When Xu Yanliang asked about the house, Tang Menglong waved his hand disapprovingly:
"There are ready-made houses - it's not difficult to build them for you now. We have architects here." He walked to the window and pointed to a three-story building in the northeast of the square.
"What do you think of that one?"
Following his finger pointing, there was a three-story brick-wood structure building in neoclassical style. The exterior wall was the original color of red brick, and there were green vines climbing on the wall. It looked artistic and fresh.
Xu Yanliang didn't believe it anymore - he had seen enough of the Bauhaus-style buildings in Lingao. How can there be such a beautiful and elegant house? He hesitated: "Is this this one?"
"Yes, that's the three-story brick building. Isn't it beautiful?"
"Damn, you are so generous!"
"This was designed by Zhang Xingpei. It was originally the Sanya Library." Tang Menglong said with regret. "It's a mistake. Now there's not a single book in it. It's used as a dormitory for some naturalized cadres. To be honest, it's a waste. Simply. It’s been vacated for your use.”
Xu Yanliang felt somewhat flattered: "This is really a generous gift from you!"
"No, no, this is also to revitalize fixed assets. Otherwise, if this nice house remains vacant, the annual maintenance costs alone will cost a lot of money,"
Xu Yanliang calculated in his mind that there are currently about fifty or sixty people in the headquarters, and after the expansion, there will only be about a hundred or so people at most. This building is enough for office use. He immediately remembered another problem. The Southeast Asia Company's business station was in Hexi District. If the staff of the headquarters lived in Hexi, they would have to spend time commuting every day.
"Can the dormitory be solved?"
"Okay." Tang Menglong said without hesitation, "I have plenty of housing here, and even the problem of eating can be easily solved - just book a meal in the cafeteria. If you want to improve the food, you have to go to Hexi - there are many restaurants there."
Xu Yanliang finalized the relevant relocation matters with Tang Menglong one by one. Tang Menglong patted his chest for almost everything, expressing his "full support".
Xu Yanliang naturally wanted to reciprocate the favor, and immediately revealed to him that Nanyang Company was about to start raising funds, implying that he could get the company's original shares at preferential terms.
"Well, since the policy allows it, I will definitely participate in a few shares." Tang Menglong was not shy, "But to be honest, it would be better if you could bring industry and commerce here."
It seems that Mayor Tang still has some ideas. Xu Yanliang thought for a while and said, "It's too early to say what we can do. Well, you tell me the basic situation in Sanya, and we can put it all together."
"Sanya still has some foundations." Tang Menglong, "The problem now is that there are no new growth points. Since Wang Gong was transferred and I took office, the Senate has not added new fixed asset investment here. Projects. There are only investments in the renovation and production increase of some projects. The number is not small, but the growth is still too slow just relying on these few state-owned enterprises."
There is another key issue that he did not mention, that is, the contribution of these state-owned enterprises to Sanya is very small. Taking the Tiandu Mining Bureau, the largest local enterprise, it stands to reason that a small town formed by tens of thousands of workers has considerable consumption power. However, more than half of Tiandu's workers are slaves from Southeast Asia. They have no spending power except for the most basic needs of food and clothing. Most of the other workers are single - no wives, no children. After get off work, they usually eat in the cafeteria and then go back to the dormitory. The connection with Sanya is that the canteen purchases locally produced vegetables, salt, seafood and a small amount of daily necessities. The largest quantities of consumables: food and clothing were shipped from Lingao.
Such a large basic population barely participates in Sanya's economic cycle.
"...You know what the old state-owned enterprises look like, right? That's what the Tiandu Mining Bureau is like." Tang Menglong said.
"Not to mention other things, grain and cloth should not be used. You can't import them directly here, but you still have to transport them from Lingao? Are foreigners unwilling to make this money?" Xu Yanliang asked puzzled.
"Of course foreigners are willing. The problem is that after foreigners sell grain and cloth, they also have to buy goods. The goods they want: sugar, silk, handicrafts, medicinal materials... I don't produce them here, they have to be shipped from other places. Either We pay real money - there is a limit."
This is indeed a problem, Xu Yanliang thought, but it is not easy to solve. For example, sugar and silk are actually some local products, and even if you want to start related industries in Sanya, you will need a lot of investment. It is also uneconomical from a cost perspective. This cannot be solved by Nanyang Company and requires coordination from the Planning Institute and other departments.
But he didn't speak and continued to listen to Tang Menglong's words.
"Tiandu doesn't have any suitable export products. All its output is ore, and even the slag left over from ore processing is shipped out. So what it produces actually has little to do with Sanya. It is a completely independent economy." Tang Menglong complained, "I once thought about whether I could sell houses to miners, or at least rent some apartments to them for a long time. But miners have dormitories, and it is difficult for them to escape to their wives and start a family. It doesn't matter whether they buy or rent a house. interest."
