Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

But Hong Kong is becoming increasingly important, so important that even Wei Hongjun, a major leader of the Party and the country, has to consider it. Hong Kong's current development speed far exceeds that of Hong Kong in history.

Historically, Hong Kong developed through entrepot trade, but also had a large manufacturing industry in the early days. However, at this time, Guangdong quickly became a processing base for imported materials, so Hong Kong's manufacturing industry could not develop at all.

However, although Hong Kong's manufacturing industry has not developed, on the contrary, Hong Kong's economic development speed is far faster than in history.

Because the amount of goods imported and exported by Hong Kong each year is now dozens or even hundreds of times higher than at this time in history.

Wei Hongjun looked at the information about Hong Kong and said, "Logistics, warehousing, freight, shipping, and a large number of banks. Hong Kong is currently an important transit trade city.

The supporting industries that have developed are all to serve the re-export trade.”

"Let me first discuss Hong Kong's maritime industry. Currently, there are hundreds of shipping companies, large and small, participating in Hong Kong's entrepot trade. The most powerful of these companies own hundreds of cargo ships, totaling millions of tons. The shipping industry is a typical example of a sector that requires huge capital investment and carries significant risks. Therefore, the development of shipping requires strong financial backing, meaning that shipping is an industry that requires bank support. Otherwise, ordinary shipping companies simply cannot grow."

"Because shipping companies face high risks, most shipping companies need insurance companies to provide them with a guarantee. The rapid development of Hong Kong's entrepot trade has ushered in the rapid development of Hong Kong's shipping industry. By the way, Hong Kong's insurance industry will have unlimited potential in the future. At the same time, the development of the shipping industry,

It will drive the basic shipbuilding and ship repair industries, as well as port construction.”

"Looking at the more than 4000 trading companies currently registered in Hong Kong, there are also many companies that are not trading companies but are engaged in trading. It can be said that there are no fewer than to companies of all sizes involved in trade in Hong Kong. And this number is still increasing."

"For so many trading companies to engage in trade, they need capital flows. Ensuring these capital flows requires a well-developed banking industry. Furthermore, for these funds to flow between Hong Kong and mainland China, a well-developed foreign exchange business is required. Just to manage this much capital, Hong Kong needs countless banks and fund management companies."

"Moreover, the development of Hong Kong's economy was primarily driven by the construction industry. And the rapid development of the construction industry requires the support of bank funds."

"It can be said that Hong Kong now has the foundation for major development. And the foundation of Hong Kong's major development is entrepot trade. And what entrepot trade needs most is financial support. In other words, major development of Hong Kong's financial industry is just around the corner. Finance can magnify one dollar into ten."

"Because we are a socialist country that practices a planned economy, the flow of our capital is determined by the state. This economic model dictates that our financial development is very limited. However, my country's future development cannot be solely domestic. At the Ninth National Congress, the Central Committee had already determined that socialist and capitalist countries would coexist in the world for a long time.

Therefore, my country will definitely have more exchanges with capitalist countries in the future, and many Chinese companies will also go global.”

"If my country's financial sector remains underdeveloped by then, Chinese companies will have no understanding of finance.

How will our companies go global in the future? We will be at a great disadvantage if we encounter the developed financial industries of capitalist countries."

"Besides, Hong Kong is my country's Hong Kong. It's just that it's not convenient for us to take back Hong Kong under the current circumstances. But this does not mean that we will allow Hong Kong to continue to be in the hands of the British in the future. But if we don't understand finance and we have no roots in Hong Kong, then when we take back Hong Kong in the future,

There will be many problems.”

"So what I meant by this meeting is that we need to make arrangements in all aspects in Hong Kong. One is to earn funds for the country and support national construction. The other is to settle down in Hong Kong, take root in Hong Kong, and become the basic force of our country in Hong Kong."

Zhou Bin and the others listened quietly to Wei Hongjun's words. After Wei Hongjun finished, Zhou Bin said, "We do have a lot of plans for Hong Kong. However, the central government didn't have a clear, complete development plan for these companies. This was mainly because our companies in Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia all had their own affiliations, so we weren't able to achieve true unified leadership, and therefore didn't have a complete, unified accounting system for these industries."

