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Chapter 1043: Chapter 915 Custom Made (Please Subscribe!)
Evening.
Through a previous connection,
Park Sung-hoon found a vice minister from the Mozambique Ministry of Commerce, Bowell.
Of course,
he also held a ’modest gift’ in hand.
Seeing the present,
Bowell warmly welcomed Park Sung-hoon. The last time Park Sung-hoon visited Mozambique, Bowell was just a minor leader at the Mozambique Customs, and it was Park Sung-hoon who had been at this position.
Now he had gotten a promotion himself,
yet Park Sung-hoon was still at the same place.
Bowell could only attribute this to the family business system of South Korea; Park Sung-hoon must have deep ties with the big shots of Modern Engineering Group, otherwise, how could someone occupy such an important position for over a decade.
And the truth was not far off.
"... That’s how it is, this project is very important to our Modern Engineering Company, and we really want to continue our cooperation with your government and complete this project with high quality," Park Sung-hoon repeated his point.
Hearing this,
Bowell then understood why Locke had rejected him.
230 million dollars.
You also dare to think so?
"Mr. Park Sung-hoon, your quote is absolutely unacceptable," Bowell said with a smile, shaking his head. Since Locke had sent Park Sung-hoon to someone knowledgeable, there was no need to hide anything.
"Please enlighten me," Park Sung-hoon said.
Bowell then began to narrate the background of the entire project.
Park Sung-hoon realized then,
it wasn’t that Mozambique had money now, but that someone was willing to lend money. Myanmar Bank? He seemed to have heard of it, but wasn’t very familiar; he had always been running around Africa, and business in Asia wasn’t his concern.
If that really was the case,
the Mozambique government only had a payout allocation of 1.9 billion Asia Dollars.
And they had to complete two major projects.
The funds were already quite tight.
Expecting the Mozambique government to agree to a contract price of 230 million dollars was almost impossible, and this time the budgeting for Mozambique was different from last time; this time they used Mozambique’s basic construction cost algorithm.
It had been introduced five years prior.
"... If you had Huaxia’s prices and speed, then you might stand a chance of winning the bid. President Locke needs these two projects quickly built to serve the economy of Mozambique, to facilitate exports and earn foreign currency," said Bowell, and after finishing, he took a sip of tea to soothe his throat.
Park Sung-hoon said with a wry smile, "How can we manage this price?"
At such a price, subcontracts were impossible to consider. Perhaps Huaxia could manage, but Modern Engineering Company definitely could not meet that price.
The estimated loss was around 20 million dollars.
"Then there’s nothing I can do," Bonnard said, spreading his hands to show he was helpless—if that was all the money there was, and he still had to deliver quality goods, if you couldn’t provide, then he’d have to find someone else.
Park Sung-hoon fell into deep thought.
To do it.
Or not to do it.
At that moment, 𝓃𝓸𝓋𝓹𝓾𝓫.𝒸ℴ𝓶
Bonnard added another statement.
"Mr. Park Sung-hoon, don’t even think about any additions; I know that’s your usual tactic, but this time our funds are limited. The contract will clearly state that no additions are allowed, otherwise it would be a violation."
Park Sung-hoon: "..."
This was tantamount to completely blocking the path.
Additions.
A common tactic in construction projects.
First, win the project with a low bid.
Then artificially create ’not superfluous’ actual practices in the construction process. Of course, the costs produced need to be charged for; this is also how many seemingly unprofitable, loss-making projects end up with soft earnings in the end.
After chatting for a while longer,
Park Sung-hoon completely lost hope.
Super low quote, prohibition of additions.
They were simply too ruthless, and he couldn’t help but resent Myanmar Bank in his heart: If you have money, you should increase the payout limit for people. With just that amount of money, you make the Mozambique government pinch and scrape.
...
The next day.
Park Sung-hoon was already preparing to leave.
There were no more opportunities here, just a huge pit. As for the previous investment in the port construction, he didn’t even dare to settle accounts with the Mozambique government, lest in the end, he would have to return the money.
That would be awkward.
He came here to make money.
Instead, it would be like giving money away, and his peers would laugh him to death.
It had been two days since the invitation was sent out.
Numerous construction firms from different countries had caught wind and arrived, including several companies from Huaxia that were interested, among them was the Huaxia Harbour Engineering Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Huaxia Transportation Construction Group.
They had quite a few businesses in Africa.
Upon receiving the invitation.
Chen Han, who was already stationed in South Africa as the regional manager of a subsidiary, brought his team over. They didn’t need to prepare the bidding documents themselves, as the domestic headquarters would fax them over; his role was to prepare the groundwork.
As soon as they got off the airplane.
Rolling heat waves hit them.
Sweat could not stop gushing out.
They had taken a small airplane, and the airport had no jetways.
"Manager, is this really the Capital Airport of Mozambique?" The assistant looked around, quite disappointed. He was newly assigned to assist Chen Han, and had always been running between South Africa and a few other large African nations.
Such a small Capital Airport.
He had only heard about it from his peers.
"Apart from a few large African nations, other airports are all pretty much like this. This is actually one of the better ones," Chen Han said helplessly.
This time, having received orders from headquarters to participate in the bidding, Chen Han himself was somewhat surprised. Mozambique was so poor, what kind of construction projects were they preparing to launch? Weren’t they afraid of defaulting on payments?
His purpose today.
Was to clarify the Mozambique government’s ability to pay.
Otherwise.
Without payment,
even the largest projects would be useless.
The two held Mozambique’s invitation documents in their hands, but no one came up to ask for any sort of tip. They passed through without any issues, and aside from the airport, they got into a car specially arranged by the Mozambique government and headed to the hotel.
"Not bad, there’s a car to pick us up."
Enjoying the air conditioning inside the car,
the assistant felt revived.
He couldn’t understand how Africans, who lived in these conditions year-round, could endure it. Only those who have experienced the heat here would comprehend the urge to cling to air conditioning as if their life depended on it.
Arriving at the hotel,
Chen Han just happened to run into Park Sung-hoon, who was preparing to leave.
The two were old acquaintances.
They had both been running around various African countries to participate in bids for the same projects, and over time, it wasn’t as if they had a deep feud—it was all business, after all.
From time to time, they would even sit down to chat.
Since Modern Engineering Company’s African branch was also in South Africa, they were merely half a street apart from each other.
"President Chen, you’ve come too," Park Sung-hoon said, greeting Chen Han in oddly accented Chinese.
Chen Han knew Park Sung-hoon could only speak those few sentences in Chinese. Seeing Park Sung-hoon and his subordinates ready to leave with their bags, Chen Han asked in English, "Where are you heading? Can’t get used to this hotel?"
"Back to South Africa, congratulations," Park Sung-hoon said with a wry smile.
The competition.
Hadn’t started.
And he had already lost.
Such a project seemed tailor-made for the Huaxia companies. Although the Huaxia companies were not going to make much money, in the end, they couldn’t compete with their cost control abilities.
Chen Han was puzzled, "Congratulations for what?"
"You’ll find out soon enough."
With that,
Park Sung-hoon left Chen Han with nothing but his retreating figure.
Leaving Chen Han utterly baffled.