The second largest industry in Sanya is the coconut processing industry.
There are many natural coconut forest resources around Sanya, but they are far from the scale of plantations. Mainly relying on acquisitions - this is also a sideline business for many local people and nearby Li people. Because Australians buy coconuts, not only in Sanya, but also in all places where coconuts are produced in Qiongnan, buyers have appeared. They buy coconuts locally and then transport them to Sanya. It is currently the most successful industry in Sanya.
Coconuts are full of treasures. The Senate mainly uses coconuts to produce coconut water and copra. As a specialty drink in Sanya, coconut water is bottled and sterilized locally, and then shipped by refrigerated ships cooled by natural ice to Lingao and other places. It is also a very high-end "Australian high-end drink" in Guangzhou. Dried coconut is mainly used to extract oil. The coconut palm fiber extracted from the coconut clothing is used to make rope, and the flowers can also be used to make wine during the coconut flowering season.
This industry produces almost no waste, can fully utilize coconuts, and has extremely high economic benefits. It is the most profitable industrial enterprise in Sanya. It is also the second largest local employer after Tiandu Minerals Bureau. Absorbing a large number of local labor force.
"Sanya Coconut Company is the economic backbone of our place." Tang Menglong said, "It can be said that Sanya is indispensable for maintaining the current situation."
“Where do all this company’s coconut products go?”
"Almost all of it is shipped to Lingao," Tang Menglong said, "and part of it is shipped to Wenchang. There are also coconut processing companies there. We don't produce coconut oil here, we only process it into dried coconut, and then transport it to Wenchang for oil extraction. .And coconut clothes too.”
"Primary processing."
"That's right, it's just primary processing."
There are actually only two end products that coconut companies can sell directly: coconut water and arrack.
Needless to say, arrack is now the number one local product sold in Sanya and is very popular with European businessmen. However, the number of flowers is limited, the wine-making season is short, and the yield cannot increase.
"...Actually, coconut trees can also produce coconut sugar. But we don't have plantations here, and collecting sap is too troublesome. It hasn't been done on a large scale. Besides, what European businessmen are most interested in is probably cane sugar. Even if they take the effort to do it, People may not be interested yet.”
“It’s not possible to make this industry big just by purchasing coconuts,” Xu Yanliang said. “We still need to develop plantations.”
"Plantation is not easy. The Agricultural Committee actually doesn't understand this either." Tang Menglong said, "When I returned to Lingao, I told Wu Nanhai, and he said 'let's study it' after a few ums." Nothing further. Later I talked to Fa Shilu, and he said that there was no professional in the agricultural committee doing hot work. In addition to learning some book knowledge from the university, I could only rely on the materials in the big library."
"No wonder I can't get enough of things like quinine and rubber..."
"There's a big difference between reading and actually doing it. I understand that. Besides, even if everything goes well, the plantation won't last for ten or eight years, so you won't be able to pick."
The third industry is fish-salt. The reason why they are put together is that the salt industry in Sanya mainly serves the fishery. Starting from Sanya, the fertile Xisha-Nansha waters have always been the traditional fishing ground for Chinese fishermen. Under the management of the Senate, fishermen must register their fishing in Sanya before the fish season every year. After receiving the fishing flag, they go south under the escort of the coast guard. fishing operations.
Traditional fishermen often need a large amount of salt for preservation because they do not have refrigeration conditions. Therefore, the consumption of salt is very large. In order to obtain protein, the Senate not only sold salt on credit with favorable conditions, but also sent refrigerated ships to purchase fresh fish on site, which was then transported back to Sanya for processing various fish products.
"The fishery tax and salt sales are very impressive, but salt is a specialty product, just like Tiandu's mine. No matter how much it is sold, it has nothing to do with me. After all, the fishery tax is currently returned in full to the city government - otherwise I really can’t maintain this amount of money.”
"The wood processing industry is pretty good now. The Dutch and British often ship logs here - it probably costs nothing to them, and they can make money by bringing them there. If enough supply can be found in Sanya, they should be able to ship more logs." Come over with the wood.”
In addition, Sanya also has some sporadic industrial and commercial businesses, the larger ones being ship repair, fishing boat manufacturing, fishing gear and small hardware. Many leather bags companies opened in Sanya in order to avoid taxes also provide a considerable amount of tax and consumption.
"This can be considered an industry." Tang Menglong said with a smile.
"Well, we chatted before Lao Wang went to Guangzhou. He said that this loophole will be closed sooner or later. Of course, it won't be completely closed. We still have to give them some space."