The sources of these Chinese overseas assets are very complex.

Newspapers, magazines, and film production companies were all under the leadership of the Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Culture. Many were founded when the underground party was promoting the revolution.

Later, after Wei Hongjun took charge of the Secretariat, he demanded that propaganda be strengthened.

One of them is to develop film and publishing businesses in Hong Kong, Macau, Southeast Asia, and some other former colonial countries.

Many publishing companies have been established in Macau.

There are leaders from the Ministry of Finance, leaders from major banks, leaders from the Ministry of Foreign Trade, and leaders from the Ministry of Transport.

Some are led by the Ministry of Commerce, some are directly led by the State Council, and even a lot of assets are led by the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee.

As for the leadership bodies, some are led by government departments, and some are led by party committee departments.

Precisely because there were too many leading forces behind the scenes, when Zhou Bin was in charge of the Foreign Trade Department, he did not directly unify the management of overseas assets.

"Currently, some of my country's relatively strong companies in Hong Kong, Macao, and Southeast Asia include China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, China Resources Group, Bank of China (Hong Kong Branch), Bank of Communications (Hong Kong Branch), Nanyang Commercial Bank, Bank of Nantong, and Nanguang Trading Company, among others." "In addition to these powerful companies, we also have many smaller companies in Hong Kong, Macao, and Southeast Asia. We even have a Sino-British joint shipping company and a Sino-British joint terminal, both of which are quite strong."

Wei Hongjun nodded.

The CCP has many deployments in Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia.

As early as the end of the Anti-Japanese War, Wei Hongjun suggested that the country make arrangements in this regard. At that time, the main purpose was to resell British and American military supplies from World War II.

Zhou Bin was responsible for establishing the Ministry of Foreign Trade and was fully responsible for this matter.

In a short period of time, they established a strong presence in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and other places. By reselling British and American World War II supplies, many companies quickly established themselves in these places, or even made a fortune. Later, these companies began to participate in trade with China, and each of them was truly powerful.

Wei Hongjun said: "My suggestion is that we should make good deployment in all areas in these regions. Starting from banking, insurance, asset management, as well as shipping, construction, warehousing and other aspects, we should make planned deployment. We can leave some small and medium-sized companies to fight alone.

But the big picture is to establish a few leading enterprises that will be deeply involved in Hong Kong’s development.”

"Take the Bank of Communications Hong Kong Branch. Now that the Bank of Communications has been merged into the People's Bank of China and the China Construction Bank, retaining the Bank of Communications Hong Kong Branch is completely inappropriate. My suggestion is to merge the Nanyang Commercial Bank and the Bank of Communications Hong Kong Branch to form a new, powerful Nanyang Bank. Comrade Zhuang Shiping's Nanyang Commercial Bank and Nantong Bank have both developed very well over the years. Not only have they become powerful banks in Hong Kong and Macau, but they have also effectively connected the Chinese in Nanyang with the mainland. We need financial talents like Comrade Zhuang Shiping the most right now. We must pay even more attention to outstanding economic talents like Comrade Zhuang Shiping."

"As a entrepot trade city, Hong Kong is poised for rapid growth in finance, shipping, port construction, warehousing, and logistics. We must not only grow alongside this growth but also leverage this opportunity to cultivate talent. Once they have mastered their skills, they can return to support the development of China's finance and port construction."

"So this is a grand strategy. Comrade Zhou Bin,

I mean that the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Guangdong Province, and our officials in Hong Kong should form a development committee. These officials should meet regularly to discuss and study the development of the global economy. Based on their judgment, they should adjust our assets in Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia. They should also serve as advisors to the central government and provide suggestions on economic development.

Zhou Bin nodded, understanding Wei Hongjun's meaning.

So he said, "After we go back, we will definitely come up with a plan as soon as possible."

Minister of Foreign Trade Lei Renmin interjected, "General Secretary, Mr. Huo Yingdong, currently the President of the Hong Kong Real Estate Association, has made a suggestion to our cadres. He said that Hong Kong's construction industry is currently experiencing a period of rapid development. This includes not only real estate construction, but also port construction, warehousing construction, and other areas, all of which are experiencing rapid growth."

