The three of them were eating and chatting, and Shen Wei suddenly suggested: "Yuming, the launching ceremony of the two bases is over. Should we relax and find some time to go out and relax?"
Qin Yuming glanced at Fang Zhicheng and asked with a smile: "How do you relax?"
Shen Wei put down the chopsticks in her hand and said, "How about we go to the hot springs together? Isn't there a Yuhu Hot Spring Resort in the Yinzhou Yuhu Ecological Zone recently? Let's go to the hot springs to relax our bodies and skin thoroughly." As she spoke, she glanced at Fang Zhicheng, "Zhicheng, do you want to go? If you are willing to go, I will bring Xiao Qiang with me, and the four of us will go together!"
Fang Zhicheng frowned slightly, "Maybe there are a lot of things to do on the weekend, and I may not be able to spare the time. Why don't you go with Sister Ming?"
Qin Yuming showed disappointment on her face and said, "Weiwei, why don't we go together?"
Fang Zhicheng suddenly understood something. Shen Wei and Qin Yuming might have made an appointment long ago and wanted the four of them to take a hot spring bath together. The reason they said that to him just now was actually to test him.
Fang Zhicheng waved his hand quickly and said with a smile: "Why don't I speed up my work pace, get things done together, and then free up time on the weekend."
Qin Yuming's frown relaxed, Shen Wei sniffed and muttered, "That's more like it!"
Having made the decision, Fang Zhicheng immediately called Wang Ke and asked him to help arrange it. Wang Ke smiled and said on the phone: "Zhicheng, you are well-informed. How did you know that I have the reception ticket?"
Fang Zhicheng thought to himself that if you, the office director, don't have the hospitality tickets, then the public relations work of this hot spring resort is too poor. Fang Zhicheng naturally didn't say it explicitly, but flattered him and said with a smile: "Everyone knows that Director Wang has great connections. How difficult is it to get a few tickets to the hot spring resort?"
Wang Ke was obviously very pleased and said with a smile: "How about this, I will talk to the owner of the resort when the time comes, and you can just bring people over."
Fang Zhicheng exchanged a few more pleasantries with Wang Ke, hung up the phone, winked at Qin Yuming, and said with a smile: "It's done. I abused my power for personal gain once. Don't look down on me!"
Shen Wei raised the corner of her mouth and smiled: "This is what it means to be a real official, unlike Xiao Qiang, who doesn't know how to be flexible."
"Sister Wei is really considerate." Fang Zhicheng gave Shen Wei a thumbs up. "But I'm not soaking in this hot spring for nothing. If the experience is good, I can help them promote it for free."
Qin Yuming did not give Fang Zhicheng any sweet talk, and said with a smile: "It's clearly a free lunch, but you have to find an excuse and make up a false excuse."
In fact, Fang Zhicheng is not a person who likes to take advantage. He has several free tickets for the Yuhu Ecological Hot Spring Resort in his office drawer. They were obtained by Li Hui from the China Merchants Group through some channels. However, those tickets alone cannot enter some high-end hot spring areas.
Those hot spring areas are only open to special groups of people, and even if you have money, you may not be able to enter. However, if you say hello through Wang Ke, you can undoubtedly enter those high-end hot spring areas that are specially for receiving distinguished guests. Since Shen Wei and Qin Yuming want to take a hot spring bath so much, they naturally have to take the best one.
Chapter 0358 The Standing Committee Meeting Ended Unhappily
After having a simple working lunch in the base cafeteria of Yuming Film and Television Media Group, Fang Zhicheng hurried back to Dongtai County Government to attend the county magistrate's executive meeting.
Today's executive meeting agenda mainly includes three points. The first is to review the "Interim Measures for Financial Incentives to Promote Economic Development in Dongtai County". This measure was proposed by the Finance Bureau. Participants will further revise and improve the "Measures" based on the opinions discussed at the meeting.
