The Industrial Giant Reborn

In the next two days, Chen Zhiwen accompanied Bao Yugang to inspect the new university address prepared in Ningbo City. In order to facilitate the understanding of the situation, he also specially asked several senior designers who had participated in the construction of Shenhai University to also I came here. Although the two places are different, there is always a lot that can help.

Pao Yugang has no special requirements for this university. Therefore, the mainland has the final say on how to arrange the subjects, which means that it will participate appropriately in terms of investment and finance. This can be said to be a relatively pure donation university.

In addition, Bao Yugang also tried to push a large steel plant to settle in Ningbo, but this involved the central government, and Chen Zhiwen didn't interfere too much. It was completely none of his business, and he didn't want to get involved. In later generations, he had never heard that Ningbo's steel industry was very developed. In other words, even if this steel plant was settled, it would only be considered medium-sized in the future, not the top one, and neither would Chen Zhiwen. It is necessary to personally participate in such an ordinary steel mill. Although the Christmas Creek Iron Mine also needs to find big customers, in general, it can be done directly by normal transactions.

This time, the new port and new university in Ningbo City were expected by everyone in the mainland, and all preparations were in place. However, the construction proposed by Chen Zhiwen, together with the expressways in Ningbo, Shaoxing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai, was It was an unexpected surprise. After the news was informed to the top, Shanghai Municipality immediately wanted to send someone to contact Chen Zhiwen, but was rejected because he also wanted to go to Shanghai.

He had been staying in Hong Kong for some time before. This time he finally came to the mainland. Naturally, he also needed to visit major cities, especially those large cities where he focused his investment. However, Shenhai City was not included because it was close to Hong Kong, when you want to go to Hong Kong, it only takes an hour or two.

Compared with Shenhai and Yanjing, Chen Zhiwen’s investment in Shanghai is not large. The largest is a food base. Viewed individually, it is not too small, but compared with Yanjing’s automobiles, expressways, and the International Trade Center The entire billion-dollar electronics industry chain in Shenhai City is far behind. Although more than half of the Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway proposed this time is in Zhejiang, even if it is less than half of the expressway in Shanghai, it is still very useful. Meaningful.

After arriving in Shanghai, I naturally met with the relevant leaders of Shanghai Municipality first, and the various polite words made everyone feel comfortable.

By the afternoon of that day, Shanghai Municipality arranged for Director Pan, who was responsible for infrastructure construction, to come and discuss with Chen Zhiwen the details of building the expressway.

"Hello, Director Pan." Chen Zhiwen said politely.

"Hello, Mr. Chen." Director Pan was also very polite. Although he has a high status as the director of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, he is still inferior to the super rich in Hong Kong. These people have arrived in Yanjing. , may have been received by the highest level, not to mention that the person in front of him is the pinnacle of Hong Kong capital.

"In the past few years, I have been coming to Shanghai basically once a year, and I can feel the huge changes in this city every year." Chen Zhiwen said: "It is very similar to the Hong Kong I remembered when I was a child."

"Sheng Chen praised it. Being able to develop to half the size of Hong Kong, all our leaders in Shanghai will be so happy that they can't sleep." Director Pan said with a smile.

"Sooner or later, before going to Shanghai, Hong Kong will be the real Oriental Pearl of Asia. At that time, Hong Kong will be far behind Shanghai." Chen Zhiwen said.

"Yes, so we are listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and now we are trying our best to catch up." Director Pan paused and said, "I also want to thank many Hong Kong capitals for investing in the Shanghai Stock Exchange in the past few years."

"Haha, Director Pan, Hong Kong capital, the investment in Shanghai in the past few years is not huge!" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"It's not that small. Chen Sheng's Red Bull Food Factory, as well as Mr. Hu Yingxiang's two bridges, hotels and power plants, together are not inferior to other countries." Director Pan said: "But compared to the deep sea Compared with Yanjing, it is indeed far behind, so we in Shanghai also hope to further cooperate with Hong Kong capital."

Although the country has already started reforming policies, Shanghai is one of the first places that can attract foreign investment, and it still has a lot of autonomy. However, it is very difficult to attract foreign investment, and most of them were established by the central government as early as 1978. Planned projects formulated in 2018, such as SAIC Volkswagen, Baosteel, etc.

