Agricultural giant since 1983

Chapter 216
If I had known that the organizer was in charge of the meal, I would have saved the bread. The bread would not go bad for a few days. Would I still be able to eat it on the way back? Lao Mouzi followed Li Lei downstairs with regret.

Lao Mouzi was not too surprised when he arrived at the buffet restaurant. He is also a person who has seen the world. When he did not lose too much in business in the past two years, he also stayed in star hotels several times.

After dinner, Li Lei went back to his room to sleep. He came to the department this time not only to have a meeting, but also to do some things, so he must keep his spirits up.

From Zurich Airport to Davos, it takes two and a half hours by car, while the train takes three hours. The bigwigs attending the Davos meeting can take a helicopter directly from Zurich to the Davos venue, but the organizer only pays for the car cost of.

Li Lei could afford three thousand U.S. dollars, but it was unnecessary, since he had never been on a plane before, and he was not in a hurry, so he got on the bus with Lao Mouzi.

In the car, Li Lei saw the awesomeness of Lao Mouzi again. Lao Mouzi has never learned a foreign language, but he has learned a few words from frequent dealings with foreign businessmen in the past few years. Hua chatted with the foreigner sitting next to him, and the chat was in full swing, and the chat continued all the way.

Awesome, really awesome, Li Lei can only give him a thumbs up, this kind of communication ability is definitely not comparable to ordinary people.

"Old Mou, what are you talking about with him?" After getting off the car, Li Lei asked curiously.

"Ask him what kind of business he does, and see if there is any opportunity for cooperation!" Although Lao Mouzi doesn't have much money now, he is right at all. Who said that cooperation requires money?Isn't my domestic connections more important than money?And even if it's buying goods, can we get the goods first and then pay the bill!
"Then you have to work harder in the next few days. Davos is full of big bosses these days. If you catch one, you'll post it!" Li Lei was curious as to whether old Mouzi could fool those big companies with his ability. Home, this is really a bit uncertain, there are many large companies interested in the domestic market nowadays.

Davos is a town located in the Grisons region of southeastern Switzerland, close to the Austrian border. It is the highest town in the Alps with an altitude of 1 meters and a population of about 529, mainly speaking German.

The hot springs here are very famous, and it also has a world-famous ski resort, so it has become a famous resort in Europe, with many five-star resort hotels, the most famous of which is the Davos Shiberger Hotel. From the beginning of the Davos conference to the future, the Shiberger Hotel has hosted Davos conferences for more than 1971 years, and this year is no exception.

This is a German hotel chain, which was founded in 1930. It first opened the first resort hotel in Baden-Baden, the most famous hot spring resort in Germany. It has been developing steadily for decades and has spread all over the world. Then in 2019, Huazhu Group completed the wholly-owned acquisition of Deutsche Hotel Group, the parent company of the Steberger brand. Since then, Steberger has become a family with Hanting and All Seasons.

"Hey, this place is Bashi!" After entering, Lao Mouzi felt that his eyes were wide open. He had stayed in star-rated hotels in China, but most of them were business-oriented. There seems to be no five-star resort hotels in China.

Show the invitation letter, and then check into the hotel. The Davos Forum provides different hotel grades for different guests. They both live in relatively ordinary room types, and better rooms are reserved for those state dignitaries and economic giants. of.

Li Lei didn't care too much about it. It's good to be able to participate in the meeting now. When he has a great influence in the future, the meeting organizer will naturally provide better rooms when he comes here again.

Back in the room, he first looked at the meeting process and the list of participants. Like Lao Mouzi, he also planned to see if there was any opportunity.

In terms of participants, two groups of guests are the most eye-catching this year. The first group is the prime ministers of East and West Germany. They will meet here to discuss the issue of German reunification; Delegates, they will have their first ministerial meeting here.

There are also politicians from small countries, bosses and presidents of large companies, well-known economists, etc. Unfortunately, Li Lei is not familiar with many of them.

This year's conference process is divided into five sections, global agenda, economic agenda, regional agenda, industry business agenda, and future agenda. Some of these agendas can be participated by anyone, and some require certain qualifications; the main process is the World Economic Annual Conference first. , representatives from the political, business, and academic circles will speak on stage, summarizing the past, looking forward to the future, and explaining their understanding of the current economic situation.