This method is actually mainly aimed at the incentive policy of the investment promotion system, so Fang Zhicheng put forward a number of opinions to safeguard the interests of the department under his charge. "As we all know, the current economic development policy has not kept up with the trend of the times. Take investment promotion as an example. Although Dongtai County has a good momentum for investment promotion, the incentive and punishment are weak, resulting in insufficient enthusiasm and initiative in investment promotion. Therefore, we must improve the original incentive policy to further promote economic development."
Qi Yun also nodded in agreement: "There is no cow that can be milked without eating grass. If we want to further stimulate economic development, we must have investment. In addition to rewarding those who have contributed to attracting investment, we must also reward enterprises, including innovative enterprises, major taxpayers, and famous brands. Only in this way can we create a healthy business environment and better enable the healthy and orderly growth of enterprises in the county."
However, Deng Hongguo obviously disagrees with this view. "I fully agree with the formulation of the reward system, but the details need to be discussed. The standard seems a bit high, especially for attracting investment. I think it is too exaggerated."
The reward method had been discussed many times, and Deng Hongguo's current suggestion made everyone feel strange. The Finance Bureau was the department under Qi Yun's supervision, and Deng Hongguo's current suggestion not only targeted Fang Zhicheng, but also offended Qi Yun. Everyone could see Qi Yun frowning.
Chen Deping has always been taciturn. He coughed and said, "I think Hong Guozhi's proposal is reasonable. Dongtai County's economic development is now rapid. In this context, we must try to save costs. We can reward those companies that have made contributions, but we cannot distribute too much fiscal revenue to people within the system. To put it bluntly, as a civil servant, it is our duty to contribute to promoting economic development. Proposing additional fiscal rewards is a disguised form of distributing benefits. If the masses know about it, it will cause conflicts."
This was a rare statement by Chen Deping. He was in charge of the public security system and his influence in the county government was second only to Qi Yun, so his words carried great weight. Moreover, his point of view made sense. He considered the issue from the perspective of the people and pointed out the unfairness, which made it difficult for people to find flaws.
As the outlet for attracting investment, the Investment Promotion Bureau naturally benefited the most from this policy. However, for the science, education, culture, health, public security, procuratorial and judicial systems, this policy was better than nothing. Therefore, the two deputy county governors spoke out to express their dissatisfaction.
Fang Zhicheng smiled slightly and said, "Since both Magistrate Deping and Magistrate Hongguo think that the standard for investment promotion rewards is too high, then I think the Finance Bureau can lower the standard. However, Magistrate Deping just said that it is against the principle for us to reward those within the system who have made outstanding contributions. I must say a few words. Rewards are to better stimulate the enthusiasm of employees. Now many civil servants have begun to go into business. What is the reason? The existing salary and benefits cannot meet their needs, which leads to a large number of talent loss. We are all officials. In order to increase the income of civil servants, some institutions default to them earning gray income through illegal channels. This is a misunderstanding, and we need to reverse this idea. Who says that civil servants cannot challenge high incomes openly? As long as they make due contributions to the government through legitimate means, I think they should be rewarded in a sunny way. Of course, the review process we give these rewards needs to be fair and just, and fraud should be avoided."
Qi Yun also nodded in agreement and said, "Rewarding those who have made contributions to attracting investment is a revision of the city's investment attraction reward policy, and it is also a method being implemented across the country. We in Dongtai cannot lag behind others. The standards can be lowered a little, but not too much."
Xing Jike also snorted and said, "Many civil servants are trying their best to get rich. Now that we have given them a channel, how could they still be dissatisfied? Moreover, this reward plan is not only for people within the system, but for all citizens in the county. We treat everyone equally. Whether they are within the system or outside the system, as long as they bring vitality to Dongtai's economy, we will reward them. What's wrong with that?"
Deng Hongguo and Chen Deping looked at each other and said no more. The reward system was imperative. They were just expressing different voices and stating their positions.
Now the wind direction of Dongtai County Government has changed drastically. Although Qi Yun is only the executive deputy county chief, he has become the core soul figure. Although Xing Jike does not hold actual power, he is the head of the county in name after all. Together with Fang Zhicheng, the three horses are running together. Qi Yun's power can be said to be at its peak.