It was purely attracted by myself. There are also many foreign investors who come to Shanghai to invest, including many from Europe, the United States and Japan, but they are all small-scale enterprises. The only larger American company, 3M, has a total investment of less than 1,000 yuan. Ten thousand U.S. dollars.

Compared with these stingy European and American companies, Hong Kong is much more generous. Not to mention Chen Zhiwen, a super rich man who has invested all over the country, he is a second-tier rich man and has invested a lot in the country.

For example, Keda Brand, the largest toy factory in Shenhai City, built a factory in Shenzhen Shekou. Now it has nearly 6,000 employees and earns tens of millions of dollars in foreign exchange every year. Other textile industries are blooming all over eastern Guangdong Province, and the total scale of foreign exchange earnings is even greater. Billion US dollars. Because of these investments, the fiscal revenue of Eastern Guangdong Province has skyrocketed, and foreign exchange has given the country a lot of help.

There is no one who doesn’t envy other places, but envy is useless. They are close to Hong Kong and the local languages ​​are similar. Even if you want to go to Shanghai to grab investment, you can only pick some big ones, but you may not be able to grab them. It turns out that the huge number of small capital in Hong Kong does not need to be negotiated by Guangdong Province, and they directly take the initiative to invest without even looking at other places. The innate advantages are too strong. This is the same logic as Shanghai becoming the largest economy in the entire mainland a few decades ago.

In this case, cities or provinces, including Shanghai, can only focus on Hong Kong's top capital. To introduce such investment, based on quality over quantity, even if they cannot compare with eastern Guangdong, they still have to eat a bite of meat. Bar. It's just that in this area, Yanjing obviously suppresses Shanghai. Although Shanghai also has a large food factory, compared to Yanjing's investment results in Hong Kong, it is still a little behind.

"Director Pan, with the further opening-up policy of the mainland, I also hope to have more cooperation with the mainland. As the largest city in Asia, I also believe that it can regain its former glory, so I I also hope to achieve more cooperation with Shanghai, and a highway from Shanghai to Hangzhou will only be the beginning of our cooperation." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

After 1985, the speed of domestic reform began to increase rapidly. Although there would still be certain fluctuations before 1992, the general direction was basically fine. In addition, Hong Kong had no worries. The current international environment in the mainland It is also very friendly, which makes it very suitable for investing on your own.

Of course, it is still much worse than after 1990, but it is not without its unique advantages. After 1990, you can invest at will in a broad sense. It is basically not a special industry, so there are no restrictions. However, throughout the 1980s, there were There are many unique opportunities, such as the Yanjing International Trade Center, highways between several of the most prosperous cities, or high-quality ports. After the 1990s, most of them will no longer have any opportunities unless they are accessible. Some of them were projects started after the 1990s, such as Pudong.

At present, I don’t need to do much. I just need to seize a few high-quality large-scale projects. The rest can be done after the 1990s. Besides, by that time, the large amount of funds earned from the Japanese market will be put to use. The ground is gone.

"Haha, Chen Sheng's words couldn't be better." Director Pan was overjoyed and asked: "I don't know about this high-speed cooperation. What do Chen Sheng think?"

"I won't get involved in professional matters, and there will naturally be professional people in charge." Chen Zhiwen said: "For the specific cooperation model, we can refer to our previous cooperation with Yanjing City and TJ City on the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Expressway. One of the project, I have a mandatory requirement for this expressway. Currently, based on actual demand and financial reasons, two-way four-lanes can be built first, but the land for future expansion must be left now, that is to say, Both sides of the hundreds of kilometers of highways must acquire enough land for at least eight lanes in both directions during this land acquisition to prepare for future expansion."

"Sheng Chen, are you worried that the future demolition costs will be too high?" Director Pan is also a smart man, and he understood the purpose as soon as he heard it. He actually knew something about the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Expressway. He had a brief understanding before. After learning that Chen Zhiwen was going to invest in the Shanghai-Shanghai Expressway, he went to study it. However, he only looked at the specific contract between Yanjing City and Hutchison Whampoa. I haven't arrived yet, so I don't know about this situation. After all, he hadn't had time to go to Yanjing specifically for this matter. He just read some information on many things.

