"Hello, Mr. Chen." Youde smiled and shook hands and said, "You handled the Hisense Bank run issue very well last time. Prime Minister Thatcher expressed very high support for you. She thinks you are the future of Hong Kong." The star of tomorrow is also our highest achievement in Hong Kong under the glory of Her Majesty the Queen."
"Mr. Governor, thank you." Chen Zhiwen was speechless at this halo. His career was closely related to the Queen of England. Even if he was not in Hong Kong, he would still have the opportunity to grow in the Gulf or even the United States.
It's just that Hong Kong's real estate market, knowing its future direction, is a super cash machine. This is difficult to replace elsewhere. Only a city like Hong Kong with weak economic resilience will cause the real estate market to collapse in a few years. Violent fluctuations will occur. If it were another larger economy, the time would never be so long. Even in the Bay Area next door, the real estate fluctuations are far less than those in Hong Kong.
Governor Youde continued: "Her Majesty the Queen, the Prime Minister and our British House of Representatives all appreciate the Chinese entrepreneurs who can succeed in Hong Kong. Without you, Hong Kong would not have the economic achievements it has today. This is the work of all of us. The results and glory we obtained later, therefore, all of us should unite together to protect this results and glory, right?"
The hidden meaning of this sentence was obvious. Chen Zhiwen naturally understood that he wanted to make his own team, so he said: "Of course I hope that Hong Kong's economy will get better and better."
There are no reporters in the core area of this banquet, but there are other political and business celebrities around Chen Zhiwen and Youde. Whatever they say cannot be denied. Once they are led into a trap, it may be published in the newspapers the next day. Chen Zhiwen Naturally, we are very cautious about this and just say some empty words. No matter who it is, who doesn’t hope that Hong Kong’s economy will get better and better? Even the British Hong Kong government, which was defeated in the later period, did not dare to speak out in public.
"Of course, with entrepreneurs like Chen Sheng here, our Hong Kong economy will definitely get stronger and stronger." Youde also understood that Chen Zhiwen was going around in circles and did not force it.
"I am naturally willing to do my best to serve Hong Kong's economy." Chen Zhiwen added: "However, Hong Kong's industry will have some troubles in the future."
"What kind of trouble?" Yoder suddenly became interested.
"The rise in labor costs and land prices has forced many factories to move away, and once they leave, they will never come back." Chen Zhiwen said.
"The transfer of low-end industries should be inevitable for the development of every region, right? Isn't it the same in the United States, Europe, and Japan?" Youde also understands economics and thought for a while.
"But in these countries, low-end industries began to move only after they had high-end industries. But Hong Kong is different now. There are no high-end industries. Once low-end industries are transferred, the entire industry will be gone." Chen Zhiwen said .
"Although I don't know much about the electronics industry, I know that Midea has been rated as one of the top ten electronics companies in the world by Fortune in the United States. The electronics industry should be considered a high-end industry, right?" Youde said.
"Midea is indeed considered a high-end industry enterprise, but Hong Kong does not have relevant high-end supporting facilities. Midea's factory in Hong Kong only does assembly and production of basic appearance parts. It is not considered a high-end industrial chain. If it weren't for the fact that I am For Hong Kong people, it would be more appropriate for Midea's headquarters to be located in Wanwan. There are at least a large number of high-quality electronic talents there, and the industrial chain is also much more mature." Chen Zhiwen said: "Without any advantages, if Hong Kong's labor costs continue If prices continue to rise, Midea's assembly industry will also be transferred out."
"What does Chen Sheng mean?" Youde was shocked and asked quickly. The number of jobs created by Midea Group in Hong Kong is very scary. Directly, it may not be less than 40,000 people. This also includes a large number of employees at Midea's headquarters. High-income talents, and because these people’s welfare is very good, their spending power can at least create indirect employment for tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong.
If such a large enterprise is relocated, it will have a huge impact on Hong Kong's economy, and the indirect impact is impossible to predict. Just think about the impact on society if tens of thousands of young people start business. These days, an important reason for economic development in various regions is to stabilize young people. Otherwise, these people will have no jobs and no income, which will inevitably cause social chaos.
"We can no longer change the labor cost, but there is still room for maneuver in the leasing cost. I hope that future industrial land will have greater price concessions, so that at least it can slow down the transfer of some related industries. "Chen Zhiwen said.
"The cost of Chen Sheng's Midea Industrial Park is not high, right? And it's your own," Youde said.
"Hong Kong's industrial costs are nothing to me, but they are too expensive for other factories. If these factories are gone, Midea's factories will not be able to survive alone. A large factory needs sufficient related supporting facilities. Otherwise, the transportation cost and time cost will be too high." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said.
