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Chapter 1053: 925 Chapter Interest Demands? (Subscribe please!)
August 5th.
Myanmar.
Naypyidaw.
The Presidential Palace.
A special meeting was held here.
Kundun was delivering a speech passionately.
"Deputy Leader Ling, at the end of last month, the Myanmar Economic Zone’s guarantee and commodity loan to Mozambique were explained as a means to obtain cheaper raw materials by harnessing Mozambique’s mineral resources.
This time, you’re preparing to loan to Cambodia, and I don’t see the necessity, given that Cambodia is smaller than us. I suggest that we better focus on purchasing main minerals and raw materials domestically within Myanmar."
This would benefit Myanmar’s employment situation and economic development, and in my view, the loan to Mozambique almost makes no sense; you might as well allocate this quota to us here in Myanmar."
"Employment issues can be solved through government investment; Myanmar doesn’t lack money temporarily."
"We are in need of investment everywhere."
"Government investment should be enough," Ling said indifferently.
"I believe it is far from enough. Compared to Huaxia, our infrastructure is too outdated; we need more power to build this country," Kundun argued righteously.
"..."
Ling and Kundun went back and forth.
Others listened quietly.
They knew that the issue was not about the loan to Mozambique but that Kundun had the backing of interest groups, with the visible development of the Myanmar Economic Zone and constantly increasing economic size.
Previously.
Upon submission.
Ling had promised to prioritize purchasing raw materials from Myanmar.
But Myanmar, previously an agricultural country, how could it provide enough raw materials?
Thus.
80 percent of the industrial raw materials of the Myanmar Economic Zone came from abroad, with less than 20 percent provided by Myanmar itself—representing tens or even hundreds of billions of Asia Dollars in tremendous interests.
Now.
With deepening economic reforms, Myanmar’s domestic raw material supply capability had significantly increased.
So these companies wanted the Myanmar Economic Zone to share the profits with them.
The main reason being Myanmar Bank had money and could pay in Asia Dollars.
Unlike other domestic purchasing companies in Myanmar, where payment terms could be delayed by a month or even two or three months, and then... the Myanmar Kyat could have depreciated by ten percent or even more.
Therefore.
The current situation faced by those domestic companies with payment terms was to conduct business with local Myanmar companies or businesses outside the Myanmar Economic Zone.
If the other party couldn’t pay in Asia Dollars, by the time you received the money, you might find out you had actually made a loss; whereas the Myanmar Economic Zone basically achieved agreement on purchasing orders as long as the deal was negotiated—an enormous volume of orders.
However.
Several requests.
Myanmar Bank Group always refused, giving simple reasons like the previous supply contracts had not expired, or the price was too high, or other various reasons.
In the end, those parties had to resort to higher levels to solve the problem.
These were Myanmar’s emerging interest classes, not members of the Myanmar Asia Chamber of Commerce; naturally, Tang Qing would not easily share the benefits with them, and Myanmar Bank Group’s purchases certainly weren’t really just about those raw materials.
They also served to maintain external international relations.
However.
Such matters could not be explicitly stated.
Thus.
Kundun became their spokesperson.
On the primary seat.
President Cai’s eyes continuously moved between Ling and Kundun’s faces.
Ling maintained a composed expression throughout.
Kundun, however, spoke very agitatedly.
President Cai internally sighed.
When it came to composure, Kundun was far behind Ling. Everyone knew what was happening, talk if you want to talk, but why the agitation? This is a struggle of interests; did you really think you could intimidate the opponent with your expressions?
"Mr. President, how do you see this matter?"
Not long after.
Indeed.
Once both parties had expressed their positions.
The ball was kicked to him.
After all, he was the decision-maker.
Whether he agreed or not, he had to make the final call—that’s the role of a "parent."
After thinking it over, President Cai said, "This issue is very complicated, and both of you have made reasonable points. On one hand, Myanmar’s mining companies are facing significant currency risk issues and need assistance,
on the other hand, the Special Zone might also moderately tilt the raw material procurement proportion toward Myanmar, especially considering these businesses affect thousands of employees and their families..."
Playing it safe.
But that was President Cai’s strength.
He seemed to have clearly expressed his stance.
But it was of no use; attitude isn’t a command, nor did it help Kundun’s position.
"Alright then, I’ll have them look into it thoroughly to see if cooperation is possible," Ling answered diplomatically, giving President Cai face, studying the matter, whether it works out or not, either way, the responsibility could be shifted.
Kundun saw that he hadn’t achieved his objective during the meeting.
The sense of disappointment inside was definite.
However, since Lang Cai had outlined the pathway, it was impossible for him to press forward step by step. Besides, Deputy Leader Ling had given room in his language. It seemed this matter still needed to be discussed privately with Ling, and there was no room to turn "research" into "unyielding."
Seeing that this matter was coming to a close.
Lang Cai suddenly looked at Ling with a smile.
