Zhang Yida led his team from Beijing to Chengdu, and he was accompanied by hundreds of people, including 12 companies under its subsidiaries such as Ruixiang, Huimin Travel, Huayi Capital, and Yimin Wangjin.
Each company has dispatched at least a few to as many as a dozen employees with business, legal, auditing and other functions.
It can be regarded as an outpouring of force.
The initial contact with Chengdu also made a substantial breakthrough. After obtaining the desired policy, Zhang Yida decided to come and sign the contract in person.
Because there were hundreds of employees, Zhang Yida directly chartered a Sichuan Airlines plane.
The more than 100 employees in suits walking in the airport were very eye-catching, and many airport passengers stopped to watch.
If they weren't all yellow-skinned and black-haired, they would probably be considered an inspection group from some country.
After leaving the airport, Zhang Yida saw a group of officials such as Locke, the prefect of Rongcheng, and Jinyu, the prefect of Gu, who had been waiting here early.
In addition, considering the large number of staff coming to Chengdu, the Chengdu government also sent a fleet of more than 30 cars.
Faced with such courtesy, Zhang Yida was still very emotional.
Zhang Yida shook hands with Locke, Gu Zhixian and others, and said thank you to the leaders for their hard work.
Locke is about fifty years old and has thick hair. Being from Yuzhou, he and Zhang Yida can barely be considered half fellow villagers. He said in his hometown dialect:
"It's not hard work! Mr. Zhang and other heroes from Sichuan have returned to their hometown. On behalf of the folks in our hometown, we would like to express our welcome."
Gu Zhixian also nodded, "Yes, Mr. Zhang, you have greatly brought glory to our hometown people in your Internet career."
Guzhi County's praise is actually not an exaggeration at all, because except for Chen Rui from Bilibili and Li Yifei from Sanqi Interactive Entertainment, there are very few famous Internet tycoons from Sichuan.
Zhang Yida is now taking up this banner and has a vague tendency to become the fourth largest Internet company in China.
Therefore, the Chengdu government attaches great importance to this investment promotion.
Looking at the dark crowd behind Zhang Yida, Gu Zhixian laughed so hard that he couldn't even close his mouth.
He also played a key role in attracting investment this time and contributed a lot.
Looking at the number of people who came this time, he knew that things were probably going to happen.
Zhang Yida and Locke were riding in the same car, and the co-pilot was Zhou Zhixian.
Other accompanying employees boarded more than 30 official vehicles sent by the city government.
In the car, Locke said: "Mr. Zhang, Wen Bin and I often talk about you in private."
"Wen Bin?"
Zhang Yida knew that this meant that he was taking advantage of his father-in-law, Zhao Wenbin, but Zhang Yida usually didn't ask about his affairs, and he didn't know who he was friendly with.
"Yeah?"
Zhang Yida smiled and said, "Boss, just call me Yida. Calling me Mr. Zhang is too foreign."
"Okay, I'll call you Yida."
Locke pointed to the buildings outside the car window and said, "Yida, you should be familiar with Chengdu!"
"It's no stranger. I spent my time here before the age of 18."
Locke nodded, "Comparing Rongcheng with Beijing and Shanghai Pengyang, the gap is not even a little bit!"
"Aren't we working hard to catch up? Things will get better gradually in the future."
The "we" in Zhang Yida's mouth gave Locke a sense of intimacy. He smiled bitterly and shook his head, "It's difficult! The talent support, policies and conditions in all aspects are not as good as others, so what are you chasing after!"
"Now is an era of mass entrepreneurship and innovation! Most cities are transforming into a new economy."
Locke paused, then sighed, "We in Chengdu don't even have an Internet company that can take action.
There is Douyu in Jiangcheng, but we don’t even have an Internet company of this level.”
Zhang Yida remembered that there should be a unicorn company in Chengdu called Wagongang.
It seems that the policies of the Chengdu government are not strong enough, and Qianzhou has given more generous support policies to get away.
"Unicorns are not that easy to come out. Basically, it takes thousands or tens of thousands of Internet companies to create a unicorn company.
However, there are more and more Internet companies in Chengdu now, and the entrepreneurial atmosphere is getting stronger and stronger. Sooner or later, several outstanding Internet companies will emerge."
Zhang Yida remembers that "Xinchao Media" was born in Chengdu, doing building advertising, and it was a competitor with Focus Media.
Locke did not answer Zhang Yida's words, but said: "Yida, you have so many companies, how about moving one of them to Chengdu?"
Afraid that Zhang Yida would be disgusted, he added: "No need to go to Ruixiang, Huimin Travel, Yimin Wangjin, smaller Ruimin Financial Management, Pate.com are all fine."
Zhang Yida also understands Locke very well. Rongcheng is almost going crazy thinking about unicorn companies.
I remember that a unicorn was born in Chengdu in my previous life, and a notice was posted on the Chengdu government website...
However, the impact of relocating the company was too great, and Zhang Yida did not dare to agree easily. He smiled and said, "In fact, Xingwang Bank has already received approval, and soon Chengdu will have its own unicorn."
