Chapter 228 Meeting with Higher Level

Mr. Yuan's attitude was very easygoing, but his words were rather serious: "Mr. Lin, I'm looking for you alone this time because it's about the new city construction, which has received great attention from the President of Bolivia."

"Oh? Mr. Yuan, you said that the president paid attention to a specific housing construction project?" In Lin Ruoyan's understanding, the president is very busy and has to do a lot of things from a macro perspective. How could he have the leisure to pay attention to a specific project, especially a housing construction project like this whose total contract amount is not too outstanding.

Mr. Yuan said, "The project your team proposed has excellent intentions. The president's massive construction projects are all about benefiting the people. Other initiatives, like building bridges and roads and reclaiming farmland, may not yield immediate results, but building social housing directly impacts his votes, so he prioritizes it."

Especially since the project site was chosen in his hometown of Province B, he hoped to see a perfect model, a large area of ​​high-quality modern high-rise housing that would be built efficiently and quickly, different from the low-rise houses in the past, so that people could see with their naked eyes that a modern new city had emerged here.

This is something that only our country’s current level of infrastructure can achieve.”

Lin Ruoyan had fooled the leaders of Hebei Province in this way before. This time, the documents she asked the design institute to prepare also integrated the concepts of the new city, and included a lot of industrial planning content in the front. In short, it was no longer as simple as building a residential community in the traditional sense.

If the idea of ​​building a new town with a construction area of ​​one million square meters and starting construction at the same time within two years can really be realized, it will definitely be a shock to the local people.

After all, in Bolivia, relying solely on local construction, it would take five or six years to build a seven- or eight-story house of several thousand square meters, and that might not even be completed. If Chinese design and construction companies set an example for the local community, they could easily complete the project in a year, and within two years, a town-sized structure would undoubtedly emerge. This housing project serves as a model for existing Chinese construction companies, and for the president, it quickly satisfies his need to secure more votes.

The current president is a democratically elected president and has to go through a general election every few years. The opposition party is not here to sit back and relax. They have been eyeing the situation and want to use various formal and informal means to elect the president out of office and continue to maintain the political system that served as a comprador to developed countries.

Public opinion has long since awakened, and once the grassroots have recognized reality, they will choose a president who truly represents their interests. Since his election, this president has frequently driven himself to the slums to give speeches, rarely accompanied by bodyguards, where he is surrounded by supporters. Instead, he considers his own safety when visiting wealthy areas or where opposition parties gather.

This people-friendly, truly democratically elected president is also working diligently to improve the welfare of the people.

He wanted to spend the money earned from these resources on improving people's livelihoods. Social housing, built at state cost and distributed free of charge to those in need, was what he needed. However, the country's construction capacity and design expertise simply couldn't meet the rapid and massive construction requirements he desired.

A prototype of a new town covering one million square meters could accommodate ten thousand households, which translated into tens of thousands of votes. With this promising start, he could then roll out this model in other provinces, and gradually, hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of votes would be secure.

"Mr. Yuan, should I prepare to report the new town plan to higher-ups?" After thinking this through, Lin Ruoyan began to inquire about her mission.

Mr. Yuan nodded. "We've already cleared all the channels and basically reached a consensus. This time, we'll be reporting directly to the President. Not only will the President be listening, but some local architectural experts will also be in attendance. Those people aren't all directly affiliated with the President; they're loyal to their profession and might be critical, even raising objections."

Fortunately, you brought along the expert team from the design institute. You'd better reorganize your presentation over the next two days, trying to keep it under 30 minutes. Be prepared for any questions as well. Two or three renderings of the proposed plans will suffice. Have them beautifully mounted and printed, so the president can choose them in person and present them to the cameras.

Lin Ruoyan asked cautiously, "Can the plan chosen by the president be implemented?"

"According to the current arrangement, the president's speech will be broadcast live at the end of this meeting, and he will show the renderings he has selected. However, the final decision on which project will be built will still be decided by experts from the relevant local approval departments. The president's speech only informed everyone that he wants to promote social housing. The appearance of the house is important, but what is more important is that from the beginning of the construction of the house, there should be various industries that can allow the public to participate. He not only wants to exchange houses for votes, but also wants to create more jobs through the construction of houses." Mr. Yuan was concise and got straight to the point.

Lin Ruoyan was grateful. It must have taken Mr. Yuan a lot of effort and resources to figure out this situation. He didn't mention any conditions and told her all this directly, which showed his trust and affirmation in her.

Next, she needed to prepare a plan. This plan must focus on introducing a series of industrial chains that could be introduced. These couldn't be empty promises; they had to be companies that could actually create jobs for the local area in the future.

Perhaps the results of the architectural designer can only be condensed into a rendering and a master plan, while the contents of the industrial layout plan need to be described more clearly, and it is also necessary to rely on the experts of the design institute to produce relevant color atlases on site to meet the needs of presenting the plan when meeting with the president.

President Yuan initially had little confidence. After all, Lin Ruoyan was too young, a mere boss at a private company. The state-owned real estate executives he'd met in China were all seasoned men, better suited for large-scale operations. However, Lin Ruoyan's initial proposal, including a comprehensive approach to integrating the upstream and downstream supply chains for housing construction projects, impressed the president. A different presentation might have missed some points, so he chose her to deliver the presentation.

And importantly, there are variables involved. Building housing is a complex process. The final boundaries of the land haven't been determined yet, and the experts' opinions are unclear. The president wants to promote social housing to win over his voters. If things don't pan out, who will bear the responsibility?

A private company like Lin Ruoyan's was a good transitional option. She had already expressed her intention to bring in capital to participate, and he had asked her to make a public appearance, so she would have to bear some of the risks and responsibilities.

Nothing comes for free, and Lin Ruoyan naturally understood this. She subtly expressed her willingness to take the risk. After all, the worst-case scenario she could accept was spending two billion yuan with no return. At least she still had income back home, so she could just consider this a stable monthly spending gap of one hundred million yuan, which she could afford.

This is where she has more confidence than other private companies.

On the other hand, she had worked on similar overseas projects in the real world and had seen the big battles. What was a meeting with the president to present a plan to her? A high-ranking official in China, or perhaps just a mayor of a prefecture-level city, could have jurisdiction over a larger area and population than a president abroad.

Thinking this way, Lin Ruoyan wasn't too nervous anymore. The only thing she needed to worry about was her personal safety after revealing her identity. The opposition and North America had never wanted Bolivia to be safe. They might not be able to do anything to a president who controlled the military, but if they wanted to harm ordinary people doing business, they would have many ways to do it.