Chapter 98 - Flavors of Life (2) – PART 1
Gun-Ho started his day early morning with Professor Wang, heading to Shanghai.
Gun-Ho wanted to rent a car and drive all the way to Shanghai, but Professor Wang talked him out of it and suggested to take an express bus to Shanghai and then take a taxi there to go to Kunshan City.
“Renting a car is too expensive. Let’s take an express bus instead, even though it could be a bit uncomfortable.”
When they arrived in Shanghai, they took a taxi heading to their final destination, Kunshan City. The taxi was driving on the G2 Jinghu Expressway and they talked about the joint venture.
“Professor Wang, you said you would participate in the joint venture, right?”
“I did, but I am not so sure yet. It might be difficult for me to participate.”
Professor Wang sighed.
“What’s wrong?”
“I still do want to participate. I intended to take 5% of the share, so Jinxi Construction Company of Kunshan City would take 50%, and a Korean company would take 45%. That was the initial plan.”
“Hmm.”
“In fact, China usually doesn’t divide the share 50:50 when they set up an international joint venture with another country because of the management right. We usually do 51:49. I supposed it’s not just China, but other countries are doing the same thing.”
“Are they trying to prevent any possible intervention in managing the joint venture from the foreign co-venturer?”
“That’s right.”
“What is the 5% share about?”
“That was something my friends and I wanted to do for Seukang Li. We wanted to have some shares in the joint venture with the funds we all would contribute and once we make money from it, we would help and support Seukang Li.”
“What kind of help or support does Seukang Li need?”
“I’m Chinkkweo Seon.”
Professor Wang also had a handshake with the man and exchanged their business cards.
“Gun-Ho! President Seon will show you the Jinxi Industrial Park today. I have an important meeting that I have to attend. After you go see the industrial park, join me for dinner, okay? The dinner tonight will be treated by the City of Kunshan as an official dinner for our guest.”
President Seon brought his car. A chauffeur was driving the car. They said it was Buick Excelle; it didn’t look very luxurious though.
In Kunshan City, there were many small canals. President Seon explained about it.
“In the past, these canals were used for transportation. This area has a lot of lakes and historic sites. Jinxi Town in Kunshan City where we are heading to is a small town about 90㎢. It’s very close to Shanghai City and Suzhou City. Therefore, companies sitting on the Jinxi Industrial Park would save logistics costs. Moreover, its excellent location would allow them to have easy access to the rich labor market.”
They arrived at the industrial park. It was almost a vacant land. Red flags were placed here and there on the land and heavy equipment was scooping up soils.
President Seon had the chauffeur stop the car in front of a standing signboard. Once they got off the car, Gun-Ho could see two workers who were wearing yellow construction hats. They were standing in front of the standing signboard with a long stick. The standing signboard turned out to be the bird’s eye view of the construction site.
Once President Seon asked the workers to give a briefing, one of the workers started explaining about the construction while pointing things on the standing signboard with his stick.
“Our Jinxi Industrial Park has a size of 695,000 ㎡. We are expecting to complete the 3-Flow work by April, 20xx. The total construction cost would be…”
The aerial view of the industrial park looked like a shrimp with a bent back. President Seon took the stick from the worker who was giving a briefing and added more details to their briefing.
“A sewage treatment plant will be built in this part, where wastewater would be disposed of. A management office will be placed in this middle part.”
In Gun-Ho’s eyes, it would take forever to complete the sewage treatment plant and the road paving.
“The road and the sewage treatment plant will have to be completed before bringing business entities.”
As Gun-Ho said this, President Seon of Jinxi Construction Company gave a forced smile.
There was still a lot of time left until the dinnertime that Seukang Li reserved for Gun-Ho. As Gun-Ho looked at his watch on purpose, Professor Wang suggested visiting some tourist places.
“Sure.”
President Seon who heard Professor Wang’s suggestion volunteered to show them around.
President Seon took them to a water town called Zhouzhuang where Gun-Ho could see ancient canal side residential houses. It was very exotic.
“Whoa, it’s beautiful!”
Gun-Ho was impressed by the scenic view. The canal water didn’t look so clean but the town seemed to show an ancient Chinese town.
“This is really awesome!”
As Gun-Ho seemed to be very excited, President Seon felt good and asked Gun-Ho.
“Is there a town like this in Korea?”
“We don’t really have canals like this in Korea, but we do have many places with beautiful nature and scenic view.”
“I know Korea is a highly developed country. I really like to visit the country someday.”
Professor Wang said to President Seon while giving him a gentle nudge in the ribs.
“If the joint venture works out well, President Goo will invite you to Korea and show you around.”