China began to negotiate to restore the status of a party to the GATT in the mid-1980s, but until the end of the GATT in the mid-1990s, the negotiations did not achieve results. Subsequently, China moved into the so-called "World-Enterprise Negotiation", which is the negotiation to apply for joining the World Trade Organization, and officially joined the WTO on December 11, 2001, which is what people call wto.

The Chinese official is actually quite nervous about joining the WTO. Joining the WTO will greatly reduce the obstacles to China's commodity exports and will undoubtedly have a great promotion effect on the booming labor-intensive industries. However, at the same time, the WTO commitment has also made China's relatively naive equipment manufacturing, financial industry, etc. face foreign competitive pressure. If you are not careful, you may collapse completely, and eventually make China a failed country that can only rely on low-end industries to survive. The word "Latin America" ​​has been the sword of Damocles of China for a long time, and has become an idiom that must be spoken by public intellectuals of all sizes when cursing China.

However, if you look at it from the perspective of a time traveler, you will find that the worries that year were actually redundant. In the 20 years since joining the WTO, China's equipment manufacturing industry has not only not collapsed under the impact of its foreign counterparts, but has become more and more courageous in the fierce competition, and has rushed to the forefront of the world in many fields, so that the commander on the other side of the ocean was so scared that he couldn't sleep at night when he heard the number "2025". He tried his best to abolish the 2025 plan. This is of course a later story.

Wang Weilong is not a time traveler, but he always trusts Feng Xiaochen's predictions. He nodded and said, "Xiao Feng, you have been urging us, Luo Ye, to speed up the absorption and introduction of technology over the years, and forced us to invest the money we have earned so hard to develop new technologies. To be honest, there are quite a lot of people among the factory leaders and middle-level cadres who are talking to you, but now looking back at those colleagues who are on the verge of bankruptcy because of the lack of core technology, and thinking about the harsh environment after joining the WTO, everyone can't help but praise you for being visionary."

"If people don't have long-term plans, they will have immediate worries. This sentence will never go out of time." Feng Xiaochen said, "large enterprises like Luoye have lived a very comfortable life in the past, but that was based on national protection. Now we are engaged in a market economy. In the future, we will join WTO. On the one hand, private enterprises will squeeze your space, and on the other hand, large foreign companies will occupy your market. If you don't practice your internal skills, your outcome will be predictable."

"That's right, that's right." Wang Weilong agreed repeatedly, then remembered his important matters on this trip and said, "By the way, Xiao Feng, I came here this time to invite you to go to Gabe with me. The second batch of dump trucks we made for the Pitsig Iron Mine will be transported to the Pitsig Iron Mine soon. The Ministry of Industry of Gabe intends to hold a reception ceremony, which will be around the 10th of next month, mainly to celebrate the success of the cooperation between the two parties. Our factory party committee held a meeting to discuss and felt that if you can invite Mr. Feng to attend this ceremony, it would be a great honor for Luo Ye. Now, I was sent by the factory party committee to send you an invitation. I wonder if Mr. Feng can take the time to travel to Africa in his busy schedule."

"Go to Africa to attend the pick-up ceremony?" Feng Xiaochen was stunned, then looked at Wang Weilong with suspicious eyes and asked, "Old Wang, you have anything else to say, right?"

The Pitsig Iron Mine was jointly developed by China and the country of Gabe. The Chinese side invested in this way to provide various mining equipment, including Luoye’s dump trucks, Linzhong’s excavators and other mining equipment provided by some other companies. The funds for purchasing these equipment come from various domestic steel plants, and they have also become shareholders of the Pitsig Iron Mine because of providing these funds.

After the first batch of equipment provided by China arrived at the mine and put into use, the mine's production capacity was greatly improved. Most of the iron ore produced was transported to China and replaced by various industrial equipment and daily consumer goods produced in China, which promoted the industrialization of the country of Gabe and improved the living standards of the people of Gabe. It can be said that this is a win-win cooperation.

The Gabe government tasted the sweetness and decided to increase cooperation with China. Luo Ye's second batch of dump trucks were transported to Gabe under such a background. The equipment reception ceremony that Wang Weilong mentioned was actually not just to celebrate the arrival of these equipment, but more importantly to announce the further cooperation between Gabe and China in iron ore development. Feng Xiaochen had known about this for a long time, but because the matter was too far away from him, he did not think about attending the ceremony.

For Luo Ye, asking Feng Xiaochen to fly tens of thousands of kilometers to Africa just for a pick-up ceremony is indeed a big deal. Considering Feng Xiaochen's current position, Luo Ye's request for such a request can even be said to be more Meng Lang. Wang Weilong and Luo Ye's factory leaders are both veterans of the officialdom who became elites after the founding of the People's Republic of China. How could they make such a mistake? It is obvious that the purpose of their invitation to Feng Xiaochen to Africa is not only this, but other reasons.

