Chapter 83

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On the second day back in Jeju Island, Ji Feng called his three brothers. The four of them spent the morning playing pool in the hotel's pool room, talking all the while. After lunch, the three brothers left.

The North Korean market is a virgin land that has yet to be opened. Relying solely on oneself is impossible to make money. Instead of letting others profit, it's better to bring his brothers along to develop it.

Mubuixue's shipping company will take out another loan to purchase more cargo ships, planning to open a route from Jeju Island to Haizhou. North Korea is concerned that their ships might be attacked or monitored when passing through South Korean waters, so they decided to let Ji Feng have the profits from the crude oil transportation.

Ji Feng also didn't care much for this small amount of money, but for a shipping company that had just started operations, it was a substantial source of profit. The key was that with Ji Feng's guarantee, the income was relatively stable. After all, the oil was directly transported from the Feiyang oil field to Haizhou Port for refining.

Leng Wuxing's mid-range chain hotels have already spread throughout the island, with seven already open in just three months. Many more are under renovation. So far, the occupancy rate of the open hotels is almost full, with no vacancies.

The Jeju Hotel and Catering Group has established a website to manage its hotels, allowing guests worldwide to book rooms with just a few clicks. The convenient online booking system has attracted many other hotel owners to join.

Leng Wuxing's hotels are no exception. As soon as a room becomes available, it is immediately booked online. Unless you reserve it at the front desk, it's usually impossible to get a room.

Seeing the booming tourism, Leng Wuxing's enthusiasm soared, and he announced that he would open 50 hotels on the island by the end of the year. He wasn't worried about funding, but he was short of available properties. If he wanted to build new ones, the government's overall plan was already full, and it was impossible to get much land. He could only maintain good relations with the government and ask them to reserve any available properties for him.

The government officials all knew that Leng Wuxing was the island lord's brother, so they politely carried out his requests.

If it were someone else, inviting him to Kaesong to run hotels might require some consideration, but when Ji Feng invited him, he immediately agreed. This time, however, he brought Ji Feng along to cooperate, along with Lin Enliang. The three brothers would operate a chain of mid-range hotels in North Korea. Without Ji Feng, Leng Wuxing and Lin Enliang felt a bit uncertain. They had psychological shadows about that authoritarian country, fearing that their investments would be in vain. After all, they represented not only themselves but also their families.

Ji Feng saw the potential in the North Korean market. Although the initial investment might be large, going early would help establish a brand and gain more favorable policies.

The Nalan Group's real estate development on the island has entered the construction phase, with a promising future. Lin Enliang's appointment and the substantial investment in Jeju Island made the Nalan Group board very happy. When they learned of Lin Enliang's good personal relationship with Ji Feng, they gradually shifted their focus to the overseas market. The competition in the domestic market was too intense, and for the diversified Nalan Group, the only way to expand performance was to go abroad.

The huge investment in Jeju Island undoubtedly opened a convenient door for them. Now, Ji Feng was pulling them into North Korea. Although the board had some concerns, Lin Yisheng strongly supported his son and decided to go to North Korea with Ji Feng to expand new business.

The Nalan Group operates in several industries, including food, beverages, real estate, electronics, machinery processing, and pharmaceuticals. If these industries could penetrate North Korea, they could even create a new Nalan Group. With Ji Feng's guarantee, Lin Yisheng felt like he had found his second entrepreneurial passion. Of course, for such a significant project and considering Ji Feng's feelings, he decided to entrust it to his son Lin Enliang to implement, also creating conditions for Lin Enliang to take over the group in the future.

Lin Yisheng still had his selfish thoughts. Even if his eldest son was not ambitious, he was still his own flesh and blood. The strained relationship between the two brothers made him uncomfortable. It was a good opportunity for Lin Enliang to create a new Nalan Group abroad, reducing the chances of them meeting.

The investment in Jeju Island in North Korea has caused a huge stir internationally. Some say that Ji Feng had too much money and no place to invest, so he went to North Korea when invited. However, more national analysis agencies are speculating about what private agreements Ji Feng and Little Kim might have reached. Otherwise, no country's leader would open the door so wide for a billionaire, allowing them to fully enter their country.

