Return to 1958 and build a century-old giant

Chapter 925 Large Investment in Highways
"Six hundred million US dollars. Very good. It's worth all our early planning." Yang Wendong said with a smile after hearing the number.

For him today, $6 million is neither a lot nor a little. This amount of money is a huge sum anywhere. The foreign exchange reserves of the mainland next door are not much more than $6 million. Even Honor Electronics, which monopolizes the game industry, does not have a profit of $6 million a year.
Fang Xianming continued, "Mr. Yang, this is only part of it. Some time ago, Mr. Zheng purchased a large number of high-quality properties in US dollars."

On my side, I also took the opportunity to acquire a lot of shares in Hong Kong blue-chip listed companies, as well as some Class B land swap entitlements. Once Hong Kong's economy recovers, the returns on these assets will definitely far exceed US$6 million.

"Hmm, it seems our profits this time are over $10 billion." Yang Wendong nodded, then asked, "We exchanged money with HSBC as well, so what's the situation on the black market now?"

Fang Xianming said, "HSBC will continue to handle US dollar exchanges with us, and the Hong Kong government's Exchange Fund is ready. It is said that the British government has borrowed a sum of money, so there shouldn't be any problems in the short term."

As for the black market, they naturally disappeared. Those people were only after profit; if there was no profit to be made, they naturally disappeared.

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "That's good. With the Hong Kong dollar stabilized, our mission can be considered a success. You should organize the participants and reward them appropriately based on their contributions."

"Yes, Mr. Yang," Fang Xianming replied.
Yang Wendong added, “I’m going to the mainland in a few days. You two will come with me. It will mainly involve some financial cooperation. There are many large projects in the mainland that do not accept external investment, but they do accept external financing.”
During this period, Hang Seng has gained a considerable number of depositors and funds. Given your previous collaborations with domestic entities, this time, you are preparing to expand into the domestic market on a large scale.

It is extremely difficult for the banking industry to expand overseas. Even for a well-connected American bank, it is very difficult to conduct business in other countries. At most, it can only acquire business in other countries through acquisitions.

When Hang Seng Bank was still in the hands of Ho Sin Hang in its early years, it tried to expand into the Southeast Asian market, but it faced many difficulties and was almost unsuccessful.

After Yang Wendong gained control of Hang Seng, there was very little he could do about it; his prophetic abilities were of little help to the banking industry.
The only opportunity now is to try cooperating with the mainland, but that would only be for loan projects. It's unlikely that they can expand their deposit business in China.

Finance is related to national defense and security. Even decades later, when the automotive industry lifted restrictions on foreign ownership, the financial sector was still under their control.
What Yang Wendong needed was simply a loan business that could bring in funds from Hong Kong and overseas and invest them in the domestic market; that would be enough.

For other overseas banks, this would be seen as a great risk, after all, in the eyes of many people in this era, the economic potential of mainland China is not as good as that of countries like Brazil;
But Yang Wendong knew the future, so this loan was basically risk-free, with only pure profit.

"Okay," the two replied.

A few days later, Yang Wendong, along with the two men and several family members, traveled to Yanjing.

Several departments in Yanjing City arranged for officials to come and welcome him. Over the years, Yang Wendong has also cooperated with domestic entities in many fields and has maintained good relationships with many departments.

Immediately afterwards, Yang Wendong arrived at a hotel located on Sanyuanqiao Road, the Third Ring Road in Yanjing. This was the Four Seasons Hotel invested in by Hong Kong Changxing Real Estate in China, which has now been completed.

"This hotel is really big, with so much greenery!" Fang Xianming exclaimed in surprise after entering the hotel.

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Land is not expensive in Yanjing, which is the opposite of Hong Kong, so naturally we can do more greening. Normal people like to be close to nature, which is also the main style of the Four Seasons Hotel Yanjing."

Land within the Third Ring Road of Beijing in that era was quite valuable, but this was relative to the rest of China. Compared to prices in Hong Kong, even now that land prices in Hong Kong have been halved due to the economic crisis, they are still dozens of times more expensive than in Beijing.
Investing in a hotel in Yanjing is one of the very few legitimate reasons to build a large building, so naturally one would need to purchase more land.

