My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 420 Technology is the talisman that real estate can't match.

Wei Dongzhen didn't shy away from the main point: "The buildings I build now are mostly residential buildings for citizens. No matter how much the land cost is, it will eventually be passed on to them. So in Shangzhou, the method I adopted is to spread the construction cost of each building slightly across the residential part, and then the sales revenue of the commercial storefronts at the bottom of the building will be the supporting construction cost of the new block of Shangzhou Industrial Park... Animal Village also uses this method."

The city officials also sensed something was amiss: "It's truly a pity that Hong Kong businessmen acquired the land for nothing."

Wei Dong used his fingers to illustrate the wickedness of real estate developers: "I just saw it. The river-view apartment buildings they plan to build in the Jiangnan District will definitely be much more expensive than the resettlement buildings on the inner side where you can't see the river. Real estate developers don't do anything without profit, but you can't let them control the housing prices. They have a million ways to exaggerate a 500-yuan house to 5,000 yuan, so how can these big-money real estate developers not pay their fees?"

Honest folks in mainland China would be racking their brains trying to figure out why anyone would buy a house for 5,000 yuan instead of 500 yuan.

Furthermore: "Isn't this a bit discriminatory against Hong Kong businessmen? We are actively attracting investment right now, won't this cause negative repercussions?"

But at least some people realized: "How about this first, commercial real estate developers are required to pay land use fees, just like what Xiao Rang said, that is, to pay 50 years of land use fees before building a house."

Wei Dong applauded enthusiastically: "I don't care about paying any land use fees for the commercial land I'm building. The main point is to convey that land resources are very precious, and developing supporting facilities for the land will also cost the city. We really need to think carefully about where this money will come from."

His undercover-like attitude still garnered approval: "Your commercial buildings are all in the Economic Development Zone, which are projects that drive development. At this stage, we should follow the current policies and not feel pressured. Besides, since the residential buildings have already been sold, it's impossible to ask the residents for compensation. The key is how the higher-ups view this situation. We also need to explore development methods and not make too big a leap..."

That works too. The construction projects in Shanghai are all located in the electronics industrial park, so it's kind of an exploration.

So far, I haven't heard of any place in the country daring to auction off land parcels.

Even if they knew it was a Pandora's box, the tax authorities certainly knew that many local governments eventually relied solely on land transfer fees for their finances.

This made Wei Dong not believe that he would change this course of events.

But the story that was later passed down as the birth of the real estate transfer fee, which was discussed in a fire escape, certainly has a touch of legend to it.

At that moment, everyone's attention immediately shifted to the sixth floor where Wei Dong was staying.

The entire floor houses the offices of Dongsheng Trading and its related departments.

The space spans over 1,000 square meters, truly reflecting the scale of large companies seen in Hong Kong. It utilizes the central reception area at the elevator exit to divide the space into various departments, a finance center, a negotiation area, and a public office area.

It's the kind of small office for department heads that's lined up against the wall and windows, with a large area in the middle and an open-plan office space with two or three hundred workstations on each side.

It will absolutely redefine everyone's perception of the work environment in this era; it's both novel and sophisticated.

I've only ever seen something this advanced in current Japanese television dramas.

The people in the city were immediately drawn to the five Macintosh computers lined up in a row: "Is this the computer you're working on? How far along are you?"

As Wei Dong looked around, Dong Xueying had officially moved in to work, but she resisted using the largest boss's office, preferring to stay in the finance center and increasingly unwilling to show her face in public.

So, since he couldn't see anyone, he had to lower his head and start introducing: "This is Apple's current flagship product. Since Mr. Steve came over on May Day, the total sales volume of this product has exceeded one million units, which is two to three billion US dollars. Currently, the entire company's market value is 3.5 billion US dollars, making it one of the top companies in Citigroup."

He was already quite skilled at it, and reached out to turn on one of the computers: "Apple's most groundbreaking revolution was turning the command-line computer into a graphical interface that everyone could operate. So I think if our domestic computer industry can seize the opportunity at this critical juncture and not fall behind, once we recover economically, we will definitely become a major computer power on par with Citibank."

Forget about graphical operating systems, most computers at that time could only display the pale green English characters of a cathode tube emitter.

So even though the Macintosh computer still uses a simple black and white monochrome display, it already presents a concept that completely outclasses other computers.

Moreover, after a month of rigorous work, the X Computer R&D Center, under the guidance of Apple engineers, finally managed to develop a Chinese version of the multilingual Apple graphical system.

Wei Dong then demonstrated the operation of the mouse to everyone: "Currently, this computer is manufactured in California. The highly automated production line represents the highest level of technology manufacturing. I visited their factory, and they have set up an assembly plant in Ireland to avoid tariff issues when selling to Europe. So, the agreement I have reached with them is to establish an Asian assembly plant in the Shanghai Electronics Industrial Park. The main components will still be manufactured by Citibank, while Jiangzhou will strive to provide them with keyboard and mouse production. The profit is huge, but more importantly, it will allow us to join the global computer production chain and keep up with the world's pace. This is crucial."