"Yes, this can be considered a precautionary measure." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

The Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Expressway is operated in this way. It is built as a two-way four-lane, but 8 lanes are reserved for land acquisition, and larger areas are reserved in some special places. Although this will put more pressure on current investment, But it is better than leaving it until later. Things that can be solved with ten thousand yuan now may not be enough in ten or twenty years.

When the economy develops, the cost of land acquisition will only increase exponentially. But now, you can basically get it directly by paying a little money, and it is more efficient to use foreign exchange. Not to mention, in this era, such a large project is difficult to acquire when it comes to land acquisition. The people are also willing to cooperate. Of course, Chen Zhiwen will not take advantage of this. Those who should be compensated will still be compensated. If the house is relocated, it will at least be in another place. The government will provide new land, and then the joint venture company will pay for them to build houses and fields. , the government may also arrange for land exchange, etc.

"This aspect will involve a lot of funds. Mr. Chen also knows that such a high-speed project requires a joint venture between us. We will also provide a lot of funds, so we still need the approval of the municipal committee." Director Pan explained that he just He is here to do preliminary communication, because he has some professional knowledge. The municipal party committee may not have too much involvement in this aspect, but if it involves huge funds, it must be taken care of.

Although he is familiar with foreign demolition, Director Pan also knows that the cost of demolition will definitely be higher in the future, but for such a large project, even if the cost of land acquisition is low now, it will turn into a huge sum of money in the end. No matter how much money you save in the future, it is still money in the future. If you don’t have enough money now, it means nothing.

"Are the funds on the Shanghai Stock Exchange not enough?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

Building highways or large ports, in a few decades, for the mainland government, as long as it is not a sparsely populated place where building highways will inevitably lead to losses, and the economic benefits can be balanced in the future, there is absolutely no need to worry about money. The two largest economies are no joke.

But now it’s a different story. No matter how good a large-scale infrastructure project will be in the future, it will be a strain for now. Even with limited national finances, investments are made step by step according to the plan. Suddenly there is a large-scale project, which puts great financial pressure on the government. However, the national level is very happy to see foreign capital investing in infrastructure, and such opportunities are also very rare. It is not a project that has been planned very early on like the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway. If foreign capital can invest in other places, the central government will definitely Be actively involved.

In fact, from Chen Zhiwen's point of view, it would be better if he could be a sole proprietor, but unfortunately it is not allowed by law.

"Don't worry, Chen Sheng. In terms of funds, there is a bit of pressure, but we will still have no problem listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The central government also fully supports us." Director Pan said quickly.

"Actually, if there is a problem with funds, we can raise funds from Hong Kong. The Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Expressway and the Guangdong-Shenzhen Expressway are relatively successful. Currently, Hong Kong cannot be said to be very optimistic about domestic expressways, but at least they are not optimistic about it. It’s not difficult to get a full loan,” said Chen Zhiwen.

"A bank in Hong Kong? Is Chen Sheng talking about your Hisense Bank?" Director Pan asked.

"Yes, but it is not just Hisense Bank that will participate alone. I will also bring other banks in Hong Kong together. This kind of large investment usually involves multiple banks together." Chen Zhiwen said.

When he invested in the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangzhou Expressway, Hisense Bank had not yet been acquired by him. Therefore, the funds for the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangzhou Expressway came from a combination of loans from HSBC and Standard Chartered.

Nowadays, my own bank is second only to HSBC in terms of scale in Hong Kong, and it is restricted by Hong Kong banking laws and cannot lend money to its related companies. Therefore, many large-scale infrastructure projects in the mainland are a suitable target.

The Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway is just the first target project. In the future, Hisense Bank will focus on cooperation in the infrastructure construction in the mainland, including not only the ones he invests in, but those he does not participate in, the number and scale will be larger. , and even mainland-owned projects can also cooperate.

This can be regarded as a way to indirectly participate in many infrastructure projects in the mainland that cannot be intervened, and there is almost no risk when knowing the future. This is also a good way out for Hisense Bank, which cannot continue to expand in Hong Kong.

"Okay, I think the municipal committee will not refuse this matter." Director Pan said. It is normal for domestic infrastructure projects to use overseas loans. Several large railways, airports, and ports also use Japanese or European loans. loan.

"For other aspects, we will wait until our professional teams from both sides confirm the high-speed route." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. (End of chapter)