As for the number of floors, it is not very tall, only about 20 floors in total, but it has several buildings in front and behind, which makes the hotel have more rooms than in Hong Kong.

When land prices are high, build skyscrapers; when land prices are low, building ordinary high-rise buildings is sufficient. This is a truth in the real estate industry.
It was precisely because it was only 20-odd stories high that it was able to be built so quickly.

Zhou Zhiqiang then said, "Then the hotel can do the same in other cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Nanjing in the future."

As a top banker in Hong Kong with a deep understanding of the real estate industry, he naturally understood his boss's other intentions.

Yang Wendong laughed and said, "Of course, but we don't need to worry about such a small matter. When it gets dark, you can go out and have some fun. Starting tomorrow, we'll have some serious business to do."

"Yes, Mr. Yang," both of them replied.
The next day, Yang Wendong and others met with several leaders from the transportation department to discuss future domestic infrastructure investments, of which transportation was naturally one of the major investments.

To get rich, build roads first; this is an age-old truth.
After exchanging pleasantries for a while;

"Director Lin, I heard that the country has already planned a 'five vertical and seven horizontal' highway network for the next 20 years?" Yang Wendong formally asked, "I wonder if foreign investment is acceptable for these highways?"

China's highways were basically completed around 2010, several decades later, but plans for this project had already been in place since the early 80s or even the late 70s.
After all, the terrain and urban layout in China are fixed, so making plans is not difficult, and even if there are changes in the future, they will not be significant.

The "five vertical and seven horizontal" network is the main transportation network in China in the future, connecting a large number of major cities across the country in a spider web pattern. With expressways as the main mode and national highways as the secondary mode, it marks the beginning of transportation infrastructure construction for the next few decades.

Director Lin countered, "Mr. Yang, which highways are you interested in investing in?"

The “five vertical and seven horizontal” project is not a secret to high-ranking officials in China. The early survey required a lot of manpower and alarmed many local officials. After the finalization, it also involved many people. Given Yang Wendong’s status, it is not surprising that he knew about this.
Yang Wendong said, "I want to invest in some of the highways, for example, from Yanjing to Shanghai, from Shanghai to Hankou, or from Guangzhou to Shanghai."

Director Lin's expression changed as he asked, "Mr. Yang, the distance between these cities adds up to several thousand kilometers. Are you really planning to invest?"

“How could I possibly lie at a meeting like this?” Yang Wendong said. “Including the Yangtze River and Pearl River bridge construction that I negotiated with you before, as long as you agree and sign the contract, I will naturally strictly abide by the agreement.”

He now has a lot of money, and besides buying stocks in overseas companies, the rest of the money also needs to be invested. He doesn't care about small projects, but only some of the super infrastructure projects in mainland China meet his goals.

As a time traveler, he naturally knew that the highways or Yangtze River bridges connecting these megacities would bring rich rewards in the future, boost the local economy, and help hundreds of millions of people in the mainland improve their quality of life. It could be said to be a win-win situation.

"We do have internal plans for these expressways, but due to funding issues, we haven't started yet." After a brief, hushed discussion with those around him, Director Lin said, "Since Mr. Yang has proposed this investment, we will give it careful consideration internally."
However, given the scale of this project affecting people's livelihoods, it still requires approval from the central government.

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Of course, I only made this request today, hoping to get your reply as soon as possible."

"Thank you for your understanding, Mr. Yang." Director Lin then asked, "There are a few more details I'd like to inquire about in advance, as the central government will also require more detailed information."

Yang Wendong said, "Please speak."

Director Lin asked, "How many lanes do you plan to build on these expressways?"

Yang Wendong did not answer directly, but instead asked, "On the mainland side, how many lanes were originally planned?"

Director Lin said, "The original plan was naturally to prepare a two-way four-lane highway, which is basically the case for highways in our mainland."

“Building a two-way four-lane road is fine, but I am very optimistic about the future economy of the mainland. I believe that there will be a lot of car users in the future.” Yang Wendong continued, “So my idea is to build a four-lane road, but when acquiring land, we need to prepare land for an eight-lane road.”

