Return to 1958 and build a century-old giant

Chapter 962 Early Investment in Pudong

As the most powerful conglomerate in Hong Kong today, Yang Wendong does not need to be personally involved in every field;
Supporting the right people, providing them with funding and resources, and letting them take the lead is also a very good option;

Even the most powerful conglomerates in this world need allies and partners. Given Yang Wendong's current control over Hong Kong, it may not be a good thing if he continues to do so, especially if he does so openly. Otherwise, he will move behind the scenes and indirectly control many different industries in Hong Kong.

Even in the future, this approach could be adopted in mainland China. No large country would allow a conglomerate to control too many industries.

Even in a country like the United States, where capitalism has reached its extreme, there are antitrust laws to deal with various large conglomerates. Although the Squid Group eventually controlled everything through Wall Street, it was still in the open, and there were no more monopolistic giants like Rockefeller and Carnegie.

The Yang family in the future also needs to pay attention to this point, avoid the threat of anti-monopoly laws, and at the same time, not become too strong in a sensitive area, otherwise there will be trouble.
After all, he is based in Hong Kong and does not need to participate in national-level technological competition; he only needs to protect his family business.

Even if one wants to participate in some technical development and research, financial means can be used to provide support;
For example, in the future, there will be many remarkable manufacturing giants in the mainland. The future achievements of these manufacturing companies will be no less than those of today's Honor or other Fortune 500 companies, and they will be suitable investment targets for him.

Time flew by and it was almost the end of June. As for Dragonair, Cao Guangbiao went to the mainland and hadn't returned for a long time. Yang Wendong naturally stopped paying attention and also came to the mainland.
The first stop was naturally Shenhai City, where we visited the Yantian Port, which is preparing for construction. This will be the largest port in Shenhai City in the future. Changxing Infrastructure Group and Shenhai City are cooperating in this project, with each holding 49% and 51% of the shares respectively. Hang Seng Bank is also involved in providing some financial support.

The second stop was Shanghai, where we visited some large factories, including Changxing Industrial and many Watsons factories, which are also starting to relocate to Shanghai.

Yang Wendong arrived at a large bridge and, looking at the crowd on it, asked, "This bridge still seems a bit too big?"

Director Lin, who was accompanying him, said: "Yes, Mr. Yang, the bridge you invested in has greatly alleviated the traffic pressure between Pudong and Puxi."
However, there are as many as a million commuters traveling between Pudong and Puxi every day. This single bridge is still far from enough to handle that number, so the bridge is also very congested.
Sometimes, for safety reasons, we gradually limit the number of people on the bridge.

“Building a few more bridges won’t help in this situation,” Yang Wendong said. “We can’t get anywhere without solving the fundamental problem.”

Director Lin said, "Yes, but this fundamental problem cannot be solved. A large number of factories are located in Puxi, which makes housing costs in Puxi extremely high, so most people can only live in Pudong."

Pudong, on the other hand, is primarily agricultural with limited job opportunities, so millions of people commute there daily.

Yang Wendong countered, "Why doesn't the government consider relocating factories from Puxi to Pudong?"

There was a saying in the old days: "I'd rather buy a bed in Puxi than a house in Pudong."
The fundamental reason is that the gap between the two sides is too big. In the early days, the core industrial and commercial areas of Shanghai were all in Puxi.
Pudong, on the other hand, is nothing more than the countryside.
It wasn't until the large-scale development of Pudong, with state capital investing in Pudong, that the large number of high-rise CBD buildings in Pudong were created in the future.
Even so, housing prices in Pudong are still lower than those in Puxi.
Director Lin said, “The government had this idea as early as ten years ago, but the factories were unwilling. Mr. Yang, as you know, industry is extremely dependent on infrastructure and other factories in the surrounding area.”
If we move to Pudong, all kinds of supplies will need to be transported from Puxi, which is just as troublesome, and even water and electricity will be difficult to guarantee;

“It’s not impossible. In the early years, a lot of factories were located on Hong Kong Island. Later, they gradually moved to the Kowloon Peninsula, didn’t they? At that time, there was no tunnel between the Kowloon Peninsula and Hong Kong Island.” Yang Wendong shook his head and said, “The main thing is that a lot of money needs to be invested to carry out a major transformation of Pudong before factories can be attracted to move in.”

