The Industrial Giant Reborn

"Sheng Chen, I know this request is not in line with business logic, but now there are tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong still working in the textile industry. Once they lose their jobs, it will cause some trouble to the stability of Hong Kong. At the same time, they will also be trapped in their lives. It’s difficult,” Yoder said. As the governor of Hong Kong, he dare not say how much he loves the people of Hong Kong, but no matter what, he does not want a large number of people to be unemployed in Hong Kong.

"Mr. Governor of Hong Kong, I'm not pouring cold water on you. The current situation in Hong Kong is no longer suitable for basic manufacturing industries such as the garment industry. With Hong Kong's labor costs, these industries will only suffer serious losses. We all know the reasons for this. , and now that the real estate market is recovering, the service industry will also recover. These industries will also create a large number of jobs, and sooner or later they will compete with traditional manufacturing industries. By then, these industries will still run away or go bankrupt. Instead of trying to survive now, , it is better to have long-term pain than short-term pain, and just let the market make its own decision." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said: "Unless these industries go to high-end, such as making their own brands, the costs are high and the risks are high, and from a time perspective, It’s too late.”

Economic upgrading in a place will inevitably bring pain, just like the emergence of automobiles, which will inevitably lead to the unemployment of millions of carriage drivers. Hong Kong's real estate market is about to rise. This is an iron-clad direction that no one can change, not even Chen Zhiwen. Impossible. A large amount of hot money, countless internal funds in Hong Kong, even ten Chen Zhiwen cannot stop the enthusiasm of these funds for real estate speculation. Only the market itself can regulate it.

The textile industry is relatively low-end in every era and is extremely sensitive to labor prices. In the 1950s, it was mainly in Europe and the United States, and in the 1960s it went to Japan. After Japan's economy improved, it flowed to Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. Today, Hong Kong's labor If it is too high, it will flow to the mainland or other Asian countries that have opened up. There is no way to stop this. Even if many developed countries come forward, it will be useless. The water will flow to lower places. This is the essence of business, but whether it is Europe, the United States or In Japan, although the textile industry factories are gone, brands have been built, and they can even have access to the fattest piece of meat in the entire industrial chain. But Hong Kong is obviously not good. In the past 20 years, it has been just doing OEM work for others. There are several private brands, which are found in Hong Kong and nearby Chinese areas.

The only one that is considered successful may be Chen Zhiwen's Anta. However, Anta's current scale cannot even satisfy itself, and it is powerless to do anything to others.

"That's true, but so many people are unemployed, which will also cause a lot of trouble. Besides, the real estate market has just begun to heat up. No one knows when it will reach its peak employment. Besides, these textile industry workers It’s hard to say whether you can enter the construction industry,” Youde said with a frown.

Yes, Hong Kong's current real estate market is recovering, but recovery will take some time and will not return to its peak immediately. Even in Hong Kong's construction industry, there are still a large number of workers wandering around, or there are fewer job opportunities, and even more Don’t talk about other industries.

It is indeed difficult for Hong Kong's industry to continue. This is something that everyone with some social common sense knows. However, the government still hopes that this day will come later. The best real estate market will explode and all the people in the textile factories will be wiped out. If they are poached, then let nature take its course, but the problem now is that due to failures caused by various international competitions, the company falls too fast. In the middle of this year, the Hong Kong Government also sent a business team to visit countries in South America and the Middle East in an attempt to open up new markets for Hong Kong's textile industry, but the results were very poor. People also want cheap ones. Without cost advantages or special competitiveness, who would be willing to buy from you at a high price?

Therefore, they can only place their hopes on Chen Zhiwen, because Chen Zhiwen's Galaxy Trading is connected to many famous supermarkets around the world, and supermarkets also sell a large number of clothes. Many years ago, the largest customer of Hong Kong's clothing industry was Galaxy Trading. This has also led to the establishment of a large number of new factories. However, in recent years, a large number of orders have gone to the mainland. Although many factories in Hong Kong have invested, those who have not gone are in trouble.