In some transportation hubs, it's best to prepare an additional dozen or so lanes to avoid future land acquisition problems.

Yang Wendong was naturally very clear about the future state of automobiles and transportation in mainland China;

Four lanes are sufficient for some ordinary highways, but highways in major core cities should ideally have eight lanes.

However, it's impossible to build an eight-lane road now, because the investment might be useless for the first 20 years, which would be a huge waste.

Taking advantage of the current low land prices, it's best to acquire the land you'll need in the future all at once; this will make things much more convenient later.
Otherwise, if the economy develops in the future and they want to acquire land to expand the road, the cost will be very high, not only in terms of money, but also in terms of time and energy. If they encounter holdout residents, it will be even more troublesome.

"Acquiring land for an eight-lane road now? That would probably require an additional payment of hundreds of millions of yuan," Director Lin asked in surprise.

Yang Wendong said, "I know, but this is my suggestion. It's actually a form of commercial venture capital. I'm investing so much money in building highways because I believe the mainland's economy will be very strong in the future, so naturally, I need to consider future highway expansion plans."

Director Lin and the others discussed in hushed tones for a while, then said, "Okay, we understand Mr. Yang's requirements. Besides the driveway, there are some other matters we need to inquire about."

The two teams went back and forth asking and answering questions, and two hours passed just like that.

Director Lin said, "Mr. Yang, although the country has planned several major roads, it is only a plan. Whether we invest on our own or form a joint venture with you, we still need to conduct on-site inspections after both parties have reached an agreement before we can confirm the approximate investment amount and other matters."

“I understand that such a large investment will inevitably require a certain amount of time to prepare,” Yang Wendong nodded and said.

Investing in highways is far more complex than building skyscrapers or ports. The routes can be hundreds or even thousands of kilometers long, and there will be rivers, mountain roads, cities and towns, pits and other obstacles along the way.
At the same time, we must also consider some potential natural disasters, such as mudslides, landslides, geological subsidence, etc.
Even if you have a lot of money, the preliminary preparations can take years. Since it involves the country's future transportation arteries, you can't force the progress to be accelerated even if you have money.
For him, there's no rush; as long as the project is finalized and he can cooperate with it, that's fine.

Director Lin added, "Once the amount of funds involved is roughly determined, we will then discuss the subsequent allocation of funds, equity, management and other issues. In principle, it still needs to be managed by our side."

"We can leave the management to you, but we need to oversee the finances," Yang Wendong said.
He also didn't want to get involved in highway management, which was different from ports. Ports have a real and huge influence, both domestically and internationally. On the other hand, although highways are quite profitable, management is just about maintenance and toll collection, so there's not much point in getting involved.

Director Lin said, "Okay, in that case, we have the basic information to report."

"Director Lin, if you have any other highway plans, you can also consider our investment." Yang Wendong added, "In addition, if you want to build national highways or other projects that cannot be jointly invested in with foreign parties, you can also consider Hang Seng Bank. As for loans, we will definitely offer lower interest rates."

Urban roads and some national highways are naturally toll-free or have very low tolls. These are the main investments in urban development and are not suitable for direct foreign investment. However, they can be accessed through financial means, which can also alleviate some of the economic pressure on domestic cities.

“Okay, no problem. I also hope to maintain more cooperative relations with you,” Director Lin said, shaking hands.

After the group left and Yang Wendong returned to the car, he said, "Old Fang, immediately arrange for the infrastructure engineers from Hong Kong to go to the mainland to conduct preliminary surveys. We need to have a certain understanding so that we will have a better foundation for the negotiations later."

"You're already conducting surveys before even confirming your cooperation with us?" Fang Xianming asked to confirm.

Yang Wendong said, "Yes, I think the chances of success are still very high. Even if it doesn't succeed, a surveying team won't cost much. For a big project, this small amount of money is insignificant."

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
I discussed it with the editor, and the book title isn't getting enough traffic, so I'm changing it. Please understand.

(End of this chapter)