We are all reborn, who wants to be the richest man?

1996 was a very important year for the Far East Group, Luo Nianzhong and the Luo family, but the new year did not get off to a good start.

First, on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Guo Desheng, the founder of Sun Hung Kai, who had lived in Chris Nursing Home for five years, passed away, and Luo Nianzhong attended the funeral.

But before the fifteenth day of the lunar year, old Kadoorie passed away.

In Michael's words, his father left with a smile on his face.

Because the day before, she was radiant and dressed up, took a car to visit the power plant in the Future City in the New Territories, and left in her sleep that night.

It was around 2 a.m. when the person was discovered not breathing. The guardians rushed him to Chris Hospital, but unfortunately the medical staff could do nothing to save him.

Michael was very happy that he didn't suffer any hardship.

Birth, aging, sickness and death are normal, and a happy burial is always better than a mourning burial.

Luo Nianzhong did not break his promise. He carried the coffin for old Jardine Matheson, along with Li Bancheng, Sha Dantong and others.

After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the festive atmosphere is basically gone, and working people go back to work and resume their daily lives.

That day, as soon as Luo Nianzhong arrived at the company, John Baibo came up to him.

"Is there anything important?"

Luo Nianzhong asked the other party to sit down first, and then had someone bring in two cups of coffee.

John Baibo leaned back on the sofa as if he was in his own office, relaxing and throwing the documents in his hands away, as if he was the boss.

Luo Nianzhong was no longer surprised. These Far East executives were more like family members than employees.

In Chris's words: You are like the Godfather in the movie.

"Boss, we need to talk about the Indian issue."

Luo Nianzhong was stunned. He hadn't heard the name of this country for a long time.

“What happened to India?”

John Baibo straightened up, sat upright and opened the folder in front of him. "We need to change our strategy for the Indian market. This is a market with huge potential, and its future will be no less than that of the north."

Just at this moment, the secretary who brought the coffee came in, and John Baibo politely thanked her.

“Although the Indian market cannot be compared with that in the north for the time being, it undoubtedly has greater potential in the future.

Don't forget its population growth rate, its current market is even more blank.

Moreover, having a consumer market is one way of playing, and having huge potential without a market is another way of playing. No matter what, we must pay attention to this country."

Luo Nianzhong smiled. It seemed that the second-in-command of the Far East Group had discovered the problem.

"How about this, we will hold a high-level meeting at 10 o'clock to discuss this issue together."

"Sure." No matter what, Luo Nianzhong didn't refuse directly, so John Baibo felt there was a chance.

In the Far East, everyone knows Luo Nianzhong’s attitude towards this country.

It’s strange, according to what we Westerners know, shouldn’t this boss hate the Japanese more?

But what is the fact? Far East Group has a large number of employees in the island countries and also has a large amount of investment in the island countries.

The only thing that can be regarded as enhancing our country's prestige is probably that there is a woman from an island country, who is probably tortured to death every day.

But even the island nation of Luo Nianzhong can be tolerant, so why is he so hostile to India?

This has always been a question, but no one in the Far East Department dared to ask.

Hatred? Perhaps, but it is not to the extent of giving up the entire Indian market.

Luo Nianzhong doesn't like Indian employees. Some of them may be loyal, but there are also many who are disloyal.

Luo Nianzhong still remembers the incident clearly, so in the spirit of "rather kill the innocent than let the guilty go", there are no Indian employees in the Far East department in Hong Kong.

In Southeast Asian countries, they can’t even take care of their own domestic labor force, so who will provide jobs for outsiders?

Only in Europe and the United States, Far Eastern companies have Indian workers.

As for investing in and building a factory in India, it’s not that Luo Nianzhong doesn’t want to, but that he can’t.

Therefore, the Far East Group has been investing in Indian companies for many years, such as acquiring a stake in Tata.

Or build a factory in a joint venture, such as Watsons’ food processing plant.

And not a single subsidiary of the company has built a factory on its own.

During this period, investing in building factories and starting companies in India required one thing: a license.

To put it simply, all companies, unless they are large state-owned enterprises like the two oil companies, can be ignored. All others cannot and must apply for this certificate.

The first step to obtain this license is to apply, register and approve various applications from seventy or eighty departments of the Indian government.

This is not just a formality, but it allows you to fully experience what it means that everything depends on human efforts.

In other words, you have to take care of every department and every person involved.

Once applications from all departments are received, there is a second step, which is approval from the top-level department.

This is not approval by one person, but a meeting of many individuals, just like a board vote.

So you cannot just honor one person, but most people.

Of course, once you get this license, it’s like you’re in a safe and you can fly away happily.

Why did a giant like Coca-Cola fail in India? Because they don’t understand it, and the official won’t tell you that it exists.

Therefore, many Western giants come to India through normal procedures, which is to apply for business and production licenses.

Then, the follow-up is naturally self-evident, and various departments will find various ways to impose fines at the door.

You said that the production of Coca-Cola has nothing to do with farmers more than a hundred miles away? That's nonsense.

Do you transport the products you produce, or do you transport them through us? The noise you make while transporting disturbs the cows, and cows are sacred.

Our cows have been unhappy recently, and it's all your fault, so you must compensate us.

No legal basis? OK, I'll write it for you now.

You don't want to take this road anymore? Okay, then don't take any other roads, because all the cities around the factory will have laws, including your own city.

Why? Because you can get some benefits.

It’s none of our business how many jobs your Coca-Cola Company provides, how much economic boost it provides, or how much tax revenue it generates. You don’t even give us any money.

Increase local jobs? Then what? These workers who come to the factory are my aunts, uncles or some other relatives. What do they have to do with me?

So stop talking nonsense, either stop production or pay up.

It is such a magical country, so Luo Nianzhong doesn't want to touch it.

He felt that the cost of a license was too high and the return on investment was too low given the current spending power of Indians and the educational level of workers.

Of course, it is also possible to sell dog meat under the guise of sheep meat, develop many industries with one license, and carry out a large-scale integration of Far East production.

But Luo Nianzhong is afraid that if he invests too much money, the magical Indians will revoke his license or issue a letter of permission.

Of course, this permission letter must be reapplied for and the process must be repeated.

But why Luo Nianzhong didn't reject it outright now was because he felt the time had come.

In 91, the polar bear, India's largest export customer, disappeared, and the situation in the Gulf caused oil prices to rise.

With no products to sell on the one hand and rising raw material prices on the other, India is facing a direct risk of national debt default.

In the end, India had to borrow $18 billion from the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, to get through this difficult time, but it was not without cost.

That is what the IMF said: we can lend you the money, but you must make corrections in your country.

According to the Western Washington Consensus, economic liberalization is necessary.

In this way, starting from 92, India began to carry out reforms reluctantly.

Such as lowering tariffs, liberalizing interest rates, liberalizing trade, opening up to foreign investment, etc.

In other words, there are no more licenses now, so at least you don’t have to worry about sudden unreasonable treatment, so you can try to go in and have a look.