"There's nothing I can do about it, Mr. Hong Kong Governor. Although Galaxy Trading has a large number of orders, the prices at the terminal are also determined by major supermarkets. If I give the order to Hong Kong at a high price, then I will either increase the price and sell it to Hong Kong." Supermarket, but the supermarket will definitely not agree to this. They will only change suppliers, or I will bear the loss. Is this request a bit too much?" Chen Zhiwen said.

It's not that Chen Zhiwen is unwilling to help Hong Kong's industry. The problem is that garment industry factories cannot last long in Hong Kong. Today he agreed and lost hundreds of millions, but these factories will still close down or move to the mainland. So if he is like this What's the point of going through all the trouble? Even developed countries in Europe and the United States will not subsidize textile factories to stay. This is completely illogical. No matter how hard they try, it will still be the same in the end.

"I also know this, so I came here today with an offer." Yoder said.

"Oh, what offer?" Chen Zhiwen asked curiously. Anyone who can be the governor of Hong Kong is not a fool. He knew that it would be difficult for others, but he still proposed it, so there must be some back-up plan.

"I know that Chen Sheng still has a lot of land waiting to be developed, especially in the Tin Shui Wai area." Youde said with meaningful eyes.

"Is the Hong Kong government preparing to develop Tin Shui Wai?" Chen Zhiwen asked calmly.

As early as the mid-1970s, during that time, Chen Zhiwen was just emerging. He acquired Hutchison Whampoa, which was suffering serious losses, and was not favored by many people, who thought that a newborn calf was not afraid of tigers. At that time, although Chen Zhiwen was not very enthusiastic about the acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa and other companies. He had absolute confidence in investing, but debt problems and capital chain problems still existed, and there was pressure. But even so, he still arranged a special acquisition at that time, which was the acquisition of about 5 square kilometers of land in Tin Shui Wai. .

In the original history, this land was first acquired by China Resources and prepared for large-scale development. It was called a town and a new town of about 300,000 people was built. The ambition was so ambitious that it was amazing, but such a large land, However, China Resources had no development capabilities, so it was eventually acquired by Li Jiacheng and built the Kingswood Villas, the fourth most famous walled village in later generations.

However, although Kingswood Villas is large, its area is only more than 3 million square feet, less than 1/10 of 5 square kilometers. Even so, Kingswood Villas has become the largest source of profit for the Yangtze River Group in the 1990s.

Of course, Li Jiacheng's capital has always been the darkest. The town building in Tianshuiwei was originally intended to build a new ecology capable of self-development, but Li Jiacheng made a fortune and left it alone. It's a mess, probably also because it's hard to do.

In this life, Chen Zhiwen purchased the land in Tin Shui Wai in advance and kept it there. At most, he let his own Yili Milk Company use it as a base, and then competed with Dairy Milk International Company to provide fresh milk to Hong Kong citizens. Others, Just leave it alone.

The reason why he acquired it so early is because Chen Zhiwen has long known that once he succeeds in several physical fields, even if most of the industries are transferred to the mainland, as long as a small part stays in Hong Kong, he can make these It has become the ecological foundation of a new town. After all, if factories are placed in Kowloon and Yuen Long, the commercial advantages and real estate value created by the employment of tens of thousands of people will be cheaper for others. In the past, we could only win-win if we had no ability. Now, It can still be transferred, and it is hard to say how many people will be willing to stay in the factory after real estate in Yuen Long and Kowloon becomes more economical.

However, it is very difficult for Tian Shui Wai to develop, especially in the early stage, because this kind of town building requires the most basic logic, that is, infrastructure, housing environment, employment, related supporting facilities, etc. need to be developed simultaneously. Without one of them, it will be difficult. Although Land and Hutchison Land and Whampoa's capital was huge during development, in fact, they had been developing in places with clear business environment and countermeasures for so many years. When they came to Tin Shui Wai, their eyes were completely blank and there was no way to start.

Only the government can take the lead. When the government takes the lead and many policies are implemented, a large amount of capital can rely on the policies to invest.