Officials like Chen Deping and Deng Hongguo, who were originally pro-Sun Weiming, have undoubtedly begun to plan for their own escape route. If they do not make their voices heard appropriately, they will only be forced into a desperate situation step by step.
The alliance between Deng Hongguo and Chen Deping made the other deputy county heads start to wonder which side they should stand on. Although Sun Weiming's influence in the county government has been weakened, he is the county party secretary after all. As Sun Weiming's new spokespersons, Deng Hongguo and Chen Deping will undoubtedly soon become enemies of Qi Yun, and eventually become a situation of two tigers fighting each other.
In the officialdom, those who sit on the fence suffer the most miserably, so the other three, Liao Guidong, Gu Yuan, and Shao Jianxiang, all began to consider how they should behave in the county government in the future.
Liao Guidong originally had a grudge with Fang Zhicheng. They had a dispute over the ownership of China Merchants Investment Company. He was still resentful because he did not get this piece of cake. Shao Jianxiang had a good relationship with Chen Deping, so he also stood on the opposite side of Qi Yun and others. Therefore, from Qi Yun's side, only Gu Yuan could be fought for.
Excluding Luo Hui, who was sidelined and only had a figurehead position, there are now eight county chiefs and deputy chiefs in the Dongtai government. This makes it a four-on-four matchup. However, Qi Yun has a slight advantage because the county chief and deputy chief are in the same camp.
After the first topic was over, the meeting started the second topic, which was to review the "Implementation Measures for the Management of Urban Domestic Waste Treatment Fees in Dongtai County". Many deputy county governors did not express any objections. This topic had been discussed many times and was now just a formality and process.
The third topic of the meeting was to study the schooling of children of migrant workers. In 2006, Dongtai successfully attracted a large number of migrant workers. The number of migrant workers in the county alone exceeded 200,000. At the same time, a problem also arose: how to find employment for the children of migrant workers. As Dongtai will become an immigrant city in the next five years, it is urgent to provide supporting education policies.
Deng Hongguo was the first to express his opinion: "I think the most urgent task now is to increase the number of primary and secondary schools by building new ones or expanding them. At the same time, we should also encourage social forces to run schools and provide more schools for children of migrant workers."
The others also expressed their agreement. Deng Hongguo has been in charge of education for many years and the proposal he put forward is also quite standard. In terms of education, he has absolute say.
Fang Zhicheng raised his eyebrows and disagreed with Deng Hongguo's simplistic approach. "County Magistrate Hongguo, I think you are still too simplistic. The biggest problem for migrant workers now is not that there are no schools to go to, but that the household registration system affects the fairness of students' education. Children of migrant workers who go to school in our county, according to the existing system, not only have to pay high tuition fees, but also have limited choice of schools. It will be difficult to solve the problem if we don't break down the barriers from the fundamental system."
Deng Hongguo frowned slightly and said sarcastically, "Comrade Zhicheng, I know what you mean. You hope that the government will treat the migrant population equally. However, have you ever thought about the risks? If there are no restrictions on the children of migrant populations, local residents will think that the migrant population is taking away their educational resources, which will cause more intense conflicts."
Fang Zhicheng said disdainfully: "With this kind of differential treatment, Dongtai will never be able to retain people. Dongtai has entered a period of rapid development. If we don't break down barriers and change our mindset, this good situation will be destroyed. Foreign population will make great contributions to Dongtai in the future. We should not only simply expand and encourage social schools, but also fully tap the capacity of public schools. The tuition fees for children of foreign population who have lived in Dongtai for more than a certain number of years should be reduced or exempted. At the same time, the educational resources of the schools for children of foreign population should be equal to those of public schools. This is the solution."
Seeing Fang Zhicheng speaking so eloquently, Deng Hongguo slammed the table in anger and said, "Ma Su is only good at talking about war on paper!" After saying this, Deng Hongguo left in a huff.