"Isn't this an obvious pit man!"

In the office of Luo Xiangfei, general manager of the Equipment Industry Company in Beijing, a middle-aged man sat on the sofa, patted a document with his hand, and complained to Luo Xiangfei angrily.

This person's name is Duan Zhengwei, and he is the director of Longshan Electric Factory, which is a leading enterprise in the production of generators in China. This time, Duan Zhengwei took Chief Engineer Quan Jiancai and Deputy Director of Production Ou Guisheng to Beijing to participate in the bidding of Shating Power Plant in Dingnan Province. He went to the Planning Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Trade, the Machinery Commission and other units to quarrel, and received a bunch of helpless replies, and finally came to the Equipment Industry Company and complained to Luo Xiangfei.

Shating Power Plant is a key project in Dingnan Province and a project included in the list of national key projects. Because the project uses a World Bank loan, according to the World Bank rules, it is necessary to conduct a global tender, which is already common sense for domestic enterprises.

The purpose of the World Bank project to request a global tender is twofold: first, because the World Bank's funds come from all over the world, so the project should also allow all countries to have equal interests and not be monopolized by a few countries through black-box operations;

However, the phrase "there is a policy and a countermeasure" is obviously not the patent of the Chinese, and governments around the world understand this. Countries will make a name for themselves in the World Bank-financed projects to ensure that their own companies or specific foreign companies with interests in their countries have more chances of winning bids. Of course, if these companies still fail to stand out despite their reputation, it proves that they are indeed mud that cannot hold up the wall, and governments will not relax their requirements to damage their projects.

China is a country with equipment manufacturing capabilities, and at the same time, a developing country with access to a large number of World Bank loans. The state has always had an unspoken rule for bidding for World Bank projects, that is, it should try to let domestic companies win the bids to ensure that the fertilizer does not flow to outsiders. In the early years, the technical level of domestic enterprises was poor, and many projects could not be won and had to be handed over to foreign manufacturers, but the state was still able to find a way for these foreign manufacturers to subcontract part of their business to domestic enterprises, so that domestic enterprises could learn technology in subcontracting, and at the same time share some profits. After more than ten years of technology introduction, domestic enterprises have the strength of the first battle, and they have begun to shift from subcontracting to overall undertaking. This time, Duan Zhengwei came to the capital to plan to pocket the Shating Power Plant project as a whole.

Longshan Electric Machinery Factory is one of the earliest motor factories in New China, relying on the technology imported from the Soviet Union as early as the 50s, it produced 50,000 kilowatts of high-voltage thermal power units. From the 60s to the 70s, in the absence of foreign technical reference, Longshan Electric Power Plant overcame various difficulties and developed 200,000 kilowatts and 300,000 kilowatts of thermal power units respectively, and produced more than 20 sets, which were put into operation for power generation.

In addition, while developing 300,000 kilowatt units, Longshan Electric Power Plant was also assigned by the State Planning Commission to participate in the research and development of 600,000 kilowatt thermal power units, but it failed due to various technical, economic, and even political reasons.

After 1978, along with the national development policy, Longshan Electric Plant introduced the design and manufacturing technology of 300,000 kW and 600,000 kW units from abroad, first using foreign components to assemble in China, and then gradually conquering the manufacturing process of important components to improve the level of localization. By the early 90s, except for a few key components that still had obstacles and needed to be imported from abroad, Longshan Electric Power Plant had basically mastered the production technology of 300,000 kilowatts and 600,000 kilowatts of thermal power units, and formed a part of independent intellectual property rights, which could undertake the construction tasks of domestic thermal power plants.

The 90s were a period of economic adjustment and growth in China, and the demand for electricity rose almost exponentially. The huge demand for electricity has brought about a climax in the construction of power plants, and the construction of thermal power plants is more urgent, because the construction period of thermal power plants is much shorter than that of hydropower stations, which can meet the needs of local economic development as soon as possible.

The state must not give away such a large demand for thermal power equipment to foreign enterprises, firstly, because the country does not have so much foreign exchange, and secondly, it does not dare to rely too much on foreign countries to avoid being controlled by others. Think about it, if half of the power generation equipment in a national grid is provided from abroad, if someone installs a Trojan horse in it and starts it at a critical time, half of the country will have to fall into darkness, and in the era of modernization, this almost means winning without a fight.

It is precisely because of this foresight that the state in the 80s can be said to have spared no expense to introduce technology, forcing several leading motor enterprises such as Longshan Electric Machinery Factory to digest and absorb the imported technology as soon as possible and form an independent manufacturing capacity. It is the result of this effort that Longshan Electric Machinery Factory was able to come and participate in this bidding with confidence.

But who would have thought that on the bidding documents formulated by Dingnan Province, Duan Zhengwei was beaten down by the first clause, which read: Shating Power Plant plans to use four 360,000 kilowatt units.

