Chapter 459 - Expanding Logistics Business into Overseas Market (3) – Part 2
The president of the terminal called for his chauffeur, and said to him, “Take them back to their hotel in Antang City.”
“Yes, sir.”
The president then turned around and extended his hand to Gun-Ho for a handshake.
“I will see you at dinner later today.”
“Sure, I will see you then. Thank you for showing me around the terminal.”
After parting from the terminal’s president, Gun-Ho got in the car with Chan-Ho and headed back to their hotel.
In the car, Gun-Ho asked the chauffeur, “Do you know how many workers there are in this terminal?”
“As far as I know, there are about 130 workers.”
“Hmm, really?”
“By the way, sir, you speak the Chinese language very well. I thought you came from Hong Kong or Taiwan.”
The chauffeur said while looking at Gun-Ho through the rear-view mirror.
“Do you often see many visitors from Hong Kong or Taiwan around here?”
“Not very often, but we do receive tourists from there from time to time. As to the terminal that you just visited, the government previously tried to make a partnership with a company from Hong Kong, and a business owner from Hong Kong had visited here several times.”
“I guess that didn’t work out.”
“I’m not sure what happened, but since I haven’t seen that businessman any longer, I guess you’re right; it didn’t seem to work out.”
“I wonder why they are trying so hard to find a foreign partner. It seems that they can handle the construction cost with the city’s budget.”
In China, many high-class restaurants served hot tea as soon as customers sat at a table. While having the tea, the deputy mayor and the director of the transportation department arrived.
All sorts of dainties started coming out, along with the Chinese liquor— Baiju.
“Did you take a tour around the terminal?”
“Yes, I did.”
“I believe that the president of the terminals already explained to you about the size of the project.”
“Yes, he did.”
The deputy mayor collected the glasses on the table and placed them in front of him, and he started filling them with Baiju, and then he distributed each glass to everyone at the table.
“Let’s welcome and toast our guests from Seoul, Korea— Mr. Gun-Ho Goo.”
“Ganbei! (cheers)”
“Ganbei!”
“Chan-Ho, enjoy the food, especially liquor. You haven’t had many chances to drink in Korea because you had to drive for me. Here, you can drink as much as you please.”
“The foods are awesome.”
Gun-Ho said while clinking his glass to the deputy mayor’s glass and the director’s glass of the transportation department, “How much investment funds do you have in mind?”
The transportation department’s director answered on behalf of the deputy mayor.
“We are thinking of 50 million dollars.”
“So each party is supposed to bring in 25 million dollars?”
“That’s correct.”
“The land, that I visited earlier today, has been appraised for 25 million dollars, hasn’t it?”
“That’s correct.”
“I believe that it is overvalued. The land is 10,000 pyung large, and if its appraised value is 25 million dollars, that means that the land is worth 2.5 million Korean won per pyung. I’ve seen that kind of high price for the land in a big city like Suzhou City or Hangzhou City where I previously had my joint venture business, but not for a small city.”
“The land price here is very high as well.”
“Guizhou Province’s capital— Guiyang City— has a population of 4.5 million, but the population of its downtown is not even 1.5 million. Likewise, even though Antang City’s population is 800,000, the population of the downtown is only 300,000. I think that you are planning to build an unnecessarily huge terminal, given the size of the city.