Chapter 963 - Sumitomo Foundation (1/2)

“A price of one US cent? Mr. Jiang, are you sure you’re not kidding?”

“Yes,” Jiang Chen. Patiently, he repeated the sentence he said countless times. “A transmission line from Xin to Yoto will be able to solve the entire country’s electricity usage problem.”

The man sitting across from him suddenly smiled and held Jiang Chen’s hand enthusiastically.

“Hey! Hey! We can talk about this!”

After the T virus incident, the former Nippon Prime Minister was forced to step down. Although the re-elected politicians didn’t take as far right of a stance, domestic conservativism remained the dominant ideology.

The stance demonstrated a mistrust of foreign companies.

Celestial Trade could guarantee the supply of electricity within the contract period. But what if the contract expired and Celestial Trade refused to renew the contract, or what if they hiked the price? Compared with the price of one cent, the power plants in Nippon simply weren’t competitive. This would create a gap in which even financial subsidies couldn’t make up the difference. By that time, the Nippon power plants would all be shut down. Even if they were unwilling to accept the price increase of Celestial Trade, they would have to forcefully accept this deal.

Tempting? Of course it was tempting.

After the nuclear power plant incident, the whole country was shrouded in a mood called nuclear panic. It was impossible to start construction of a nuclear power plant. But if the country couldn’t rely on nuclear power, relying on new energy sources without the ability to ramp up couldn’t solve the social contradictions brought about by the growing demand for electricity.

Even if Jiang Chen repeatedly promised that such a thing wouldn’t happen, he wished to dispel the concerns of politicians and it wasn’t so simple.

“I’m sorry I can’t give you a clear answer today. I have to exchange opinions with my cabinet in order to provide a responsible answer.” Sitting on the opposite side, the man got up, shook hands with Jiang Chen and saw him to the door.

They wouldn’t show their hand. That was the most difficult part of negotiating with Nippon people.

It was completely different from India. The Indians invited him into the room with joy and excitement. Negotiations went smoothly, but they dragged on signing for as long as they could…

Jiang Chen was even considering if he should find a North American to represent him in the negotiations. As long as the commission was appropriate, B City Bank or Morgan Stanley should be happy to represent him in negotiations. Someone with a different background should ease the concerns of the Nippon politicians.

After leaving the official residence of the Nippon Prime Minister, Jiang Chen, who was in the car, looked at the time.

It was only three o’clock; he still had some time before the eight o’clock meeting with Liu Yao. He was thinking about what to do during this time when a phone call suddenly hit his watch.

“Hello?”

“It’s me, boss. What you told me has already been done.” David Smith’s voice rang in his ear. Before that, Jiang Chen entrusted the negotiation between Celestial Trade and the Indian Power Company to the Future Bank. There must be some result now.

“Is the original contract still intact?”

“Yes, the Indian state-owned electric utility company made a concession on the submarine transmission cable investment percentage. They promised to bear 70% of the construction

cost.”

A smile appeared on Jiang Chen’s face.

“Good job.”

The construction cost of submarine transmission cable was one of the issues that had been disputed by both sides. Jiang Chen already saved a lot of electricity costs for them, and it was unreasonable to spoon feed them more. The construction cost of nearly one billion US dollars wasn’t a small number. In the beginning, India’s state-owned electric utility company insisted that both sides bear 50% then finally dropped it to 60%, but it was still ten points off from Celestial Trade’s expectations.

“As long as you find the right way to get along with Indians, this is actually very easy.” Smith smiled and accepted Jiang Chen’s praise.