After hearing Feng Xiaochen's words reveal the secret, Wang Weilong smiled awkwardly, and said, "I knew nothing could be hidden from you, Mr. Feng's pair of wise eyes. To be honest, this time, at our strong request, the Ministry of Industry of the Cabe Country will invite officials of the Ministry of Industry and executives of mining companies from more than a dozen countries around to observe. The idea of ​​Lin Chong and his friends is to develop more customers at this ceremony. However, I discussed with Mr. Lin Chong's old Liu, and we unanimously agreed that only by asking Mr. Feng, you can we have the confidence to convince other customers. Today I will come to send you an invitation. If I guess correctly, it will be tomorrow at the latest. Liu Wang and even Shen Jinbao will probably come to invite you."

Liu Wang, who he mentioned, was the deputy factory director of Linbei Heavy Machinery, who led a team to the Munich Engineering Machinery Exhibition two years ago. As for Shen Jinbao, he was Lin Chong's top leader and was quite familiar with Feng Xiaochen. Although the Equipment Industry Company is of the same level as Luo Ye and Lin Chong and other large state-owned equipment companies, everyone still assumes that the Equipment Company is the superior unit of each enterprise, and when encountering troubles, they have to ask the Equipment Company to come forward to solve the problem. Of course, the Economic and Trade Commission established the Equipment Company in the original purpose of taking over the responsibility of the Heavy Equipment Office, so it does coordinate the equipment company and organizes authorizations for major equipment research and development. The Equipment Company is also responsible for helping various enterprises run errands.

Understanding Luo Ye's true intention, Feng Xiaochen laughed. He stood up and pressed the bell button on the table. Secretary Meng Yang, who had just avoided, responded. Feng Xiaochen asked Meng Yang: "Xiao Meng, please help me see what arrangements are there around the 10th of next month. If it is not important, I may have to go to Africa with Mr. Wang and the others. I guess..."

"It's only one week at most." Wang Weilong quickly stated.

Feng Xiaochen glanced at Wang Weilong and pretended to be displeased, "I finally went to Africa. Could it be that I just stood up for you? Isn't it that I'll go to visit relatives and friends, and travel around the mountains and rivers?"

"Uh... I can't control it anymore." Wang Weilong said angrily.

Feng Xiaochen then continued to say to Meng Yang: "It's estimated that it will take about half a month, you can find a way to arrange it."

Meng Yang agreed and went back to his small office to arrange the schedule. Feng Xiaochen and Wang Weilong have been friends for many years. The things they met and talked about were often both public and private, so every time Wang Weilong came, Meng Yang usually chose to avoid it, and only came in when Feng Xiaochen called him.

Seeing Meng Yang leave, Wang Weilong turned his head and smiled at Feng Xiaochen and asked, "Xiao Feng, you really want to visit relatives and friends in Africa. Do you have many acquaintances there?"

Feng Xiaochen said: "My uncle works in Africa, don't you know?"

"Is there such a thing?" Wang Weilong looked very curious, thought for a while, and then said, "Well, I seem to have heard of this, but I don't know much about the details."

"I don't know much. He is from the military system, and his work there is also a military secret, and I have never been convenient for me to inquire about it." Feng Xiaochen said perfunctorily. In fact, Feng Xiaochen knew about Feng Fei's specific work in Africa, but there is no need to talk to outsiders too much about this kind of thing. He changed the topic and said:

"Of course, it's a joke to visit relatives and friends. Your invitation gave me an inspiration, that is, I did get a trip to Africa and sell the various equipment we have made, not just your mining equipment. The industrial foundations of African countries are very weak and they are in need of advanced and cheap industrial equipment. We can take the road of surrounding cities in the countryside, occupy the African market first, and then promote it to Latin America and Asian markets, and finally go to the old nests of Western powers and grab their local markets. Last year, we built three after-sales service centers in Africa. According to the information reported, the business of several centers was very good, but I didn't see it with my own eyes, and I was always a little uneasy. Taking this opportunity, I happened to go and observe it on the spot."

"So that's it. Mr. Feng, you probably have already planned to go to Africa. Taking this opportunity to go with the flow, Liu Wang and I owe you a huge favor." Wang Weilong said pretending to be aggrieved.

Feng Xiaochen smiled and said, "Since Mr. Wang said that, then my travel expenses from the equipment company will be reimbursed, and I will never take advantage of you."

"That's not possible!" Wang Weilong was as anxious as if he had been robbed of money. "Since we invited you to go, then all the air tickets, food, accommodation, and food are included in ours, Luo Ye and Lin Chong. If you dare to reimburse the equipment company, you will look down on others and don't come to us in the future."

"Didn't you force the bullhead to drink water?"

"We just don't want others to laugh at us as stingy."

"Old Wang, you have changed."

"Haha, it's you, Mr. Feng, who has changed."

"It's changed, we're all old!"
Chapter completed!