Then there are some professional topics, such as the rise of the Japanese economy, economic globalization, global energy outlook, global young leaders dialogue, how to effectively manage diversified companies, how to solve the global food crisis, etc. Li Lei discussed in the last item Highlighted.

With so many agendas, it is impossible to listen to every game. There is no need and no energy. Just pick some key ones or listen to them that are useful to you.

Elites from different countries around the world get together, and naturally they will not wait for the meeting to start to communicate. After a short rest, Lao Mouzi knocks on his door, pulls Li Lei out together, wanders around in the hotel, non-stop Greet people casually, and if anyone strikes up a conversation, go up and chat with each other for a while.

It is much more convenient to arrive at the venue. There are volunteers who are proficient in various languages. If necessary, you can ask them to help with translation. Lao Mouzi is much more pleasant to chat with.

Although Lao Mouzi did not go to university, it does not mean that he is uneducated. When he was a worker, he put a lot of effort into Marxism-Leninism theory and law. Coupled with his excellent communication skills, he really fooled many foreigners. , They were taken aback for a while.

But when it came time to talk about cooperation, these people returned to their former shrewdness, and rejected Lao Mouzi friendly but firmly. These people have no real money but they can't be moved.

Old Mouzi was not discouraged either. Seeing the Leica camera that Li Lei had just bought, he immediately had an idea, "Come on, Xiao Li, take some photos for me."

Even if you don't find a chance to make money, then this trip is not in vain. You have to take a few photos, enlarge them and hang them in the office. When someone comes, they will say that they are talking and laughing with big foreign bosses at foreign conferences. It can bluff a few people and make a big deal.

"Success!" Li Lei had nothing to do anyway, so he took a few photos for him, and now Lao Mouzi became more active, whenever he met someone, he would take a group photo with him, no matter what they did!

Anyway, most of these foreigners don’t know the domestic people, so when I go back, I’ll just blow it up. I said this is the vice president of General Motors. Do you dare to say otherwise?

It would be even better if you encounter one that has appeared in the domestic media. Just point to the photo and say, who has seen this in the newspaper?The minister of the German Ministry of Industry, I chatted very speculatively with him at the time, if you want to import equipment from Germany, I will help you!

After filming one volume, Li Lei gave up his company and went to try the hot springs and skiing in Davos instead. These two things are not within the scope of reimbursement by the organizer, but it doesn't matter, Li Lei can afford it himself.

In the evening, the meeting officially started. Professor Schwab came to the stage to give a welcome speech and presented awards. Then there was a concert and free communication time. Everyone walked among the crowd with wine glasses, and joined in for a few chats when they encountered interesting topics. sentence.

The official agenda started the next day. The whole morning was a meeting that all participants could participate in, reporting the latest progress, summarizing last year's economic situation, etc. Li Lei listened more attentively, and Lao Mouzi couldn't bear it anymore. He asked After learning that it was like this all morning, he simply used the break time between meetings to sneak back to his room to sleep and recharge his batteries. He still liked the free communication last night.

In the afternoon, it was changed to hold a variety of different types of topics in multiple meeting rooms at the same time. Participants can choose the ones they are interested in participating in. Li Lei looked at the meeting schedule and chose the room where the rise of the Japanese economy was discussed.

On September 1985, 9, the finance ministers and central bank governors of the United States, Japan, Federal Republic of Germany, France and the United Kingdom (G22 for short) held a meeting at the Plaza Hotel in New York, and reached a joint intervention in the foreign exchange market by the governments of the five countries to induce the dollar to trade against major currencies. The orderly depreciation of China's exchange rate to solve the huge trade deficit of the United States is an agreement, because the agreement was signed at the Plaza Hotel, so the agreement is also known as the "Plaza Agreement".

In the long run, this agreement ruined the future of Japan's economy, but for now, the appreciation of the yen has given the Japanese the idea that they can buy the world.

