Material Empire

Yang Yihe has been dissatisfied with Beixi Iron and Steel Works for a long time, but the idea of ​​rectifying Beixi Iron and Steel Works that really made his teeth itch was only in the last year or so.

Last year, the Plenary Session of the Central Committee passed a decision on economic system reform, the core content of which can be summed up in four words, which is simplification of administration and decentralization of power.

In China, the division of responsibilities between the central and local governments has gone through several iterations. Sometimes the central government controls power, and sometimes it delegates power to the local governments. Since the reform and opening up, the central government's policies have generally been moving towards decentralization, but last year's economic system reform decision clearly put forward the principle of expanding local autonomy.

Taking advantage of this spring breeze, a vigorous construction climax has been set off across the country, and local governments have tried every means to raise funds and start construction of various projects. Coupled with the sudden emergence of township enterprises, the scale of capital construction across the country has continued to expand, and an extremely prosperous situation has emerged.

Behind this prosperity, local leaders like Yang Yihe can clearly see that the foundation of prosperity is very weak. To engage in infrastructure construction, in addition to funds, it also needs the support of raw materials, among which steel is the most critical. In the past year, the national output of finished steel products was only 36 million tons. After deducting the part needed to guarantee the national key construction projects, the steel products that can finally fall into the hands of local governments for infrastructure construction can be described as a drop in the bucket.

In the case of insufficient steel in the national plan, there are two ways for local governments to obtain steel. One is to import from abroad; need. Anhe Province does not have a lot of foreign exchange reserves for export like those coastal provinces, so importing steel products is not feasible. The remaining way is to let the steel factories in the province tap the potential and innovate to increase production.

With this in mind, Yang Yihe, who was in charge of the industry in the province, ran all over the steel factories in the province to save the face of the deputy governor, and begged the factory directors with good words, asking them to expand production. The directors of various iron and steel factories slapped their chests loudly in front of him, and only bit their middle fingers to write a letter of promise. But after these rhetoric, a lot of difficulties followed, such as insufficient funds, outdated equipment, shortage of raw materials... It can be summed up in one sentence: no way!

If it was just a steel factory complaining to Yang Yihe like this, he would ignore it, and even ruthlessly remove the factory manager from his position and hire someone else to take on the role. But all the steel factories in the province seemed to have made an appointment, and even the reasons they gave were similar, so Yang Yihe couldn't deal with it. He even had some doubts whether the steel issue was indeed an unsolvable problem, and it was impossible for Anhe Province to solve such a difficulty.

This time, Yang Yihe came to Beixi with Yue Guoyang to deal with the slag problem, and Yang Yihe had an unexpected harvest, that is, he heard from Yue Guoyang about a Qin Hai who could create magic. According to Yue Guoyang, Qin Hai started from scratch and revitalized the long-closed Pingyuan Iron and Steel Plant without asking for a cent of support from the state. Now the production of this plant is booming, and it is said that he plans to add more equipment to expand the scale.

Yang Yihe didn't know how Qin Hai did this, but with the idea of ​​going to the doctor in a hurry, he still planned to chat with Qin Hai to see if this young man could solve the steel shortage problem in Anhe Province. Yang Yihe has always believed that geniuses exist in this world, so he doesn't think Qin Hai's age is a blemish.

Hearing Yang Yihe's request, Qin Hai pondered for a moment, and said: The problem of Beixi Iron and Steel Plant is not a technical problem at all, but a... system problem.

When it came to system issues, Qin Hai was a little hesitant, wondering if Yang Yihe would be displeased if such words were spoken. Officials back then were very fond of talking about system reforms, but they were very secretive about system flaws. This may sound contradictory, but such contradictions do exist widely. For example, everyone knew that the planning system was an important reason for restricting productivity at that time, but when it came to reform ideas, no one dared to directly deny the planning system, and could only lie about what a planned commodity economy was going to be. .

As a time traveler, Qin Hai is very clear about the root cause of the nationwide shortage of raw materials, but the way of solving the problem is ahead of the times. He doesn't know if such a way of thinking can be accepted by veteran cadres like Yang Yihe.

Institutional issues, what should I say? Yang Yihe said, he was not surprised by Qin Hai's words, because he had thought about some issues before.

Now that he has started, Qin Hai is not polite, he said: First of all, the unreasonable price system is the main reason for the lack of enthusiasm for production and the difficulty of equipment transformation in steel factories. Governor Yang should have heard of this, right? ?”

I've heard of it, but... I'm afraid this problem cannot be solved by the province. Yang Yihe smiled wryly.