Locke naturally knew what was going on at Xingwang Bank. But this company was originally established in Chengdu, so what kind of investment promotion was it?
“Our Chengdu government has always been supportive of financial technology innovation.
If Ruimin Financial Management lands in Chengdu, we will provide some support in terms of financial licenses and obtaining bank funds."
Zhang Yida didn't even know how to refuse Locke's kindness, which was both a license and a bank credit.
However, the local financial office is not qualified to approve big licenses such as Banking, Securities, Jibao Credit and others. At most, it is small licenses such as local small loans, financial leasing, and financing guarantees.
These small licenses cannot be said to be useless to Ruimin Financial Management, they are just of little use.
Zhang Yida is quite interested in the issue of bank credit.
But something suddenly occurred to him, and he said: "We are currently discussing with Jincheng Consumer Finance about taking a stake. If everything goes well, we plan to build Jincheng Consumer Finance into a unicorn in the future."
"oh?"
Locke was surprised and asked again: "How is the stock purchase going?"
"We have encountered some resistance and are trying to find ways to resolve it."
Locke asked again: "Does the city government need to coordinate this matter?"
"Thank you, leader. Let's communicate with Chengdu Bank first!"
Zhang Yida is now waiting for news from the Malaysian Hong Leong Group. If the negotiation can be concluded, of course there will be no need for the Chengdu government to come forward.
If negotiations cannot be reached, the government will need to intervene. However, Zhang Yida does not want the government to intervene unless it is a last resort.
If something can be solved commercially, try not to involve administrative forces.
The consumer finance license is one of the financial licenses that Zhang Yida wants to obtain most.
With this license, you can not only obtain 10 times the lending leverage, but also obtain lower-cost funds, which is crucial for Internet financial companies.
The motorcade stopped in front of a luxurious hotel. Zhang Yida got out of the car and looked around.
The greening is done very well and the scenery looks quite beautiful.
This hotel is called Jinjiang Hotel. It is the first five-star hotel in southwest China. It was established in 1958 and was named by Zhu Shuai and Chen Shuai themselves.
Government affairs meetings in Chengdu are basically held here, and Zhang Yida and the others were arranged to have their meeting here.
In the hotel conference room, executives from twelve companies including Ruixiang and Huimin Travel were seated in one row, and in another row were officials from Chengdu.
First, Locke spoke, expressing welcome to the companies and teams who came to inspect on behalf of the Chengdu City Government.
Then it was Zhang Yida's turn to speak, thanking the government leaders, policies and so on.
The specific negotiations are left to the people below. Zhang Yida mainly puts forward his own views and needs around land grant, tax rate, talent settlement, policy support and other aspects.
Officials from the Chengdu side are responsible for providing policy answers, and will also ask questions about the company's investment scale, building construction plans, etc.
The matter is rather complicated and cannot be finished in a short time.
The first thing to discuss today is the land grant. Lei Dongming said directly: "We have 12 companies and need to build 12 buildings. Each building has two acres of land and requires 24 acres of land."
Zhang Yida was drinking tea. When he heard this, he almost lost his balance in the teacup.
He took a deep look at Lei Dongming, brother, you must be too cruel, we are an Internet company, not a real estate company.
Mayor Locke's face was also dark, maybe his appetite was too much.
Some officials fired directly, “You are just building the second headquarters, do you need so much land?
In my opinion, the land for two buildings is almost enough.”
Lan Lan came out to assist Lei Dongming and said: "We don't need so much now, but we also have to consider expansion?
In our plan, in addition to retaining part of the R&D center in Beijing, many departments such as operations and customer service will be relocated to Chengdu.
Take Ruixiang as an example. There are more than 5,000 employees at the Beijing headquarters, and at least half of them need to be relocated to Chengdu..."
Lan Lan's eloquence was still very good, and she made several officials speechless in their arguments.
Several officials turned their attention to Locke, who coughed twice and said, "It's not like this land cannot be approved. We are planning to build a new city in Tianfu New District. There is a lot of land there, and we can grant it to you to build a science and technology park."
Lan Lan had obviously done his homework and knew that it would take many years for Tianfu New Area to develop, and now it was a place where nothing could be done.
She said: “Employees also have to consider transportation issues when going to work, and places that are too remote are not conducive to improving work efficiency.
In fact, we have seen the map of Chengdu, and the place we want most is in the High-tech Zone."
Lan Lan and the others are not stupid. They all know that there is a Tianfu Software Park in the Hi-tech Zone, where the Internet population of Chengdu is basically concentrated.
Moreover, the high-tech zone is also close to the city center, so the real estate value-added potential is relatively high...
Although it is not mainly engaged in real estate, who thinks there are too many buildings?
It would be great to use a few floors yourself and set up a property management company to rent out the rest to generate income for the company!
"There isn't that much land left in the High-tech Zone. Where can I find a 24-acre piece of open space?"
Fan Hongyang smiled, "Actually, they don't have to be grouped together. Our twelve companies can be divided into four major categories: technology, finance, Internet, and e-commerce.
It’s also possible to place them in four different regions.”