreign brands flooded the Chinese market, Chinese manufacturing also flooded the markets of other countries in the later stages.
The key was that one had to achieve breakthroughs in critical technologies and not be held back by others.
Why had Chinese car companies never truly taken off? It was because engine technology was bottlenecked by the Americans and the European Union.
Why were Huawei and photovoltaic technology suppressed by the Americans and the European Union? It was because we had made breakthroughs, even surpassing them, in critical fields and key technologies.
Chen Yang himself didn't think much of it, but for these leaders who had no idea how to develop the economy or engage in foreign trade, the fifty thousand US dollars and the two million Hong Kong dollar order were like a path filled with light.
It was as if, through Chen Yang, they had learned that earning foreign exchange was not that difficult, and doing foreign trade business didn't seem so daunting.
With the attention of Zōu Chéngguāng and the leaders from Yuè Province's Industrial and Commercial Bureau, Zhāng Wéiyáng naturally wouldn't miss such a golden opportunity. This was an excellent chance to expand his market in Yuè Province.
Chen Yang, however, didn't concern himself with how Zhāng Wéiyáng would proceed. Zhāng Wéiyáng was an experienced veteran of the business world, and Chen Yang trusted him completely. Now, with so much money, he just wanted to quickly purchase production lines and rapidly manufacture televisions.
Furthermore, after being away for so long, he missed his wife and children. He also needed to return to inform the factory about the orders and have them work overtime to rush production!