So he thought we could send some professional construction teams to participate in the construction of Hong Kong."

There are many construction teams in China at present.

The national and military construction teams are professional, military-style construction teams. Besides these, there are also numerous local construction teams of various types. Even rural cooperatives now have numerous construction teams. Participating in Hong Kong's construction is a good thing.

However, there were numerous issues to coordinate. The state-controlled construction teams were relatively straightforward, as they were essentially managed in a military-like manner. With a single command from the central government, they could rush to Hong Kong. However, many of these state-run construction teams were former military personnel, having transitioned to civilian life as a whole. The British might be wary of them, so communication with them was necessary.

As for the local construction teams, there were also many problems. After all, how would they get to Hong Kong, how would they receive business, how would they manage it, how would they arrange their funds, and so on? All of this needed to be coordinated.

So Wei Hongjun thought for a moment and said, "Forward Mr. Huo Yingdong's suggestion to the Construction Engineering Department and ask them to come up with a plan and hand it over to me first."

"Yes."

China is currently experiencing a labor surplus. Wei Hongjun's reason for developing a free market for agricultural and sideline products while also supporting the development of rural industry and commerce is not only to boost the rural economy, but also because the rural population is too large. Agricultural production and agricultural and sideline product production simply cannot accommodate that many people.

So what to do?

The only option is to develop rural industry and commerce.

Even so, China currently has a surplus of labor. While Hong Kong is small, even with a booming construction industry, the maximum number of workers it can accommodate is a few hundred thousand. This would be of little use to China's surplus labor.

But even if it's hundreds of thousands of people, it's a good thing.

Wei Hongjun had already begun considering establishing a large-scale state-owned construction company. He would integrate the current semi-military, semi-civilian infrastructure engineering teams, along with those previously involved in major national projects, to form a China Construction Group. The Ministry of Construction would be responsible for detailed coordination and planning. Wei Hongjun changed the subject, saying, "I've reviewed the reports submitted by the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China. I support issuing government bonds and attracting private capital. However, I have some suggestions that I hope you will consider carefully."

Zhou Bin, the Ministry of Finance, and the People's Bank of China, based on the data on the issuance of national currency and the data of major banks over the past decade since the founding of the People's Republic of China, believe that China has not yet entered the banking system, and the funds in the hands of the people are between 500 billion and billion.

700 billion. This number is very astonishing.

This is also very scary. This is because Chinese people like to save money just in case.

China's economy has grown rapidly over the past decade, with farmers' incomes particularly rising. However, there's a significant gap between this increase in farmers' incomes and rural consumption. According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, only one-third of rural income flows into the market. Because Chinese farmers have limited financial resources and are deeply concerned about the uncertain future, they hesitate to spend recklessly. Therefore, any money they have is saved rather than released into the market.

The same is true for urban residents in China.

Most of China's urban residents are farmers, so most of them have the same idea in this regard and are willing to hide their money quietly at home.

But it is not a good thing for the Chinese economy if so much money does not enter the market or the banking system.

Therefore, the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China are preparing to

Issue 200 billion yuan of government bonds within five years to fill the fiscal deficit.

Wei Hongjun supports this plan.

Private funds must be utilized and not allowed to become stagnant. "First, using government bonds to collect funds is only one solution. However, as long as our people don't have the habit of saving in banks, this problem will persist. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China must find a way to get our people used to saving in banks, rather than hiding it at home. For example, our newly established Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China are state-owned commercial banks. As state-owned commercial banks, they must be managed and operated using commercial principles. Their most important task is to attract deposits and invest funds in the market."

“We will continue to push forward with this.”

Several people nodded.

This private sector capital is enormous, possibly even greater than what the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China report. Even if you don't spend this money, keeping it in banks is a positive for the Chinese economy. However, Chinese people currently prefer to keep their money at home, effectively turning it into dead money. This dead money must be put to work.

"Second, there is a close relationship between credit cooperatives and rural production cooperatives. Currently, in addition to the shares of the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of my country,

The majority of the remaining shares are held by rural production cooperatives. Many employees of credit unions, including some, come from these rural cooperatives.”