In fact, Hong Kong's economy has inevitably gone down the same path as it did in history. No one can stop this, and the same goes for time travellers. One of the reasons for today's remarks is to divert Youde's attention, so as not to be repeatedly criticized. Inquiry, the second is to fight for the last chance for some industries in Hong Kong.
When housing prices quadruple in six years, all costs for the entire society are increasing significantly. Entrepreneurs are faced not only with rising labor wages, but also with higher rental prices, which is very important for Midea and its suppliers. For enterprises with high profit margins, this is not a problem in the short term, but in the basic manufacturing industry, it is almost unbearable because you cannot compare with your counterparts in the Gulf, Southeast Asia, and South Korea. In addition, with the opening of the North, With the same culture, low-end industries have begun a comprehensive transfer.
Once the low-end is transferred, the high-end will become rootless and will go bankrupt if it doesn't move.
"Reducing the cost of industrial land has such a huge impact that I cannot make decisions on my own." Youde thought for a while and said.
"This is natural. What I mean is not to reduce the cost of industrial land in Hong Kong, but to choose a place. The Hong Kong government will provide a certain area and establish a high-tech industrial park. Only some high-tech industries can settle in and obtain high-quality factory area, and then the Hong Kong government can also provide certain preferential policies." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
Although these ghosts often do not agree with the Chinese people in Hong Kong, Governor Youde in front of him still has a good and supportive attitude towards Hong Kong industry.
In the original history, in 1985 after the Hong Kong issue was confirmed, Hong Kong's textile industry was in difficulty due to increased costs. Governor Youde personally led a team to Canada, Australia and other Commonwealth regions to promote Hong Kong textiles, and brought back a lot of products. Although the order cannot stop the trend of the development of the times in the end, it can be regarded as our best effort.
Now, with Midea's industrial foundation, it was not impossible for Hong Kong to retain a small number of high-tech industries for the future in the 1980s. After all, labor costs in Japan and South Korea will not be lower than those in Hong Kong in the future, but they still have their own industries. , but Japan and South Korea have large populations and sufficient high-tech talents, so they can maintain the stable development of several large-scale industrial chains for a long time.
This is naturally impossible in Hong Kong, especially the electronics industry, which is basically impossible to establish a long-term foothold in Hong Kong. However, it is still possible for some other high-profit industries with short industrial chains, such as cosmetics, some precision processing industries, etc., or under its own Red Bull drink, but he will not deliberately stay in Hong Kong to maintain Hong Kong's industry. At least the Hong Kong government must have strong policy support.
"But how do you identify it as a high-tech industrial zone?" Youde asked curiously.
"The simplest thing is the proportion of highly educated talents in the factory, or the number of global patents, etc." Chen Zhiwen said.
"High-tech Industrial Park? This name sounds very interesting. In a few days, I will discuss it with the relevant government staff and then give Chen Sheng a reply. How about it?" Youde thought for a while and said.
"Okay, I'm waiting for good news." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. Perhaps an industrial park cannot survive for a long time. After all, labor costs in Hong Kong will continue to rise in the future, rising even higher than those in Europe and the United States. However, among the hundreds of companies in the industrial park, there may be a few or even a dozen that can survive in the long term. Come down.
After all, in the original history and natural development, Hong Kong has also seen the emergence of several manufacturing companies with a scale of more than 10 billion Hong Kong dollars in the 21st century. Although these companies also moved their factories to the mainland, at least there are still some in Hong Kong. Part of the R&D base and headquarters.
Besides, the labor cost is not completely impossible to solve. For example, the land in Tian Shui Wai in his hands will not be ridiculously high because it is far away from Hong Kong Island. The labor cost will naturally be the same. In his plan, in the future, the land in Hong Kong will not be too high. A small part of the industry can be moved to Tin Shui Wai, and at the same time, one's own real estate company can also develop there, ultimately forming mutually beneficial common development.
But as a whole, Hong Kong cannot rely entirely on itself? It would be better to have other different industries.
The idea of a "high-tech industrial park" made Youde chat with Chen Zhiwen for a few words, then said goodbye and walked towards the others.
Like Chen Zhiwen, most of the Chinese rich people present are wise to protect themselves. No matter what their mentality is, they are all the same on the surface. Only a small number of people stand on the side of the Hong Kong British for the sake of profit. As for the others, they will stand on the side of the British. There are naturally those who are the opposite of Hong Kong and Britain, but the Hong Kong government has already made a list, so naturally they will not invite them here. For example, Hu Yingxiang has recently made large-scale investments in the mainland, one after another. Although the British Hong Kong government has not said anything, it is seeing everything.
