My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 622 Tell me, is this even worthwhile?

Singaporean Ka-zai has the typical intellectual look: glasses, soft black hair, and not at all assertive.

But he spoke slowly and logically: "I just looked at some documents about the Western District Terminal and container companies, and it seems I don't quite understand what the terminal and containers mean here. Let me give you a brief explanation. My surname is Lin, and I'm from Singapore..."

It has a slow, deliberate professorial style, giving the impression that if you want to refute me, you have to provide solid content, not just empty talk. That's Ushikawa.

"Singapore became an autonomous state in the 1950s, and merged with Malaysia and others in the early 1960s to form the Federation of Malaysia. However, it chose to become independent again a few years later. Note that this was in the mid-1960s. What happened at this time? Container shipping officially started, and Singapore's independence coincided with the container boom."

His gestures were like emphasizing key points on a blackboard: "Containers are easy to understand. No matter what kind of goods you have, except for standard bulk goods like coal, soybeans, and sugar, all other commodities, especially industrial products, can be transported in containers. Think about it, when you move, is it easier to move a neat pile of boxes or a bunch of odds and ends? The logic here is that all containers can be moved in the same way and their capacity can be predicted in an orderly manner."

"So in just ten years, the demand for dockworkers in Manhattan dropped from 1.4 million per year to 120,000 per year. This is the power of efficiency. Singapore’s function as a freight transshipment hub was precisely at this point in time."

In this era, there are no computers for research, not many professional books, and no way to know so much professional knowledge. Even many industry professionals may not know this data.

So, everyone on site who followed Lao Fang in setting up the dock and container company might not have understood what this meant.

They might just feel that it's a rule that foreign companies require them to follow, and they feel somewhat humiliated by being targeted by capitalism and forced to do so.

Now they all seemed to understand, which made Wei Dong listen even more attentively. Seeing that Secretary Yu was taking notes attentively, he decided to ask for a copy of the notes later.

Singaporeans practically live and breathe this concept.

It's really familiar: "What is efficiency? It's when you're still a bunch of people moving goods onto the ship, but once the container is grabbed by the racking truck, it's taken away and placed on the ship, and that's it. Singapore can complete 30,000 containers a day, which is the result of hundreds of ships docking and loading/unloading. I looked here and it seems like only a few thousand containers were handled last year?"

It takes skill to only report good news and not bad news.

For example, building the first ocean-going terminal independently developed by a domestic enterprise breaks the international monopoly, which sounds very inspiring. But what is the point if it is built but cannot be put into production, or if it is like the sanitary napkin production line in Pingjing, which only occasionally produces special products that ordinary people cannot afford?
The truth that was revealed was a real slap in the face.

Who are you trying to fool?

Wei Dong was able to quickly draw inspiration from this information using his "heavenly eye," and then concoct a few lies.

They used a combination of methods.

"Let me introduce you as well. This Mr. Lin is the president of Singapore-based Creative Computer Technology Group. He's here to invest in and build factories in our industrial park, starting with two computer chip factories, followed by computer motherboard and speaker factories. This will help our industrial park firmly establish itself in the high-tech sector. The two computer chip factories alone are worth US$2.7 million..."

Everyone in the room gasped. $2.7 million!
If this were said in other regions, people would definitely applaud enthusiastically and feel proud of it.

But in the eyes of almost everyone in eastern Guangdong, it's like, "What benefits do we get?"

So it's easy to understand why Lao Fang is sometimes irritable and hard to manage.

If Wei Dong's mental age were the same as his, he would be better able to understand the mentality of most ordinary people, having come from a mediocre, lazy background.

He was very calm: "On the first day I accompanied Mr. Fang here, I said that five-star hotels are too expensive to build. Three-star hotels are enough. The money saved can be used to build more docks and factories. What we need now is to quickly make the whole area prosperous, open dozens or hundreds of factories, and bring tens or hundreds of thousands of people from other places to work here. What will they bring?"

Generally speaking, it's a big no-no to talk about your own ideas and criticize your superiors.

However, Lao Fang's administrative position is too high. Having Wei Dong say such things not only does not affect him, but actually weakens Lao Fang's control over the area. The problems that Lao Fang has been suppressing will definitely cause a lot of trouble after he retires.

So Wei Dong had no choice but to forcefully suppress the senior and express that he was not afraid of even him, so why should he be afraid of you?
The Cantonese are more business-savvy: "Food, clothing, housing, and daily necessities?"

Wei Dong, pleased with his straight man's response, said, "That's right. How can we help the local people get rich? We need to provide services for the tens or hundreds of thousands of migrant workers. Open a restaurant, a barbershop, or even build a taller building to rent out. These are all businesses that can generate income. Wouldn't that increase local tax revenue? With money, we can improve the appearance of the city."

Then, turning to the docks and containers, he said, "As Mr. Lin just mentioned, the gap is so big. How can we catch up? Of course, we should follow the direction pointed out by Mr. Fang: industry as the main focus, foreign investment as the main focus, and export as the main focus. Do you see? These factories were built for exporting goods. Only when export goods are piled up at the docks can we attract cargo ships from all over the world to load and unload. Only when we take the lead in opening up the channels can the entire Pengzhen, the entire Delta region, and the entire reform and opening-up foreign trade products be concentrated here and transported out quickly and efficiently, developing into the busiest and most powerful port in the world!"