"We must make good use of this relationship. Rural people do not have the habit of depositing money in banks, so they do not trust our commercial banks. But because of the special relationship between them and credit cooperatives, they will trust them more. The Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China must further support credit cooperatives.

Further integration is possible, while continuing to accept investment from rural cooperatives to foster closer relationships. Only when these relationships are strong will rural residents be willing to deposit money with credit cooperatives. Historically, credit cooperatives have been plagued by numerous drawbacks, or indeed, a complete mess.

The main problem arises in the question of ownership.

Originally, credit cooperatives were grassroots financial institutions established with farmers' capital. They were not state-owned financial institutions, but rather collective financial institutions. However, during the reforms of the 1980s, credit cooperatives became chaotic. Local governments also attempted to take over credit cooperatives, leading to a chaotic restructuring of credit cooperative shares during the subsequent reforms.

Although these were clearly collective financial institutions, local governments, driven by their desire for self-management and ownership, failed to carefully calculate the value of their shares. Some simply abolished existing shareholdings, while others offered farmers a resale price. In this way, collective financial institutions were transformed into local government financial institutions. However, this reform left behind numerous drawbacks. Ownership, management rights, and even government management authority became entangled. Precisely because of this complexity, some credit cooperatives became cash machines for local governments, while others, lacking formal government oversight, led to widespread malpractices and widespread corruption.

In this era, Wei Hongjun and Zhou Bin took advantage of the credit cooperatives' weakness and rapidly reformed them. While retaining shares in rural cooperatives, they also increased investment from the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China. This transformed these credit cooperatives into joint-stock banks. With funding from the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China, these two institutions could legitimately oversee and participate in the management of the credit cooperatives. However, the credit cooperatives also retained a significant number of shares in rural cooperatives, maintaining a unique relationship between the two.

Now is the time for credit cooperatives to play a role. Rural production cooperatives and farmers are undoubtedly more willing to trust credit cooperatives because they own shares, and many of the staff are their relatives and friends. Therefore, credit cooperatives are more likely to gain farmers' trust and be more likely to secure savings from them than agricultural banks.

Zhou Bin nodded and said, "Okay."

Wei Hongjun continued: "The third is the issuance of treasury bonds. Can the Ministry of Finance consider issuing bonds in Hong Kong,

Regions like Macau issue a small amount of government bonds.”

When Zhou Bin heard Wei Hongjun's suggestion, he immediately became serious.

Because Wei Hongjun meant to issue foreign bonds overseas.

Wei Hongjun said, "We don't need too much. This is just a trial. Our country issues treasury bonds in Hong Kong and Macau. Whoever can take on this business will be a very good training for the bank or fund management company. Of course, this is just a suggestion. You can consider it."

"I think it's appropriate."

Lei Renmin, the Minister of Foreign Trade, immediately said: "Our country previously purchased machinery and equipment from European countries. At that time, European banks provided us with loans and participated in the subsequent transactions.

The profits for banks are enormous. However, my country lacks such institutions or talent. If we issue government bonds in Hong Kong and Macao, we could use this to foster our own financial companies and cultivate talent in this area. This would be extremely beneficial for future business between my country and other countries.

Lei Renmin is very familiar with these.

When China took over the Nationalist government's assets in Hong Kong, Macau, and overseas, Lei Renmin was one of the responsible persons, helping the new China recover hundreds of millions of dollars in assets.

Later, Lei Renmin also personally participated in various businesses between China and Europe.

So Lei Renmin knows that China and Europe do business, and the trading companies and financial companies that do intermediary business,

Their profits are even greater than those of the production companies. It is like China spends 1000 million US dollars to buy machinery and equipment.

Of this $1000 million, only % to % will go to the production company, while the remaining millions will be swallowed up by trading companies and financial companies.

But there is no way.

China itself lacks the capability to do so. However, if China can truly integrate some of its overseas companies, its financial strength in Hong Kong and Macau will be considerable.

It is entirely possible to use China's issuance of government bonds to allow these financial companies to gain experience in this area.

Zhou Bin thought for a moment and said, "Let's go back and discuss this."