Half an hour later, Yoder finished visiting everyone. In the area above, the auction officially began. No matter what the real purpose was, since it was a charity auction in name, of course it had to be auctioned.
Some of the items at the auction are collected by the Hong Kong government, and some are donated by some wealthy people. This auction will also be published in several official newspapers tomorrow. It can be said that it can leave its name in history, so many people are very interested.
Some antiques were easily photographed for millions of Hong Kong dollars. Several heads of British-funded consortiums were very interested in them, as were some Chinese people. Chen Zhiwen was not involved at all, and his money would not be used to feed dogs. Will spend it here.
A week later, Chen Zhiwen received a call from Hong Kong Governor Youde. The Hong Kong government had agreed in principle to the plan for this high-tech industrial park. However, there was no plan for where to build it and how to build it. We still had to wait.
Chen Zhiwen can only express "happy" about this. When it comes to the cheap transfer of large amounts of land, the efficiency of the Hong Kong government cannot be tolerated. The conflict of interest here is too great. As early as the late 1960s, the Hong Kong Industrial Association It was proposed that the Hong Kong government should build a large-scale exhibition base to facilitate global industrial buyers to visit Hong Kong's industrial products. The Hong Kong government naturally agreed to this matter, but by the 1980s, it never came to fruition, and the subsequent decline of Hong Kong's industry continued. There is no need to consider this, and it will be settled in the end.
September has quickly arrived, which is the most important month in the history of Hong Kong.
However, Iron Lady Wrestling will not start until the end of the month, and at the beginning of the month, another big event happened. A well-known gold shop in Hong Kong, Xie Liyuan, closed down.
This is a century-old shop that has existed since the Qing Dynasty. It has a long history and is very well-known throughout Hong Kong. It is not enough because the family-style business model is too conservative. Therefore, it is far from the opponent of Chow Tai Fook and Tse Ruilin. It has been in scale for a long time. Being surpassed by younger generations.
Originally, there was no problem in maintaining this model. They did not seek to be rich or wealthy, but the whole family could live a life of ease and ease. The scale was worth hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars. In Hong Kong in the 1980s, it was considered a high status. wealthy family.
It's a pity that the current family head is jealous of the profits from the real estate market and will definitely start a business again.
As a saying goes, we are not afraid of the rich second generation eating, drinking and having fun, but we are afraid of the rich second generation working hard.
In order to have funds to enter the real estate industry, contemporary family owners have launched a "Thousand Pure Gold Accumulation Plan", which is similar to a bank deposit. Users spend money to buy gold here, but the gold is stored in Xie Liyuan. When they want to cash out in the future, Xie Liyuan Gold The shop will return the funds according to the price of gold on that day, and at the same time, Xie Liyuan Gold Shop will also provide a certain amount of interest.
Such a project was immediately welcomed by many consumers who like to invest in gold. It can not only earn interest, but also participate in gold investment. In theory, Xie Liyuan Gold Shop only needs to use consumers' funds to buy gold. If consumers cash out, Just sell it again, and the source of profit is the large amount of funds absorbed.
But in fact, this is not the case at all. Xie Liyuan Gold Shop used the money to invest in real estate. As a result, the international gold price rose sharply two years ago on the left, and the current housing prices in Hong Kong on the right fell. Under a double blow, the entire company's capital chain appeared. question.
But the problems were all lagging behind. After all, many people kept their funds here for a long time, using other people's funds to compensate customers who had come to withdraw money earlier. Then it was not until September 1982 that the company's funds were completely cut off.
This caused panic among countless consumers who had purchased gold "futures", and they all went to Xie Liyuan Gold Shop to withdraw their funds or gold.
But at this moment, Xie Liyuan's gold shop has long been empty, and the funds in his account are less than one million, so he still has the ability to pay back the money.
The next day, it was reported that Hang Lung Bank, one of the Chinese-owned banks in Hong Kong, has a close relationship with Xie Liyuan Gold Shop and is a shareholder of Xie Liyuan Gold Shop. As a result, a group of investors holding gold certificates issued by Xie Liyuan Gold Shop I went to Hang Lung Bank and asked Hang Lung Bank to exchange cash.
This is inexplicable in itself, and it was naturally rejected by Hang Lung Bank. The bank has close relations with many companies, so how can it take responsibility for the companies?
But the adverse reactions soon came. There were rumors in the market that Hang Lung Bank had problems with withdrawals and payments. In addition, Xie Liyuan Gold Shop gold certificate holders had gathered at a branch of Hang Lung Bank. The unscrupulous media reported it and immediately exaggerated it. Cheng Hang Lung Bank suffered a run.
Then, a real run occurred. On the first day, 70 million Hong Kong dollars were taken away from Hang Lung Bank.
(End of chapter)