This is the day that Chen Zhiwen has been waiting for, because the Hong Kong government had plans to build new towns as early as the MacLehose era, and Tin Shui Wai was also one of the targets. Otherwise, China Resources in the early 1980s would not have been the same. It is possible to capture such a large piece of land.

"We have this plan, but this is only a preliminary plan. Chen Sheng also knows that such a town building plan is too difficult and may not yield any results in more than ten years, but we still need to do it. ." Yoder said.

After so many years in Hong Kong, Youde also knows the thinking of Chinese capital. Hoarding a large amount of land is nothing more than waiting for the appreciation. Chen Zhiwen must be the same, but he still admires him for being able to buy such a land so many years ago. Now, the Hong Kong government intends to promote the development of Tin Shui Wai, and it cannot do without Chen Zhiwen, because the land in his hands is a rare and good place in Tin Shui Wai.

"Then what do I need to do?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"This is related to what I just said." You Dexiao said: "The labor cost in Hong Kong is the straw that breaks the textile industry. But in fact, the wages on both sides of Victoria Harbor are higher, and those in the deep New Territories The wages are much different. If we can move all these textile factories here, the labor costs will be reduced a lot."

"Isn't this difficult? Are so many factories moving?" Chen Zhiwen said with a frown. Even when Midea moved to the mainland, it relied on a large number of orders to force related industry chains to move together.

"Yes, although the textile industry is not a high-tech industry, it still has requirements for manpower and some basic infrastructure. These things are basically not available in the deep New Territories. The cost of rebuilding them will be very high, and even if we are willing, we can't We can't be unified together unless we are all placed in Tianshuiwei." Youde said with a smile.

"Let Tianshuiwei go?" Chen Zhiwen's heart moved, and he somewhat understood what Youde meant.

"Yes, the Hong Kong government itself needs to build a town, so it must invest in infrastructure. The infrastructure requirements of the textile industry are not very high. It is not difficult to do it by the way. Secondly, the new town also needs a large number of people to live there, so it requires local people. There are a large number of jobs, and the relocation of the textile industry can perfectly solve this problem, and the textile factories are not worried about not being able to recruit people. The third is that it has just started to develop there, and the labor costs may be lower than many places in the New Territories. There are a large number of people coming from the mainland, which is enough to push the cost to the extreme. It may not be as good as the mainland, but at least it is much better than the current situation." Youde said that the problems in the textile industry in the past two years have been a headache for him for a long time. , especially now that Hong Kong is preparing for a handover. If something goes wrong, he will definitely be unlucky. Therefore, he also needs to use all methods to ensure employment.

Employment is the biggest issue that every country is concerned about. There is almost no president or prime minister in Western countries who does not talk about employment every day. Economic data mainly looks at the employment rate, etc. The economy is really good. If there are more jobs, then public security and stability will be good, but if not, everything will be over.

"This is indeed a good idea. I have to say that I really admire Mr. Hong Kong Governor for coming up with this strategy." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. In fact, he had a similar method before, which was to let some industries invest in Tin Shui Wai. Anyone who attracts people will come over. Gradually a population settlement was formed.

But it is simple in theory, but difficult to operate in practice. Your own industry also requires some skills. If you move there when there is no one, there may be trouble. But if there is no industry, then it is just a dream to develop in the local area, and it also involves There is a lot of basic investment and huge funds. This is a huge contradiction.

However, if the Hong Kong government comes forward and relocates many textile industries, it will indeed drive a lot of popularity and prepare for the initial development. At the same time, it will indeed be able to rescue these textile factories. Of course, no one knows what real estate in Hong Kong will be in a few years. How outrageous the market will be, so this plan will eventually fail, but if the increase in housing prices is not very high, it may still last for many years. Moreover, as long as this first step is taken, plus Chen Zhiwen's subsequent investment, Then the new town of Tin Shui Wai may really come out. It will not be the slums of Hong Kong in later generations, but a town that truly has its own economy, although it is still not as good as other places in Hong Kong.

"Haha, I didn't think of it." Youde smiled and shook his head and said: "This matter is also of great benefit to Chen Sheng, but if you want to get such benefits, you have to pay. Chen Sheng, what do you think I said? Right?" (End of chapter)