Becoming a Russian Oligarch After Rebirth
Chapter 1212 - 1006: Joy for Everyone

Chapter 1212: Chapter 1006: Joy for Everyone

Wang Ye had no malicious intent towards Medvedev, so he had no reason to give him a hard time.

After pondering for a moment, he said with a smile,

"Based on the information I have, international energy prices are expected to continue rising in the next three to five years. However, it’s hard to say exactly how much they will increase.

But even if the rise is not too great, it will have a significant impact on our GDP growth rate.

Moreover, with the official opening of the Siberian energy pipeline, we’ll be transporting more crude oil and natural gas, which naturally means we’ll receive more payments.

In addition, with the rapid development of the automobile manufacturing industry, the aviation industry, and the internet industry, next year will contribute significantly to economic growth.

So I’m quite optimistic about next year’s economic growth.

If you ask me to make a prediction, I’d say that next year’s GDP growth rate could reach around 20%!"

Wang Ye wasn’t talking nonsense. In fact, he had a basis for his claims.

Even in his previous life, Russia’s economic development had been making leaps and bounds, even outpacing some countries in Asia, which of course benefitted from the rise in national energy prices.

Now, with several years of steady management and prior strategic planning, the automobile, aviation, and internet industries within Russia are indeed much stronger than in his previous life!

And after several years of operation, it was time to ramp up efforts.

That’s why Wang Ye had the confidence to make such a prediction, that next year’s GDP growth rate would not be below 20%!

...

Hearing Wang Ye’s words, Medvedev felt relieved and took a deep breath.

The truth was that within the realm of economics, he was far from Wang Ye’s equal.

Whether it was control over the economic sector, judgment on the development of the world’s economy, or in terms of insight and overall strategy, he still had a long way to go.

After all, Wang Ye had the experience of his previous life, and with his long-term cultivation in the business sector in this life, he had access to a vast amount of information that others couldn’t reach. With all this combined, it was only natural that he could see the global economic situation more accurately and further into the future.

The father-in-law was also all smiles. As the nation’s economy was thriving, he was naturally the happiest one.

After all, from the outside world’s perspective, these achievements were made during his term, and he would be credited as the primary contributor!

"If the economic growth rate can maintain 20% next year, then... how about we increase the budget spending by 50% compared to this year?" Medvedev asked tentatively.

According to his statement, this was essentially cutting down a lot from the budget proposal they had submitted a few days ago, also representing a fairly sincere concession!

But this clearly wasn’t in line with Wang Ye’s expectations.

Wang Ye slowly shook his head, "No, that’s still too high."

At this, Medvedev immediately panicked. He had already feared he would not be able to explain such a significant cut to the other ministers. If he cut any further, he wouldn’t have the courage to communicate with the ministers at all.

However, he didn’t dare to confront Wang Ye head-on. After all, the initiative was in Wang Ye’s hands – if he said no, it genuinely meant no.

He surely couldn’t force the government to shutdown...

He assumed that not only would he fail to pressure Wang Ye into compliance, but the Kremlin might lose confidence in him and consider replacing him!

Therefore, Medvedev turned his gaze to his father-in-law and Gavriil, hoping they would help speak on his behalf.

The father-in-law coughed, hinting at Gavriil.

He couldn’t come forward directly now - after all, once he spoke, there would be no room for maneuver.

He supposed Wang Ye would give face to him, but what if...

So it was better to let Gavriil speak first. That way, there was still a "buffer zone" as himself, and he could also test Wang Ye’s bottom line first.

If Gavriil’s intervention didn’t work, but as long as they could uncover Wang Ye’s bottom line, it could be considered a success.

Then he could "quote" close to Wang Ye’s bottom line, and that should be just about right!

Gavriil, having cooperated with the father-in-law for many years, understood him with just a glance and immediately said with a smile,

"Since, Misha, you’re so optimistic about next year’s economic growth, it’s reasonable to increase the budget somewhat, after all, many of our government departments have been living in austerity for years, even often unable to pay their salaries on time.

Now that the national economy is picking up and growing so fast, and the finances are much more relaxed, it would be reasonable to slightly increase some budgets or improve everyone’s welfare and benefits.

It’s just that the degree of increase does indeed need to be carefully considered. So, Misha, what do you think is a good increase?"

He was being quite "cunning," not offering his own opinion, but instead asking Wang Ye to set the threshold.

Wang Ye understood the mindset of those present. Since everyone was still ostensibly comrades in the same "camp," he didn’t want to beat around the bush and candidly offered his opinion.

"With an economic growth rate of around 20% next year, we anticipate the finance revenue to reach 260 billion US dollars. Let’s set the budget expenditure to match that amount.

Compared to this year’s spending, it’s a significant increase, and it should be sufficient."

The government, in its submitted budget proposal, had sought a budget amount of 300 billion US dollars. Now, Wang Ye had directly cut it by 40 billion, which wasn’t all that much.

Moreover, even with a budget of 260 billion US dollars, it represented an increase of several tens of billions of US dollars from this year, a considerably large increase indeed.