In the era of planned economy, the prices of all commodities on the market were set by the state, and enterprises had no pricing power. Since the reform, the country has gradually liberalized the prices of agricultural products and light industrial products, but has never dared to liberalize the prices of heavy industrial products. Because the latter is in the upstream of the industrial chain, once it is released, it will lead to a chain price increase of downstream products, resulting in unpredictable social risks.

However, in this way, the prices of light and heavy industrial products are not coordinated. The price of light industrial products keeps rising, which makes the living cost of residents of the whole society constantly increase. However, the price of heavy industry products remains unchanged, which makes the income of heavy industry enterprises unable to increase. Under such circumstances, the more heavy industrial enterprises produce, the more they will lose money, and the limited profits can be used to pay employees' wages. There is no spare money to update equipment and improve technology.

The only way to solve this problem is to loosen the price control on heavy industry in due course and gradually increase the price of heavy industry products, so that heavy industry enterprises can obtain the funds needed to expand reproduction and form a virtuous circle. To achieve this, it is indeed not possible for a province to do so. For iron and steel plants to produce, the state also needs to allocate raw materials such as ore and coal through mandatory plans, so it is unrealistic to want to escape the planned management.

The second aspect is the internal mechanism of state-owned enterprises. In order to improve the enthusiasm of workers and promote their technical level, there must be a more flexible mechanism. On this point, I conducted a pilot project in Pingyuan Iron and Steel Plant and achieved good results. Effective. However, I can assure you that it is impossible for Beixi Iron and Steel Plant to adopt such a mechanism. Qin Hai continued.

In essence, Pingyuan Iron and Steel Works is no longer the original state-owned enterprise, but a private enterprise under the name of Qin Hai. In Pingyuan Iron and Steel Works, Qin Hai implemented a full set of market-oriented salary and personnel systems. Skilled workers can get more money, and workers who work a lot can also get more money. , Get fired immediately. Under such a mechanism, the production efficiency of Pingyuan Iron and Steel Works is several times higher than in the past. Workers enjoy working and counting money happily, and there is no such phenomenon as the old state-owned enterprises.

Although Qin Hai has not had in-depth contact with the Beixi Iron and Steel Plant, he can also know the current situation in the plant based on his own imagination. He said that it is impossible for Beixi Iron and Steel Plant to adopt such a mechanism, which is completely in line with the actual situation.

So, Beixi Iron and Steel Plant is hopeless? Yang Yihe asked.

Qin Hai shook his head: At least I don't see any hope. There are too many problems in the Beixi Iron and Steel Plant, which cannot be solved with just one or two ideas.

Yang Yihe thought for a while, and suddenly said: If I hand over the Beixi Iron and Steel Plant to you, can you solve the problem?

Qin Hai was startled: Governor Yang, although I am young, my heart is not very strong. Don't scare me like this.

Yang Yihe smiled: I didn't scare you, I was serious. I just thought that if you can revitalize the Pingyuan Iron and Steel Plant, why don't you also entrust the Beixi Iron and Steel Plant to revitalize it? The central government is now advocating multiple economies. Since the Beixi Iron and Steel Plant is hopeless, why not take it out as a joint operation pilot in the province?

Qin Hai stared at Yang Yihe's eyes, trying to find some playful expressions, but what he saw was calm. He hesitated for a moment and asked, Governor Yang, are you really kidding?

You are not joking, I am a deputy governor after all, can I make such a joke with you, a young worker? Yang Yihe said.

Qin Hai shook his head and said: This matter is very difficult. Pingyuan Iron and Steel Factory is a closed factory. I just borrowed its shell without any fetters. Beixi Iron and Steel Factory is completely different. It It is still a normal business. Although it is said that the benefits are not very good, the wages and benefits can be paid out. Except for you, Governor Yang, everyone thinks that it is not bad. In this case, if you want to deal with it Carrying out reforms is as difficult as climbing the sky. What's more, I just offended Wang Yiqiao, does Governor Yang think he can cooperate with me in a happy mood?

Yang Yihe said: The matter of Wang Yiqiao is not something you need to consider. I said that handing over the Beixi Iron and Steel Plant to you is not something that can be done immediately. Well, you should think about this issue from now on. Wait until Years later, the province will solve the relevant problems, and then we will discuss what method to use to revitalize the Beixi Iron and Steel Plant so that it can truly play its role as a basic industry.

Well, I will also use this time to think about it. However, I hope that Governor Yang can change his original intention and don't put me, a young man, on the fire. Qin Hai said half-jokingly.

Yang Yihe shook his head and sighed: Young man, how can you grow up without going through some wind and rain? Others can't find such a chance to be roasted on the fire, but you still push it back and forth. It's really mud that can't support the wall. .”