Chapter 15 Conversation
"Hello, Director Zhang."

After shaking hands with the middle-aged man in front of him, Guo Yang realized that this move was a bit abrupt.

After all, he is a department-level cadre of the Ministry of Agriculture, and his administrative level is at least deputy department level, which is widely referred to as department-level.

But in such an unfamiliar occasion, being able to shake hands with a stranger like him also indirectly reflects that the leader of the Ministry of Agriculture is an easy-going person.

At least that's how it looks on the surface.

Looking at Director Zhang with a smile, Guo Yang said with a smile: "Director Zhang, I was just testing the Coroni silage machine when I heard your talk and was quite touched."

"Oh? So what did you feel?" Director Zhang showed an interested expression, but Guo Yang felt oppressive from his sharp eyes.

If he didn't answer this question well, he would probably miss the opportunity to establish a relationship with the Ministry of Agriculture.

Guo Yang considered carefully, recalling every detail of this turbulent era.

Finally, he decided to open with two of his favorite quotes.

“The dust of the times is like a mountain when it falls on anyone’s head, but a drop of water from the times is like a vast ocean for an individual enterprise.”

Hearing Guo Yang's answer, Director Zhang showed a look of surprise, and the people accompanying him also showed a thoughtful look.

And Guo Yang continued.

"After joining the WTO, the tariff rates for most agricultural machinery products have been adjusted to below 10%. Imported high-performance and high-tech agricultural machinery products are bound to put great pressure on domestic agricultural machinery companies."

"Under this competitive pressure, a number of domestic companies with mediocre technical research and development capabilities and agricultural machinery products that cannot keep up with the market situation are bound to go bankrupt, but the reduction in tariffs has also lowered the threshold for agricultural machinery imports."

"Under such circumstances, with the support of policies and funds, the leading domestic agricultural machinery companies can also take the opportunity to study the international agricultural machinery market, select advanced agricultural machinery, and update the existing agricultural machinery with poor technical status and low technological content, so as to make domestic power machinery and supporting equipment more reasonable."

"For domestic agricultural machinery companies, opportunities and risks are like twin brothers. There are opportunities in crises and crises in opportunities."

“There are no successful companies, only companies of the times. Great times can give birth to great companies. Most of the world’s big companies have seized one or several great times and industrial cycles. This is the case for great multinational companies such as John Deere and Case New Holland.

“And I believe that with the opening of the domestic market, in this new era, domestic agricultural machinery companies will also become leaders in the global agricultural machinery industry!”

Guo Yang spoke passionately, and everything about agricultural machinery in his mind came out in one go.

He knew that the people in front of him who could come to the Hannover International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition must be the best in the domestic agricultural machinery industry. Even if he had insights from the future, he was not professional after all, and he was definitely not as professional as these people.

But opportunities are earned through hard work. Guo Yang has always been a pioneer, otherwise he would not have contracted his own land for planting as soon as he graduated in his previous life.

Therefore, he acted very confident in front of everyone. He had to be confident because he had other things to do next and wanted to attract more attention through this trip.

After listening to Guo Yang's feelings, Zhang Jianjun also agreed with him.

He is the deputy director of the Agricultural Mechanization Department. No one knows the domestic agricultural machinery situation better than him. He even knows a lot of data by heart.

For example, in 2001, the total power of agricultural machinery in the country reached 5.48 million kilowatts.

For example, the average import tax rate for agricultural machinery products is only 6.5%, a decrease of 40%.
In addition, domestic agricultural machinery is also exported, mainly low-end walk-behind tractors and internal combustion engines to Southeast Asia and Africa, with the export value exceeding US$4 million.

Zhang Jianjun asked with interest: "You don't look very old, are you an international student in Germany?"

Guo Yang smiled and shook his head. "I came to Germany specifically to attend the agricultural machinery exhibition and plan to buy some machines to bring back."

"Oh? Buying machinery? Are you a dealer from China?"

Among the people accompanying Zhang Jianjun, two or three people showed surprised expressions.

But Guo Yang continued to shake his head and began to tell everyone part of his plan: "I bought the machinery for my own use. I plan to contract and improve a batch of saline-alkali land in Long Province to grow forage grass. This trip is also to see if there are any suitable machines here." Long Province? Contract saline-alkali land to grow forage grass?

What a weird idea! Many people in the crowd looked at Guo Yang in confusion.

This is obviously a losing business!
"Growing forage grass on saline-alkali land? Is there a reliable plan to improve saline-alkali land? How many acres do you plan to plant?" Zhang Jianjun also looked at Guo Yang in confusion.

He did know that the country has increased its attention to saline-alkali land resources in recent years, and that many scientific researchers in Northwest China, North China, western Northeast China and coastal areas have been engaged in related research for a long time.

However, these are still at the scientific research level and it is still very difficult to promote them.

Guo Yang thought about it and realized that in addition to growing forage grass, breeding and seed production were also involved.

However, the funds on hand have almost broken through the 15 billion yuan mark in the past two days. Excluding some funds used for investment, there are at least nearly billion yuan in liquid funds.

"We have developed a type of alfalfa that is highly tolerant to salt and alkali. It has strong adaptability and transformation capabilities to saline-alkali land. The current plan is to improve 20 mu of land."

Everyone's attention was drawn to him and they looked at Guo Yang in disbelief.

"How much? 20 acres?"

Guo Yang nodded affirmatively.

Zhang Jianjun suddenly wondered if this guy was making fun of them, or if he was just a liar trying to defraud the government subsidies?
The first thing they did was to contract 20 acres of saline-alkali land. Do you know how much money that would cost?

"Young man, it's good to have ambition, but you still have to start from the beginning with your feet on the ground."

"Director Zhang, I know you may not believe what I said, and you may even wonder if I have some ulterior motive, but everything I said just now is true."

"I don't expect any financial subsidies from the government for doing this, I just hope the government will give me some support in terms of land policies."

"Tell me in detail, what kind of policy support is needed?" asked Zhang Jianjun.

Guo Yang thought for a moment and expressed his thoughts.

"I hope that the Ministry of Agriculture can serve as a witness when signing the investment agreement and the saline-alkali land transfer contract..."

Before Guo Yang could finish speaking, Zhang Jianjun interrupted him.

"Although I work for the Agricultural Mechanization Department, I can also tell you clearly that it is impossible for the Ministry of Agriculture to intervene. Land transfer contracts can only be signed with local governments."

"But if you can really come up with such a large sum of money to invest in the transformation of 20 mu of saline-alkali land, I will talk to my colleagues in charge of related business about it."

"After all, if you can really do this successfully, the ecological benefits and economic value it will generate will be immeasurable. You know, there are nearly 1 million hectares of saline-alkali land in the country."

Having said this, Zhang Jianjun paused, as if thinking about something.

After a moment, he asked, "Which school did you graduate from?"

"I am a postgraduate student in forage breeding at Gansu Agricultural University. My supervisor is Professor Weng Lixin."

Zhang Jianjun nodded, acknowledging his identity.

"I know Professor Weng. It just so happens that this year's national science and technology research plan has approved the topic of 'Key technologies and equipment for forage seed harvesting and post-harvest processing'. If your project can really be implemented, perhaps we can set up a test base at your place."

"But we don't have much money. The total investment in seven or eight projects of the 15th National Science and Technology Key Project for Agricultural Mechanization is only more than 20 million yuan. It is nothing compared to your generosity."

"This is the only support I can give you at the moment, of course the premise is that you really have the funds to do this."

(End of this chapter)