Director Lin nodded and said, "Yes, Mr. Yang has said a lot, but the funds available for listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange are limited right now, and we still have to pay the bulk of the tax revenue, so we are really powerless to help."

Yang Wendong thought for a moment and asked, "Director Lin, what if I could invest in industry on a large scale in Pudong?"

"What? You're planning a major investment in Pudong?" Director Lin asked in surprise.

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "I have this idea. As you know, I still have quite a few factories in Hong Kong, which are all planned to be moved to the mainland."

Some of them are already in Shenzhen, but Shenzhen is developing too slowly and can't keep up with my needs, so I'm also considering moving some of the factories to Shanghai or Beijing.

The development speed of Deepsea City is extremely fast, without a doubt, and can be said to be the limit of urban development in human history.
However, its early foundation was too weak, and it is now unable to withstand the relocation of various industries under Changxing Group. It is difficult to find a sufficient number of junior high school students.

It's important to know that the most basic requirement for Changxing Group to recruit ordinary employees is a junior high school education. They must be able to recognize most Chinese characters and have some logical thinking ability in order to ensure convenient management and stable quality.

In addition, there are many other foreign-invested enterprises in Shenzhen, which also require a large number of talents. Furthermore, Yang Wendong does not want his industry to be completely relocated to Shenzhen, so he naturally wants to invest in other cities as well.
Beijing and Shanghai are the best choices, firstly because they are large enough, and secondly because they attract young talents from the surrounding provinces, making it easier to recruit employees.

Director Lin was overjoyed and said, "Mr. Yang, if you want to invest in Shanghai, we would certainly welcome you. If it's in Pudong, then there's even less of a problem."

This would not only attract foreign investment, but also solve the poverty problem in Pudong and the traffic problem in Shanghai.

Yang Wendong said, "However, it's not without conditions."

His investment in Pudong was also due to the consideration that he needed to build a large factory in the mainland, similar to the super industrial zone in Kwun Tong, ranging from several hundred acres to several thousand acres.
With such a large area, it would be unrealistic to invest in the densely populated Puxi area.

The cost of demolition is manageable and can be recouped in the future, but it also takes a lot of time and makes it obvious that you have the intention to hoard land.

While he could certainly hoard land by investing in Pudong, only he knew this. Before the timeline for the major development of Pudong was announced in China, his investment in Pudong made it seem to outsiders that he had no such intention and was simply a pure entrepreneur.

Of course, these are all advantages brought about by his foresight. Other necessary conditions still need to be met. After all, investing in Shanghai can bring a massive amount of foreign exchange, long-term stable foreign exchange investment, and tens of thousands of jobs.
Director Lin said, "Mr. Yang, please speak."

Such large-scale investment is both feasible and normal.
Previously, in order to cooperate with Volkswagen, Shanghai and the national level had been negotiating with Volkswagen for almost six years. Now, this investment may not be as good as SAIC Volkswagen, but given the net worth of Yang Wendong, a Hong Kong tycoon, it should not be much different.

Yang Wendong said, "First of all, the various products manufactured by my factories in Shanghai must be able to enter the domestic market smoothly and expand into the domestic market." Several large industries, such as Changxing Industry, Watsons, and Glory Electronics, mainly produce consumer goods; if foreigners can use them, then domesticers can naturally use them as well.

Such a large factory produces domestically with little pollution. If it were simply exported, the domestic market would be getting all the benefits for free.

While I don't care about the country earning some foreign exchange, I also need to open up the domestic market at the same time. This is the only way to achieve a true win-win situation and ensure long-term cooperation.
Director Lin thought for a moment and said, "Mr. Yang, if we can achieve the foreign exchange balance required by the state, I think this requirement should not be a problem."

He also understands that when overseas companies return to invest, they are not simply giving away money; they naturally have some needs. As long as they are not too excessive or affect national strategies, they are all negotiable.

Yang Wendong continued, "Secondly, I need to be wholly owned and have all the relevant technologies patented. If our industry enters the market and someone in China infringes on our patent law, I need to go public in Shanghai to address these issues."

