"Oh, how much?" Upon hearing that it was too much, Minister Zhao immediately expressed his interest.
"Assistant Chi said that as long as the project can be completed on time and with high quality, they are willing to add 10% to the original amount."
There was a moment of silence in the office after he said that.
"How much?" Realizing what was happening, Minister Zhao asked again.
He didn't hear wrong, did he?
If it's 10%, that's over 800,000 francs.
At the current exchange rate, that's roughly equivalent to nearly 400,000 Chinese dollars!
Exchange rates of some countries in 1970
Jiang Si nodded, indicating that you heard correctly.
That means adding 10%.
"Moreover," Jiang Si paused, then added, "they entrusted the entire procurement and arrangement of everything, including the decoration and custom furniture, to the Chinese side."
Although these are unwritten rules, the fact that the other party was so quick to propose and so generous was still beyond Minister Zhao's expectations.
It should be noted that at that time, the country's foreign exchange reserves were extremely scarce.
Every foreign exchange earnings is crucial.
So when Minister Zhao heard this, he agreed almost without hesitation.
However, finding a suitable source of manpower is a very tricky problem.
The hotel catering to foreign guests is definitely off-limits.
The only one that could take action was the First Engineering Bureau, where Ling Yunfei worked.
"Is the project in Longcheng already more than halfway done? Should we transfer some people from there?"
"I don't think that will work."
Jiang Si directly rejected Minister Zhao's proposal, saying, "I have already communicated with Director Ling, and their project is being supervised by the province."
“If we transfer people from there, they won’t be able to finish the project before the end of the year.”
Cement plants are, after all, a prerequisite for large-scale infrastructure projects, and Longcheng was clearly unwilling to release its people.
"Then we'll have to hire a batch of temporary workers." That's what he said, but Minister Zhao was clearly quite troubled by the situation.
You should know that temporary workers are not so easy to find.
This will involve both planned and unplanned temporary work.
If it's part of the plan, it needs approval from the Ministry of Labor.
The treatment is similar to that of regular employees, except that they do not enjoy welfare housing.
Most importantly, all temporary workers included in the plan are registered.
For each completed project, a portion of the staff are transferred to permanent positions; this is an unwritten rule.
The problem now is that the engineering bureau doesn't have any extra positions available.
However, it's difficult to recruit unplanned temporary workers.
Aside from poor welfare benefits and difficulty in changing food rations, there is absolutely no possibility of this position being formalized.
That alone got rid of the vast majority of people.
At this point, Minister Zhao looked troubled and said, "Let alone whether we can recruit enough people, even if we do, most of them will be unemployed young people."
Those who can stay in the city will be either employed or have families.
The rest are just unruly street urchins.
That area is, after all, the embassy district. What if these people we bring there cause trouble?
It's not just a matter of project progress; it's a disgrace on the international stage!
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