The greater the power, the greater the responsibility. This was no different in a state-owned enterprise.
Behind the glamorous scenes, there were countless struggles.
A state-owned enterprise was different from a private or foreign enterprise. In a state-owned enterprise, no matter how high the leader was, there would always be a higher ranking leader above him.
When the leader held a meeting, he would assign tasks to the leaders of the state-owned enterprise. The leaders would then assign the tasks to their subordinates. It might seem easy, but it was not easy.
A state-owned enterprise did not have a mechanism to fire employees. Whether the employee was not responsible, capable or not up to standard, the worst outcome would be not being promoted. Most of the time, the employee would not be demoted or punished. Unless there was a major accident, it was very rare to see an unqualified employee being fired. This way, if the employee was happy to slack off, the enterprise could only keep an idle employee.
Under normal circumstances, an employee who did not want to improve could ignore him, the director!
The leader had a policy of coercion, and the people were complaining. The leader in the middle could only bear the pressure.
Li He asked, "Then the city has no plans?"
Zhang Weisheng said. "The city is planning to merge our bleaching and dyeing factory with a few other printing and dyeing factories and cotton mills. But I don't think it will work. This will create more confusion, and the root of the problem will still be there.
I suggested to the city that it is best to sell the factory. Only by selling the factory can the responsibilities be separated. The government will do what needs to be done, and the enterprises will do what needs to be done. Professor Li, I don't know if you are interested in participating. Golden Deer Corporation is in the textile industry, right? If Golden Deer Corporation is willing to take over, the government will most likely agree. "
Zhang Weisheng was present at the Shangri-La Hotel when Li He returned to China. So, he knew about Li He's status and wealth.
So, when he saw Li He, he could not help but be tempted. He hoped that Li He could take over the factory. Maybe he could continue to operate the factory because of their friendship.
"Let's have a meal together when we have time. We can discuss this." Li He did not agree immediately. He did not reject Zhang Weisheng out of consideration for the other party.
For him, the state-owned enterprises were too complicated and involved too many things. He didn't have the energy to wrangle with them.
The contradiction and problem of state-owned enterprises did not lie in the form of ownership. Socialist countries had state-owned enterprises, and capitalist countries also had state-owned enterprises, and they lived very freely. The most typical example was France. The 10 largest first-class enterprises in France were all state-owned enterprises, such as France Airbus, France National Railways, EDF, and France Gas.
Another representative example was Germany. In terms of ownership, Deutsche Telekom, Volkswagen, Rhein Group, and Deutsche Post were all state-owned enterprises because their major shareholders and important decision-makers came from the German federal government or state government.
There was another state-owned enterprise that many Chinese state-owned enterprises were scrambling to emulate, and that was Temasek of Singapore.
Temasek Holdings was established in 1974. It was the most well-known company among the companies wholly owned by the Singapore government, but it had always remained mysterious.
As an exempted private company, the company controlled Singapore Telecom, Singapore Airlines, DBS Bank, Singapore Metro, Singapore Ports, Poseidon Shipping, Singapore Power, Keppel Group, Raffles Hotel, and other important and largest companies in Singapore. It was estimated that the market price of Temasek Holdings' shares accounted for 47% of the entire Singapore stock market.
It could be said that it controlled Singapore's economic lifeline. Because of this, Singapore's economic model was called "state capitalism". It used state-controlled private companies to invest and dominate the capital market.
But at this time, China's state-owned enterprises were always a little weak. The monopolized industries since 1988, from postal services to electricity, water, railways, and telecommunications, were all in a state of loss!
Including the resources and minerals industries, they were all losing money.
Daqing Oil Field was losing money, Liaohe Oil Field was losing money, Shengli Oil Field was losing money, Huabei Oil Field was losing money …
Needless to say, the newly established China National Petroleum Corporation was also losing money.
The coal and oil industries were basically losing money from all angles!
Even the entire tobacco industry was losing money!
Didn't they say that monopolization was profit?
Wasn't that bullsh * t!
In short, the government was not doing well, and the enterprises were even worse off. Everyone had to endure it together!
What if they could not endure it?
What followed was a wave of layoffs.
During the 1999 Spring Festival Gala, Huang Hong shouted, "We workers have to think for the country. If I don't layoff, who will?"
This was the biggest layoff in history.
Li He remembered that at that time, his aunt and son-in-law were also laid off. When they received a total of 30,000 RMB, Li Zhaokun was very envious. Even though he had a daughter and son to take care of, his family's savings did not exceed 3,000 RMB!
On the day the cooperative closed down, Li Zhaokun even bought a bottle of wine to celebrate. He challenged the former employees of the cooperative. "You all deserve this!"
Layoffs and the closure of state-owned enterprises became a trend.
But one cannot deny the contributions of state-owned enterprises just because there were problems. One cannot deny the purpose of the existence of state-owned enterprises.
The country wanted state-owned enterprises to earn money, but it was not the main purpose.
Overall, state-owned enterprises were not purely businesses. They could be seen as an extension of the government's functions. It was determined that they cannot be purely economic oriented.
The state-owned enterprises had to listen to the government's instructions. But when the government and the market were at odds, the state-owned enterprises could not listen to the market.
In the past, there were many loss-making projects that had to be done. For example, the postal system had to be sent to the remote mountainous areas, and the telecommunications network had to be built in the middle of nowhere.
Especially on the issue of electricity supply, the State Grid was definitely a conscientious enterprise. Within a few decades, they had completed 99% of the country's electrification coverage. Their grid coverage was undoubtedly the highest in the world. Even developed countries could not achieve this standard.
The power company wanted to build a grid in a village with only a few households. As for the cost, it could not even recoup the electricity used for thousands of years. This was because they were a state-owned enterprise.
The government only had one word, they had to do it. Hence, they rushed in. At this time, how could they expect a profit-driven private enterprise to do the heavy lifting?
No one knew where he had run off to.
Most of the people could not afford to rely on the market for infrastructure investments. Like highways, subways, roads, electricity, networks, etc., these were all businesses that needed decades to recoup their capital. It was impossible to recoup their capital in a short period of time. Let's not talk about whether the private enterprises had the ability or not.
The modern railway network, developed highway network, bridges, tunnels, modern defense industry, energy transmission network, such as oil, natural gas, electricity, and basic information network, were all built by China's state-owned enterprises.
China's state-owned enterprises were the main force of China's modernization. This was a fact that no one could deny.
Zhang Weisheng said. "Professor Li, I really admire you. I hope we can work together in the future."
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