Almost everyone bowed as much as possible, sat down close to him, and Wu Shengyun quickly followed suit and turned on all the TVs.

They were immediately seated and began curiously trying out the keyboard and mouse. They were mainly incredulous: "Such advanced technology... how did you get in touch with them? I heard you even mentored them?"

People in Shanghai probably see more geniuses and don't dwell on this issue.

Jiangzhou clearly knew that Rang Weidong was a cured meat seller, and even heard that he had previously worked as a laborer in Shangzhou, and later mainly made his way into the market by selling cameras and sanitary napkins.

How can someone who doesn't even speak a foreign language get to know foreigners to this extent?

Wei Dong felt like a computer training teacher, guiding him step by step to click the mouse to open a new game program, and there was also a newly installed floppy disk containing the Four Great Classical Novels: "If we go back to command line mode, we will find that this thing has a very high learning curve. Once it is graphical, you can get the hang of it in minutes. This is the biggest reason why Steve's company raised a billion dollars in equity instantly when it went public."

The explanation was quite simple: "I saw this at the Tokyo World Expo, and it was a sales inspiration. I think the current problem with the machine's slow sales is that we should add these two games, then use the e-books that come with the computer as a selling point, and then help them hold a press conference to boost sales again. Wouldn't that improve our relationship?"

Now, how could anyone in Jiangzhou still regard Wei Dong as an ordinary private entrepreneur?
This guy is a super salesman who can connect with international trade: "Good, good, good. When that chairman came last time, we didn't interrupt with official exchanges. We hope to participate more in the computer production chain in the future. The relevant enterprises in the city will support you."

Let Wei Dong explain: "Originally, I definitely wanted to put the main production in Jiangzhou, but Shanghai has too many advantages in this area. For example, look at that vacuum electronics factory. This nine-inch monitor is definitely a bit small, but in reality, the production cost of Apple computers is already ridiculously high, and the selling price is also one of the most expensive brands on the market. If we increase the size of the screen, wouldn't the price explode? So we tried our best to persuade them to hand over the production of monitors to Shanghai, and try to get the keyboards and mice to Jiangzhou."

He picked up the mouse and gestured: "We estimate this thing can be produced for twenty or thirty dollars, while they can charge two or three hundred dollars. Keyboards are even more expensive, costing three or four hundred dollars. But we are currently developing a keyboard that we are trying to keep the price down to a few dozen dollars. If we can sell this keyboard all over the world because of this, the foreign exchange earnings will be amazing!"

Given the US dollar value of jeans, they have now quietly shifted their stockpiling to Hong Kong and are no longer in a hurry to transfer them back to mainland China.

This also silenced Wei Dong about the foreign exchange earnings generated by jeans.

This is the harm caused by unfair competition. Once the company starts to be wary and its resources are restricted, Wei Dong will be the one who suffers the loss.

But now everyone in the city will understand why Wei Dong has never been interested in real estate.

Dealing with all sorts of red lines at any time, and facing all sorts of complex and bizarre calculations, where else can you find such a highly profitable and civilized technology industry?

At least for now, Citibank is still seen as a model of civilization by the world.

Wei Dong indeed intended to take advantage of the fact that Dianfan was still disdainful and concerned about saving face, and to make a big profit from technology.

So when he mentioned the Electronic Computer Research Center that was transferred from the Fifth Ministry of Machinery Industry, which was working on the mass production of X-computers, a product of the same scale as Apple computers but with its own unique features.

These people could no longer sit still, and they didn't care at all how extravagant the white marble building was: "Come on, let's go take a look, let's go take a look at our computers!"

At that time, the leaders of cities with independent planning status were often engineering college students from the 1950s, who were eager to see what their children looked like.

Rang Weidong glanced at his digital watch and said, “I’ve been planning to come here so that we can have lunch together before we go on our tour. I would also appreciate any valuable feedback from you leaders regarding our working meals.”

That's right, the seventh floor is the entire podium of the Golden Plaza, and will house the dining center of the entire building, which will eventually be more than twenty stories high.

It was also Wei Dong's proudest design.

As it turned out, he underestimated everyone's desire for domestically produced computers. When he went upstairs, he was indeed surprised by the entire floor's self-service restaurant, which was the kind of model that many enterprises and institutions in later generations were familiar with.

After taking a tray, you can choose your dishes one by one and get a bottle of Coke or a bottle of yogurt. It costs 80 cents a meal outside, and meal allowance is provided inside.

They all nodded and said, "That's good, that's good." Let's hurry over and check the computer...

It was only at this time that Wei Dong suddenly realized that the computer industry might become a shield for him.

In this turbulent and complex era, how can this technological trump card be turned into a winning combination?

(End of this chapter)