"Deputy Leader Ling, congratulations, yesterday three more developed countries prepared to incorporate ’zero emission’ into their domestic automotive and industrial polluted gas emission standards. Even their presidents personally called to invite inspection visits to their countries for factory establishments."
Although he wasn’t sure how many times he had turned into an operator.
But afterwards, Lang Cai was quite happy, as the praises were for Myanmar Company.
Especially in recent times.
Myanmar had more appearances in international news than in the past decade, which pleased him. Although the thought that it had little to do with him was somewhat depressing, overall, it was all good news.
Among the envious or excited eyes of the crowd, Ling said with a smile, "President Cai, this is a joyful occasion for all of us. As for establishing factories, let’s skip that. The company already has a suitable location in Europe."
"Where?" Lang Cai asked, puzzled.
"Germany," Ling said.
Upon hearing this, Lang Cai realized.
"That makes sense; then no big issues there."
The three countries from yesterday were all members of the European Union, and with Germany being one of the leaders in the EU, establishing a factory in Germany meant the other EU member states wouldn’t have much to say, as the EU is all one big family after all.
But hearing this news.
Kundun felt a surge of envy.
Because it represented billions in interests. That money, Ling could move around freely, but Kundun, also a Deputy Leader of Myanmar, had to be secretive about it.
Otherwise, it was illegal.
Kundun couldn’t help saying, "Deputy Leader Ling, why doesn’t the Myanmar Environmental Protection Company build all its factories in Myanmar to increase employment? I heard that aside from the Myanmar Economic Zone, you have factories even in Huaxia."
This statement.
Clearly questioned whether Ling still thought of himself as a Burmese.
The others turned their eyes toward Ling.
Eager to hear what he had to say.
Ling remained composed.
This man simply wasn’t qualified to be an opponent for a fighter.
"Deputy Leader Kundun, the company has its reasons for doing so. The first is production capacity; without a certain capability in mechanical processing, qualified products cannot be produced. The imperfect industrial infrastructure in Myanmar is just one aspect.
The attitude is most important. Huaxia was one of the first countries to purchase industrial-grade filters. To facilitate the widespread adoption of automotive filters later on, having factories in Huaxia could radiate out to other Asian countries and is the most cost-effective strategy."
"This... apart from economic issues, can’t you consider the bigger picture?" Kundun asked.
Ling spread his hands, "The company can’t help it. To sell well, we can only cooperate with other countries. Otherwise, if we try to earn all the money ourselves, they wouldn’t support us this much. After all, the world is still far from destruction.
If they were intent solely on cracking the filter technology, by then, we would be the ones in desperation. So, it’s not that I don’t consider the bigger picture; in fact, precisely because I consider the bigger picture, the company made this decision.
That is: we must seize the market as fast as possible. If not successful, then we perish honoring our mission."
"You... how can the filter technology be so easily cracked?" Kundun disbelieved.
"The key technology in the filters lies in the solution, and the solution is a chemical substance. Under modern scientific conditions, do you think they can’t crack it? No, around the world, there are already at least fifty laboratories that have cracked our solution formula, even successfully reproducing it."
Ling dropped a shocking piece of news.
"No... no way." Kundun was stunned.
"What?"
"How could it be?"
"Did someone leak the formula?"
"..."
"Deputy Leader Ling? What’s going on?"
Lang Cai was shocked.
If the technology was cracked, one could imagine that countless competitors would emerge immediately—an utterly bad piece of news.
Ling explained, "President Cai, modern science is so advanced, material research even reaches the atomic level. A little solution, there’s nothing that modern science can’t reverse-engineer."
"So what do we do?" Lang Cai was a bit anxious.
"There’s no need to worry for the short term. Laboratory preparations and industrial production are different; their manufacturing costs are over a hundred times ours. To reduce them to our level... might happen quite soon," Ling said.
Lang Cai: "..."
Kundun: "..."
Others: "..."
This verbal twist was indeed a bit abrupt; they had thought they would hear Ling say ’no need to worry about it being cracked for several years’—a ’good news’. But what is this ’quite soon’?
"Deputy Leader Ling, how soon is ’quite soon’?" Kan Qin timely asked.
"It means, maybe in a year or two, maybe tomorrow, or even the next moment, they might figure it out," Ling explained. "Our preparation process doesn’t involve much high technology; the most crucial element is the method. Once it gets out, our many vulnerabilities are exposed."
Ling said this.
A helpless expression appeared on his face.
This statement... of course, was to placate them. It was true that many laboratories knew the formula—as simple experiments could reveal the molecular formula and composition of the solution—but the preparation... that would price them out.
There were no shortcuts—that was false.
Otherwise, how to hoodwink these people.
As expected.
The others all looked troubled.
"So, we must take advantage of the market gap and control the market; we must sell as much as we can and waste no time, because if we delay, it will soon no longer concern us," Ling sighed and said.
Lang Cai, trusting this, hastily said, "Then the preparation method must be kept confidential, absolutely must not be leaked."
"Understood."
