The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 631 A piece of hot land?
The third grade.

Siheyuan.

It is snowing lightly today. Snowflakes have been floating in the sky since this morning.

Liu Qi was enthusiastically following Liu Tao in introducing the current business situation in the north.

"Brother, you don't know that the Soviet Union is such a developed country, the people have such high incomes, and they have such good social welfare, but their light industry is terrible, even worse than ours." Liu Qi said.

Liu Tao had a smile on his face.

It is no big secret that the Soviet Union's light industry is not doing well.

This problem has always existed since the day the Soviet Union was born.

The Soviet Union was very unique. Its heavy industry was extremely strong. It had been the world's largest industrial power since the 70s. Its industry was really strong, except that its processing precision was slightly inferior. But its light industry was hard to describe.

And to this day, the Soviet Union still implements a planned economy.

The Soviet Union's planned economy was a very sophisticated plan that could make the most efficient use of resources.

In comparison, China's planned economy is very different and appears much more crude.

Liu Tao would not belittle the Soviet Union just because it lost the Cold War in the previous life. We should see their strengths as well as their weaknesses. Only by learning from the Soviet Union can we develop better.

Think about how the Soviet Union lost the Cold War, and then lost everything. Look at the comments and analyses after the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a loser, everything the Soviet Union did before was naturally wrong, including but not limited to communism, public ownership, planned economy, fighting the Nazis, eating, sleeping, breathing, living, etc.

Speaking of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Liu Tao feels it is a pity.

However, at present, so far, the world is still in a situation where the Soviet Union attacks and the United States defends.

The current trouble of the Soviet Union is that Gorbachev came to power and initiated reforms, but his prestige was not enough, which led to a very fierce struggle for power in the Soviet Union and terrible internal friction.

But the Soviet Union had its own troubles, and the United States had its own problems. Both the eldest and second brothers had a lot of troubles.

Otherwise, the United States would not be so greedy now, and would not insist on forcing itself on Japan and sucking blood from it.

"So, the Soviet Union is a huge market, a market of nearly 3 million people. We can even do the business of the entire Warsaw Pact with the Soviet Union as the core, which is a market with a population of 4 million. Even if the profit of light industry is lower, the profit will be considerable if the volume is large!" Liu Tao smiled faintly.

The current population of the Soviet Union is 2.86 million, close to 3 million!

The entire Warsaw Pact has nearly 4 million people.

There is no doubt that this is a very huge market.

Currently, NATO and the Warsaw Pact are in full confrontation. The two sides have been confronting each other for decades. It can be said that Liu Qi and his team have huge advantages in light industrial trade.

Under Liu Tao's suggestion, Liu Qi and his colleagues did not require settlement in US dollars when doing business with the Soviets. The money they earned was eventually used to purchase iron ore, steel, timber, etc. from the Soviet Union and shipped back to China.

In recent years, China's steel production has not kept up with social demand. Coupled with the dual-track system, it is still difficult for private enterprises to obtain steel, and the price is much higher. This part of the shortfall in production was all made up by Liu Qi and his team importing steel from the Soviet Union.

The profit from this round trip is still quite considerable.

Liu Qi and his people have all become billionaires.

What Liu Qi and his colleagues did was not very technical. To put it bluntly, they were just profiteers! Thanks to the efforts of Liu Qi and his colleagues, the bilateral trade between China and the Soviet Union grew very fast.

In fact, because of Gorbachev's reforms, the growth rate of bilateral trade was even greater.

Just as the two were making tea, Qian Huaqiang came over.

Qian Huaqiang's business has been growing bigger and bigger in recent years, and he is now a billionaire.

Like Liu Qi, he wore a thick gold necklace around his neck, gold rings on his hands, a mobile phone case around his waist, and a bag under his arm.

A perfect image of a nouveau riche.

One of them was working in the north, and the other in the south, and now both have made a name for themselves in the world.

"Now that Qiong Province has become an independent province and the Qiong Province Special Economic Zone has been established, everyone thinks it is a hot land with huge opportunities. Do you think we should also go to Qiong Province to get a piece of the pie?" Qian Huaqiang drank a cup of tea and talked about Qiong Province.

Together, Qiong Province is not a separate province, but belongs to Guangdong Province. In April last year, the first session of the Seventh National People's Congress formally approved the establishment of Qiong Province, and Qiong Island became the 4st province in China. At the same time, the Seventh National People's Congress passed a resolution on the establishment of the Qiong Province Special Economic Zone, agreeing to build Qiong Island into the largest special economic zone in my country, which can give more relaxed policies to foreign investment than the current regulations of other special zones, and the economic management system can also be more flexible.

Many people have turned their attention to Qiong Province, believing that it is a hot spot where they can make huge profits.

After all, the development of several special economic zones is well-known throughout the country for its rapid development, especially Hainan Province, which is close to Guangdong Province and has a really advantageous geographical location.

Qiong Province has become the country's largest special economic zone and the only provincial special economic zone. As long as it develops like Pengcheng and other special zones, the opportunities it contains are simply immeasurable.

Qian Huaqiang and Liu Qi were very excited and both wanted to invest a large sum of money in Qiong Province.

Liu Tao frowned slightly.

This reminded him of something. He had the impression that Qiong Province had become the 31st province of China and also the country's largest special economic zone. Countless gold diggers from all over the country flocked to Qiong Province with their dreams in mind. A capital feast of passing the parcel gave rise to a huge real estate bubble.

In 1991, the average price of commercial housing in Hainan Province was 1400 yuan per square meter, ranking the top ten in the country; in 1992, it rose to 5000 yuan per square meter, soaring directly to the top of the national commercial housing price list; in 1993, it soared to 7500 yuan per square meter, and some real estate projects even rose to 10000 yuan per square meter.

At its peak, there were more than 2 real estate companies in Qiong Province alone, while the total population of Qiong Province was only more than 600 million.

Private enterprises, state-owned enterprises and banks all participated in this game of passing the parcel, and tens of billions of funds poured into real estate.

As things developed, people became more and more daring. They didn't even need to build houses. They could sell them as long as they got the land red line map. Many projects still didn't even have a foundation after changing hands several times.

At that time, the economic growth rate of Qiong Province was as high as 83%, and 40% of the fiscal revenue of Qiong Province alone came from real estate.

Then, in June 1993, the State Council issued 6 measures to control credit, interest rates, and reclaim illegal demolitions, each of which was fatal. Real estate speculation funds were drained away, 16 billion yuan fled from Qiong Province overnight, and the real estate bubble in Qiong Province burst instantly.

This real estate bubble directly hit Qiong Province hard, and it took the province 20 years to recover.

Liu Tao frowned, he felt it necessary to prevent this tragedy.

As for participating in this feast, there is absolutely no need.

Qiong Province has a good geographical location and a very important strategic position. It should be well developed rather than severely damaged.

(End of this chapter)