In September 1985, the U.S. dollar fluctuated against the Japanese yen at 9 U.S. dollar to 1 yen. Less than 250 months after the signing of the agreement, the U.S. dollar quickly fell to around 3 U.S. dollar to 1 yen, a drop of 200%. , the United States continued to promote the depreciation of the dollar against the yen, the lowest ever fell to 20 dollar to 1 yen.

Then the Japanese began to purchase wildly around the world. Sony acquired Columbia, Mitsubishi acquired Rockefeller Plaza, and even the Empire State Building, which is the pride of the Americans, became the target of Japanese businessmen; Like the Chinese many years later, they are crazy about buying all kinds of luxury goods.

They also haunt various top auctions, spending a lot of money to compete for the works of well-known painters, causing the auction prices of paintings by Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet and others to directly double.

When the news of Sony's intention to acquire Columbia Pictures spread, an American media published such a painting on the cover - the logo of Columbia Pictures, the Statue of Liberty holding a torch was changed into a Japanese kimono, and her hair was also combed. Japanese look.

Many years later, this picture appeared in the zombie game "Showa America Story" produced by a group of Leziren game developers. It is a pity that this game only played a short video and there is no more content. I don't know when the ticket will be delayed. Li Lei still remembers the swimming pool in the short film, but unfortunately he probably won't be able to use it anymore.

The biggest impact of exchange rate changes is not the output and import of products, but the flow of capital and the corresponding wealth effect; in the past five years after the "Plaza Accord", stock prices have increased by 5% per year and land prices by 30% per year. In the same period, the annual growth rate of Japan's nominal GDP was only about 15%. The bubble economy was getting farther and farther away from the real economy, which also paved the way for Japan's decline.

But now, economists have different views. The speaker on the stage believes that the sharp appreciation of the yen has provided a good opportunity for Japanese companies to go global and expand overseas on a large scale, which can promote the adjustment of Japan’s industrial structure and ultimately have Conducive to the healthy development of the Japanese economy.

But he overlooked one point, that is, it is undoubtedly a dream for a country without sovereignty to become the most economically powerful country in the world.

After listening to this, Li Lei went back to rest for a while, and planned to listen again in the afternoon. Old Mouzi couldn't understand, "What's the point of listening to those silly things?"

"There are still some gains!" Li Lei said with a smile, after all, Lao Mouzi has something lacking, if he can learn a few nouns that sound very powerful, maybe he can fool more people when he goes back.

Oh, it doesn't seem right, the people who make a fortune at the moment are all people with low education level, it's not good to call them names that are too lofty; well, it doesn't matter.

"Don't go as I said, let's find someone to chat with, and you can take some photos for me!" Old Mouzi is still thinking about this, in fact, the hotel can also rent cameras and hire photographers, but neither They want money, and Lao Mouzi just doesn't have much money right now.

"Don't mind, the meeting in the afternoon is very important to me! And I want to find someone to buy something!" The meeting that Li Lei will attend in the afternoon is to discuss the food crisis, and there are many agricultural-related enterprises among the participants, and they have a lot of something of value.

This time, Lao Mouzi did not stop him. He came to the venue and waited for a while before the meeting began. The speaker first reviewed the global food crisis in the past few years.

The severe drought in Africa in 1986 caused an unprecedented food crisis, threatening hundreds of millions of people with starvation and death. The reason for this crisis was that the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere rose sharply, which raised the temperature of the earth and worsened the weather conditions, which led to a decline in food production. ; As a result, the influence of the greenhouse effect has gradually expanded, and various environmentalisms have also attracted more people's attention.

But if you analyze it carefully, you will find that this crisis is not caused by a shortage of production, but a crisis of distribution.

During the 50 years from the early 80s to the mid-35s, the world's grain production increased by about two and a half times, and the per capita grain consumption increased by about [-]%.However, the majority of developing countries in the third world did not benefit from this, and this situation has continued into later generations.

Fortunately, China has not been greatly affected by this crisis. The fertilizer industry, the development of agricultural technology, water conservancy projects, and household production contracting have allowed the Chinese people to fill their stomachs.

While listening to the lecture, Li Lei kept an eye on the identities of the participants, looking for those he was interested in, and then began to think about how to buy good things from them.

(End of this chapter)