For this group of people who mainly came to Pengzhen from various directly affiliated units, we must emphasize Lao Fang's foresight. But at this moment, Wei Dong caught a glimpse of a hint of amusement in Lin Wangfu's eyes. Singapore, as the world's largest transshipment port, is what it's like. People have seen it for themselves and won't be easily fooled.

At least Chi Shiming's expression was similar to everyone else's; aside from thinking, "Boss, you're really daring to brag," he still thought it was possible.

After all, ignorance breeds fearlessness, and people think that they can force things through by having a large population or a large country.

At this time, people in China especially believed that great efforts could lead to miracles. They figured that by sheer numbers, even an abacus could replace a computer to calculate the atomic bomb and launch a satellite.

But it's rather awkward for those who know the facts.

Wei Dong immediately seized on Lin Wangfu's expression, knowing he still needed to subdue this guy at any moment: "Hahaha, did you see the look in the Singaporean boss's eyes? He doesn't quite believe our dock has become so powerful, right?"

Lin Wangfu tried to be tactful: "Having goals and determination is good, but Singapore has relied on the unique advantages of the Strait of Malacca and the advanced management methods of hard work to build up its status as the world's largest transshipment port in twenty years. The annual loading and unloading volume of more than ten million containers is not easy to achieve. It's not just about whether there is this demand, but also whether we have the capacity to handle it."

The previously enthusiastic expressions of everyone present were immediately dampened.

After all, the 1980s were a relatively simple and unpretentious time.

Wei Dong wanted to repeatedly humiliate and torment everyone like this, and only then did he suddenly exclaim with renewed vigor: "Alright, Boss Lin has very cleverly raised two issues: do we have enough containers, and do we have the capacity to handle them? I'll tell you how to solve them!"

It's true, that's how Lin Wangfu was dragged in and used as a tool.

I also came to fully understand why some people can become lords.

Wei Dong was unaware that Lin Wangfu would say these things. He asked Lao Zhang and Wu Shengyun beforehand: "I am currently exporting goods through Shanghai Port. The problem there is that it is extremely congested. Last year, 152 ships were stuck there because the berths were slow to load and unload and could not be cleared. So now a large number of my computers are still stuck in Shanghai Port and cannot be shipped. I have to ask the cargo owner to go there and find another way to transship them out of the port."

The basic understanding of everyone here is that Shanghai Port is currently the number one port in China, Tianjin Port is the second, and Guangzhou Port is the third. In fact, the combined total is less than one-tenth of that of Hong Kong.

They all breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this; it turned out that even the eldest brother was so incompetent.
This led Wei Dong to start talking about technology: "That's why I said the West Port must keep reclaiming land from the sea and rivers to expand its berths. Once the export trade capacity of the entire South China region is increased, it will be much more terrifying than that of Shanghai. Only by expanding the berths into the deep water area can the entire port become bigger and bigger, and be able to handle more ships at the same time. Okay, how to handle them?"

He was beaming with pride: "Have you heard of Apple computers? Have you heard of X computers? I manufactured them all..."

The entire conference room couldn't help but gasp in surprise.

In an era when you could easily search for the meaning of the three characters "Rang Weidong" even without a mobile phone, people really knew nothing about his background.

I never expected that he would be the boss of such a high-tech company as X Computer, especially X Computer. This means that X Camera, X Sanitary Napkins, X Snacks and other products that can be seen everywhere are famous and high-quality products that have been advertised on TV!
If cadres in the directly affiliated agencies of the ministry know that the X-computer was jointly developed by the First Ministry of Machine Building, the Fourth Ministry of Machine Building, and the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building, and is now a high-tech product being promoted and applied in the banking and financial system, then they would be even more astonished.

"What I'm trying to say is that our port will be implementing high-tech computer management from now on, right, Lao Lin? Why is Singapore's port management so efficient? Isn't it largely due to computers?"

Lin Wangfu nodded quickly: "Yes! This is the most crucial point!"

Rang Weidong gave an example: "Now, a few hundred or a few thousand containers are not enough to show the effect. But if there are hundreds of thousands or millions of containers in the cargo yard, how do you find which container to pick up at any time? You can imagine how inefficient it is to write out ledgers and forms by hand. Even if you try your best to number and code them, it is difficult to complete the task efficiently, because you can just type it in the computer and it will tell you which area and which pile it is in, which floor and which position it is in, and immediately send a truck to pick it up."

Lin Wangfu replied smugly.

Singapore is thus far ahead in this respect.

To everyone's surprise, Wei Dong said, "What we call the latecomer advantage is that we get computers involved from the very beginning. If the computer finds a container, we don't even need to send anyone or any vehicles. Just press a button, and a crane will automatically slide over, lift the container, and deliver it to the cargo area. If we go a step further, even the container trucks in the port area will be unmanned and automated. The entire port area will be intelligent and unmanned. Compared to these machines that don't need to go off duty or go to the toilet or eat, which one is more efficient?"

Lin Wangfu was stunned, and then, when everyone else couldn't help but applaud, he jumped up and clapped wildly with the most enthusiastic expression!
That's right, this is the world that computer enthusiasts dream of. Can you reach it?!

(End of this chapter)