Actually, this problem has existed for a long time. Many small factories in China directly copy the many patented technologies that I have registered in Hong Kong and around the world.

If the goods are exported, Changxing Group's legal department will occasionally take action, but sometimes the cost of overseas litigation is too high and not worthwhile.

This is also what makes piracy so annoying; even in the 21st century, there has often been no good solution to this problem.

In April of this year, China’s Patent Law was established. Yang Wendong immediately arranged for people to register the relevant patents, but many factories in China ignored them and remained unmoved even after warning letters were sent to them.
Because many of these factories are pillars of the local economy, and there are so many of them; he wouldn't mind if Changxing Group sued a local government, but with so many, it wouldn't work, and local protectionism was too severe in this era.

Therefore, the best solution is to let a powerful city on the mainland take action to solve this problem, such as Shanghai. If Shanghai takes action, even if it cannot completely eradicate piracy, it can at least curb the rampant piracy.

Director Lin hesitated for a moment and said, "Mr. Yang, I need to go back and report this matter."

Yang Wendong said, "Yes, good. If your city can achieve this, it will also benefit your city. This will increase employment and tax revenue here, right?"

By placing the factory in Shanghai, and cracking down on other forms of piracy, production will naturally be limited to Shanghai, which will undoubtedly benefit the city.

If you want a first-tier city like Shanghai to step in, then you naturally have to offer enough incentives.

Aligning interests is always the best way to solve problems.

However, this is not something that a bureau chief can decide.

Director Lin said, "Okay, thank you for your understanding, Mr. Yang."

Yang Wendong continued, "I have a third request. As you should know, I have opened a Carrefour store in Shanghai. I hope to conduct a pilot program in Shanghai and build more Carrefour stores."

Previously, he had successfully persuaded the central government to agree to build Carrefour supermarkets in several cities across the country.

Now, he needs to go further, but not nationwide, but in Shanghai alone;
On the one hand, Shanghai is currently the largest economic center in the country. On the other hand, we need to establish a model in Shanghai to prepare for future expansion to other parts of the country when the time is right.

"Carrefour supermarkets? How many are you planning to build?" Director Lin asked.
Yang Wendong said, "About 10 or so."

A single Shanghai Stock Exchange could easily accommodate dozens or even hundreds of supermarkets, but that's no longer necessary.
On the one hand, we should not be too greedy; on the other hand, development needs to be done step by step. We also need to rely on these ten supermarkets to continue to cultivate new talents.

"There are still legal restrictions on foreign-invested supermarkets in China, and this is something that I, as the director of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, can't decide," Director Lin said with some difficulty.

Yang Wendong laughed and said, "Although Shanghai is no longer a special economic zone, it is still one of the second batch of cities to be opened up. Isn't the purpose of the country to launch these cities to test the waters of reform?"
Ten supermarkets aren't a lot. As for foreign exchange balance, I'll naturally ensure that major industrial products are prioritized for procurement in Shanghai. This is also for the convenience of Shanghai's economy, isn't it?

"That's true, but we also have to protect the interests of the supply and marketing cooperatives, which are state-owned enterprises," Director Lin said with difficulty.

Yang Wendong said: "If state-owned enterprises can only survive under the protection of the government, how long can they be protected?"
I'm not in a position to say much about the current economic problems in China, but the root cause is that too many state-owned enterprises are protected by the government, which has led to the situation we see today.

Only by allowing legitimate overseas business models to enter the market and participate in competition can supply and marketing cooperatives or some state-owned enterprises truly undergo reform.

Those who didn't live in the 1980s will never know what society was like back then;
In this era of scarcity of resources, supply and marketing cooperatives held a dominant position. Some "thoughtful" supply and marketing cooperatives even had a rule against "beating customers".

“We are well aware of what Mr. Yang is saying, but reforms need to be implemented step by step. Moving too fast may not be a good thing,” Director Lin said. “How about this, I’ll go back and report, and then get back to you, okay?”

“Okay,” Yang Wendong nodded;
He also understood that reforms should not be taken too far, otherwise they would only have the opposite effect.

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(End of this chapter)