Duan Zhengwei directly threw the tender documents in the face of Wang Jinsheng, deputy director of the Dingnan Provincial Planning Commission.

The power specifications of power generation equipment are exquisite, and the thermal power units produced in China were initially 50,000 kilowatts, and then gradually developed into 100,000 kilowatts, 125,000 kilowatts, 200,000 kilowatts, 300,000 kilowatts and 600,000 kilowatts, and have formed a fixed system. Because of the existence of such a system, when it was decided to introduce foreign technology at the end of the 70s, the 300,000 kW and 600,000 kW specifications were also chosen, and the technology such as 360,000 kW was not introduced.

The standardization of equipment specifications is very necessary, which can make the technology of each enterprise to a certain extent, facilitate the transplantation of technology and equipment, and reduce the cost of equipment maintenance. It is precisely because several domestic motor factories have adopted two specifications of 300,000 kilowatts and 600,000 kilowatts, so the construction of domestic thermal power plants is designed according to this specification, either two 300,000 kilowatt units or two 600,000 kilowatt units, and there will be no other specifications.

But this "uniformity" was broken by the Shating Power Plant. They put forward a bidding requirement for 4 units of 360,000 kilowatts, which is clearly intended not to let domestic enterprises win the bid.

"Director Duan, how can you say that?" Wang Jinsheng did not care about Duan Zhengwei's offense, but stuffed the bidding documents back into Duan Zhengwei's hand, and said slowly: "The four 360,000 kilowatt units were determined by repeated discussions between us and experts from the World Bank. Now the state is also advocating the user responsibility system, we, as users, have the right to put forward their own equipment needs, can not because you can not produce 360,000 kilowatts of units, we change their own needs, this is not a cut to fit the performance?"

"Cut your ......" Duan Zhengwei had the heart to greet the women of Wang Jinsheng's family, but he swallowed back the words when they came to his mouth. He and Wang Jinsheng are not familiar enough to be able to speak freely, and when they reach their level, cadres are not suitable to publicly scold the street like a shrew. He pointed to the bidding documents in his hand and questioned Wang Jinsheng: "You said that you can't cut enough to fit the performance, so why don't you mention 350,000 kilowatts, don't mention 370,000 kilowatts, you have a kind of writing 370,000 yuan, let Siemens and Westinghouse make a mold for you, this is the ability!"

"This is what the World Bank experts suggested, and I don't understand it. Why don't you talk to the World Bank, Director Duan?" Wang Jinsheng said with a hum.

"They are deliberate! What World Bank experts, they must have colluded with these World Bank experts to prevent us from winning the bid!"

In Luo Xiangfei's office, Duan Zhengwei didn't have such a good cultivation, he slapped the table and shouted at Luo Xiangfei.

"This is indeed a serious problem!" Luo Xiangfei's eyebrows also wrinkled into pimples. The so-called World Bank experts suggested that such nonsense, that is, it is still useful to deceive kindergarten children, Luo Xiangfei has been working in the economic circle for so many years, where do you not understand these cats. To put it bluntly, the Dingnan Provincial Planning Commission does not want to use domestic equipment, but due to national policies and the World Bank's bidding requirements, it is inconvenient to directly kick domestic enterprises out of the game, so it has come up with such a specification restriction.

The difference between 300,000 kilowatts and 360,000 kilowatts is not huge, and no power plant will calculate its capacity to such an accurate extent when it is built. Because the load of the power grid itself fluctuates, the capacity of the power plant can roughly meet the demand, and some fluctuations can be adjusted by the power grid.

As mentioned earlier, when various countries equalize the bidding rules of the World Bank, they will make some famous arrangements and propose some terms that are favorable to their own enterprises, so as to restrict the competition of foreign enterprises. China has the same bidding policy for projects that use World Bank loans in various regions, requiring them to take as much care as possible for domestic firms. Dingnan Province is good, instead of taking care of domestic enterprises, it has done tricks and feet to exclude domestic enterprises from the scope of bidding, which is the red fruit land and the national policy to do it, not to mention that Duan Zhengwei is angry, Luo Xiangfei is also angry.

But being angry is angry, and he really has no way to correct the practice of Dingnan Province for a while. In recent years, the state has continued to delegate power, and local autonomy has become greater and greater, and the State Ministry of Finance has taken the lead in using World Bank loans to carry out construction, but the specific bidding method is decided by the Dingnan Provincial Planning Commission. People say that they need four 360,000 kilowatt units, and you can only coordinate them, not order them to change.

Since Wang Jinsheng dared to make such a request in the face of the world's disapproval, he must be ready to carry it with the country, and at Luo Xiangfei's level, if he wants to coordinate, he may not even have a chance to speak.