Chapter 203 Advantages of Design
Seeing Lin Ruoyan's aroused interest, Boss Liu also became more and more excited as he continued, "For example, local oil is very cheap. How cheap is it? If you fill up a tank of gas in a jeep and give a bottle of mineral water instead of cash, they will give you a few coins in change. That's why there are so many drivers here. You can see all kinds of cars from decades ago. There's no such thing as scrapped cars. Of course, most of these cars are scrapped from developed countries and sold as junk. After all, oil is cheaper than water."
Lin Ruoyan was amazed. Such cheap oil was said to be of very high quality and easier to mine than in China. There were also many mines. No wonder so many large state-owned enterprises rushed here in the next few years.
Through Boss Liu, Lin Ruoyan got to know the head of the state-owned enterprise that was about to carry out large-scale construction in Bolivia, and expressed her intention to bring capital to participate in local construction.
The project manager surnamed Yuan from the state-owned enterprise was surprised and asked, "How much can you invest, and what return do you want?"
Lin Ruoyan wasn't someone who brought money to film a movie, seeking fame at all costs. She was a serious business person, and if she couldn't find any profit after discussing it, she wouldn't rush into it. Since Mr. Yuan had asked her frankly, she and Mr. Yuan had a clear plan. Both sides were clear about the situation, and they could work together happily in the future.
Lin Ruoyan didn't say anything empty and spoke directly in a high-sounding tone, "Looking at the world, my country's infrastructure has always been in a leading position. It goes without saying that the road and bridge infrastructure is very good, and we also have sufficient experience in residential design and construction."
"I believe what you said about construction, but regarding design, designers from developed countries are more recognized, right? Many major cities in my country hire European and American designers to design them."
Lin Ruoyan smiled slightly: "In recent years, I have been working on civil housing construction projects and cooperating with many well-known overseas design companies. I think those designers in developed countries are more suitable for large-scale and creative public buildings, or some rely on small residential buildings to become famous.
They come to China or other economically underdeveloped regions to design for fame and fortune, certainly not to dedicate themselves to poverty alleviation. Their overseas designs must be iconic, yet they charge no less, and sometimes much more, than they would in China. If we pay such people to design in Bolivia, whose money would we be robbing?
Mr. Yuan seemed to be thinking: "So what do you mean?"
"We are the general contractor for engineering and design, and domestic design institutes are fully capable of this. This is especially true for standardized multi-story residential buildings that require rapid construction. We have done a lot of this in China, but very few abroad, where there is a lack of experience from design to construction."
Lin Ruoyan has also collaborated extensively with domestic design institutes, especially in the residential sector. She said confidently,
"Mr. Yuan is planning a major infrastructure project there. The supporting new town needs to be built quickly to accommodate ordinary families. We are the general contractor for the overall design and construction of the housing, and we subcontract some of the design work to a local design institute. This will not only help our design institute expand its reach, but also create more job opportunities for the local area."
Lin Ruoyan worked on overseas projects in the real world, as a consultant brought there by a large state-owned enterprise design institute. Through these projects, she learned that working on projects in South America is completely different from aid construction in Africa, and that it involves a more modern and commercialized model of cooperation.
Although Bolivian is a language-speaking country, its engineering design is heavily influenced by North American standards. Local designers and engineers speak Bolivian and use the same American system. Many buildings bear a strong resemblance to North American architecture from the 20th century, and the locals are receptive to more modern design styles. Furthermore, Bolivian countries have their own national design standards and industry certifications, similar to professional qualifications in China. Construction of houses in Bolivian countries requires the signature and approval of relevant local professionals before construction can begin.
This is just like when foreigners come to China to do design, they must cooperate with domestic design institutes. When domestic construction drawings are drawn, even if they are just copied from the foreigners' detailed plans, they need to be signed by domestic first-class architectural, first-class structural, registered equipment and other professionals before these drawings can be used for construction.
Therefore, when we go to Bolivia to be the general contractor for design, domestic designers will do all the design schemes, and make in-depth designs even to the construction drawings. Then, they will be reviewed and signed by local licensed practitioners, and the local approval and construction procedures will be passed before construction can begin.
"In the past, they would hire Western designers, just like we hire European and American designers, spending huge sums of money to have them draw up plans, while we would undertake the construction drawing design ourselves." Mr. Yuan had experience in housing construction projects before, so he was no stranger to hearing Lin Ruoyan talk about design general contracting. "Our profit point is also in construction. The profit from design is not very high."
"Even if the profit isn't high, it's still profitable, and our designs have an absolute advantage in quickly constructing ordinary residential buildings," Lin Ruoyan explained. "To give you a simple example, the structural engineers at our state-owned design institutes—not necessarily the famous ones, but the ones who haven't even passed the first-level structural registration exam even though they've graduated just two or three years ago—are generally mid-level professionals, and they've drawn structural plans for at least hundreds of thousands of square meters of building area. There's a ton of them out there."
Mr. Yuan thought about it and realized that it was indeed the case.
China has been vigorously developing urbanization in recent years. While commercial housing is still relatively scarce, there are numerous housing projects for ordinary employees. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) often build their own buildings in SOE compounds, where there's never a shortage of construction work. This also helps train designers, who often meet the strict requirements for professional titles, including design elements covering hundreds of thousands of square meters.
"In established capitalist countries, how can they afford to build such large-scale residential projects? Their designers can only work on a few dozen small residential buildings in their lifetime, and if they can build a total of 100,000 square meters, they're considered model workers. The largest-scale designs most people make in their lifetime are public buildings, such as museums and hotels. Even fewer have ever designed a high-rise building covering tens of thousands of square meters.
If a new town is built quickly and houses are distributed free of charge to local residents, how much money can the local government invest? Such social housing should be more like our employee housing, centralized, standardized, and modular, which is conducive to rapid construction.
Our designers have been trained over the years and are used to drawing such drawings, and have gained a lot of experience from it. Wouldn't it be smoother for our workers to build according to our drawings?
Shouldn't we produce all the building materials used in our drawings ourselves? If domestic transportation isn't convenient, we can set up a local factory to manufacture them on-site. A design general contractor not only solves design issues but also drives the full integration of the relevant industry chain. Every material and equipment can bring us benefits."
Mr. Yuan has seen the driving effect of related industries in bridge and road construction. The profit margin in building construction was low at the beginning, and there was a design institute in the local area. He originally planned to subcontract it to the local area. But now he thinks it is better to control the design from the source.
Yuan finally agreed with what Lin Ruoyan said, and then asked, "If you want to cooperate with a state-owned enterprise for the design and general contracting of the building construction, then as a real estate company, what do you want to gain from it?"
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