The arguments continue, and various possible scenarios are painted as if the two had some secret. Especially on the relatively open Jeju Island, where residents can access the internet of most other countries, they saw these discussions. For the former South Korean residents, it was hard to accept North Korea's authoritarianism. They were also very worried about Ji Feng's large-scale investment in North Korea, fearing that one day it might be confiscated, making all their efforts in vain.

However, seeing Ji Feng's confidence and the fact that his side ultimately won in the previous conflict, the islanders, though worried, were not entirely against it. After all, it was the island lord's decision, and they were just employees who had to follow the lord's arrangements.

After the May Day holiday, direct flights between Jeju Island and Pyongsong were opened, and thousands of employees from various groups began to head to North Korea to start work, ushering in a wave of construction.

Considering North Korea's concerns, the staff sent to North Korea were almost all local Jeju Island residents, with a few from China, but absolutely no one from South Korea or Japan. North Korea was still sensitive about these two countries but could accept former South Korean residents.

Ji Feng could only occasionally complain about Little Kim's irrationality in his heart but had no other choice.

Regardless, the door to North Korea was now open. As long as it could bring long-term profits, Ji Feng didn't care who was allowed to go. In the future, more North Korean employees would be used, as their wages were less than one-tenth of his own employees, and it made no sense to not use cheap labor.

The first batch of employees completed all the preparatory work and registered the joint ventures by the end of May, with most also completing site selection.

Although North Korea has many construction companies, their ability to carry out large-scale construction is questionable. Therefore, the second batch to arrive in North Korea was the employees of various design and construction companies, especially those from China, who were the most convenient to enter North Korea. Several hotels, office buildings, comprehensive malls, port expansions, petrochemical bases, and other construction contracts were quietly divided between China and Jeju Island.

The only construction contract South Korea received was for the new power plant in northern Kaesong, still handled by the company that built the West Island power plant. Ji Feng even had to call Little Kim to get approval, as the site had already exceeded the agreed cooperation boundary between North and South Korea.

At the end of May, the Jeju government, after integrating the overall needs of multiple groups, issued a super order worth over 23 billion US dollars. This immediately made the eyes of the various countries' envoys on Jeju Island turn red as they scrambled to send the orders back home, urging their domestic companies to prepare and submit quotes, determined to secure a significant portion of the order.

At the same time, the embassy staff in Jeju Island began to work tirelessly, making public relations efforts. In the still sluggish global economic environment, the second super order from Jeju Island for the year attracted significant attention.

Moreover, their requirements were not too high. Even ordinary technology and products from developed and developing countries were considered advanced in North Korea. Everyone knew that this order was intended for use in North Korea, and because of this, they valued it even more. After all, it was a sovereign country with over 24 million people, an unopened market. Any product or technology that could enter would play a decisive role in further penetrating the market.

They also wanted to invest directly in North Korea, but Little Kim seemed to only favor Ji Feng, ignoring others. Therefore, they could only use Jeju Island's companies to export their products and technology. Only by establishing a foothold could they better negotiate future cooperation.

In fact, Little Kim wasn't stupid. He didn't want North Korea to be like China in the past, where countries used outdated technology to make huge profits. To develop the economy, he didn't want to follow China's old path. With Ji Feng, a purely commercial partner, and seeing his good relations with major countries like China and the United States, he decided to fully open up to Ji Feng, hoping that Ji Feng would bring advanced technology and products to North Korea, not outdated ones.

Ji Feng was also confident. Facing competition from multiple countries, if you don't bring something good, he could choose others. Even if they all refused to sell to him, he could go to the market to buy better ones. Don't think that without Zhang the Butcher, he would have to eat hairy pigs.

As the North Korean affairs became more and more detailed, Ji Feng, after a busy period, felt lazy again. Lin Hui, after nearly half a year of work, had done a satisfactory job, so he handed over the North Korean affairs to her and went to check the progress of his new home with Xu Xian.

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