Chapter 158: Dim-witted
At a river seafood restaurant in downtown Huangcheng, Executive Vice Mayor Zhou Zhaofeng met with Vice Mayor Xu Changcheng and discussed the recent headaches at the mayors' coordination meetings.
"What did I tell you? This Su Licheng just can't sit still. Did you think he'd be easy to deal with when he came here? The moment Huangcheng's economic structure came up, he produced a thick stack of strategic comparisons between our city's main economic sectors and those of prefecture-level cities in neighboring provinces. Total economic output, fiscal revenue, the state of industry, location, agriculture, minerals, logistics, tourism, external orientation, urbanization-he gave a whole heap of examples. All he wanted to show was how weak and backward our tax base is outside land revenue. He even plans to approach financial groups in Hong Kong and Macau and offer extremely favorable terms to attract their investment. Good thing you cut him off at just the right moment, Old Zhou. You said this approach of borrowing a boat to sail overseas might look like rapid development, but would saddle the city with a heavy debt burden. That put the initiative back in our hands."
During Su Licheng's first week in office, he had essentially still been getting to grips with meetings large and small and the work arrangements. To others, this vice mayor parachuted in to manage the economy probably seemed nothing special. The province had repeatedly called for economic reform in Huangcheng, but nothing had ever come of it. This vice mayor was probably another lukewarm type who would ultimately prove first-rate at holding office rather than getting things done.
But when the new week arrived and preliminary work plans were presented at the mayors' coordination meeting, Su Licheng made several very bold statements about attracting investment, developing clean