"Mr. Zhou, I don't know if you have paid attention to the recent hot topics in Hong Kong newspapers since you came to Hong Kong! The property market in Hong Kong and Kowloon City has recovered rapidly since the beginning of the year after experiencing a halving last year. Whether it is a new building or a second-hand house, it shows a situation of both price and transaction volume!" As the conversation deepened, Li Xuan began to turn the topic to Hong Kong property prices, which have been very concerned by public opinion recently.

"I am also deeply touched by the problem of excessively high property prices in Hong Kong! The price of new houses in the Deep Sea Special Zone is about 25,000 yuan per square meter, which is about 5,000 yuan per square meter when converted into Hong Kong dollars. The housing prices in Hong Kong's urban area have exceeded 20,000 Hong Kong dollars per square meter, which is five times that of the Deep Sea Special Zone!

As a result, a large number of ordinary Hong Kong citizens cannot afford to buy a house and can only live in rented housing. And rent has become the largest part of Hong Kong families' daily living expenses!" Zhou Nan said with some embarrassment.

Li Xuan couldn't help but smile, this President Zhou compared the housing prices of the Deep Sea Special Economic Zone with Hong Kong, which is really not a good example. You must know that after Hong Kong's economy has grown rapidly for many years, Hong Kong's wages have also risen. Now the monthly salary of ordinary workers can generally reach 4,000 Hong Kong dollars, which means that five months' salary can buy an area of one square meter.

In the deep-sea special zone, across the sea, the average monthly salary of workers is about 400 yuan, and they have to save more than half a year's salary to buy an area of one square meter. From this point of view, the relative housing prices in the deep-sea special zone are undoubtedly more expensive than those in Hong Kong.

However, unlike Hong Kong, the commercialization of residential housing will not be fully rolled out until the late 90s. At present, the mainstream way in China is to divide the unit welfare housing and raise funds to build a house, and the price is much lower than that of commercial housing.

Of course, Li Xuan is not prepared to argue about which place is more expensive, Shenhai or Hong Kong. His aim is to use Hong Kong's exorbitant housing prices to elicit his own purpose. So he continued: "We at the Eastern Group have a non-profit academic research institute called the Eastern Economic Research Institute. Based in Hong Kong, the Institute for Oriental Economic Research analyzes data from all aspects of Hong Kong to provide decision-making reference for other organizations, including the Oriental Group.

According to the "Hong Kong Population Research Report" recently released by the Institute of Oriental Economics, by the end of last year, the permanent resident population in Hong Kong with permanent residency had exceeded 6 million, an increase of 1 million over 1980. In other words, in the past decade, Hong Kong's average annual net population added value has been as high as 100,000!

In addition to the natural growth rate, the most important factor is the influx of new residents from the country. As Hong Kong's return to the motherland approaches, exchanges between Hong Kong and the mainland will become closer, and the number of people from mainland China pouring into Hong Kong will continue to grow. By the end of this century, Hong Kong's total population is likely to exceed 6.5 million!

As a small land, Hong Kong can afford a limited number of people. Hong Kong Island and Kowloon have long been completely developed, and this is why the Hong Kong Government has no choice but to continue to develop new towns in the New Territories to accommodate the growing population! The reason why the Hong Kong Government changed its immigration policy from the barrage system to the catch-and-dismantle system in 1980 was because the urban areas of Hong Kong could no longer afford to continue to bear the large-scale population growth!

A growing population will put enormous pressure on Hong Kong society as a whole, as everyone needs to eat, sleep, and provide them with a job to support their families and shelter from the elements. Hong Kong's economy has maintained strong growth over the past three decades. Although factories have moved north in recent years, the new electronics industry has replaced the original industries such as textiles, garments, toys and plastic flowers, and continues to provide a large number of jobs for Hong Kong society.

But the housing problem is becoming more and more prominent, according to the Oriental Economic Research Institute's Hong Kong Population Research Report, young people in their twenties and thirties account for more than 30% of Hong Kong's total population. In other words, one-third of Hong Kong's population is now in the stage of getting married or having children.

Chinese pay attention to starting a family, no matter where the mother-in-law chooses a son-in-law, they will pay attention to whether they have a house and whether they can give their daughter a stable home!

However, due to the restrictions on the annual land area transferred in Annex III of the Joint Declaration, the number of newly built commercial houses in Hong Kong in recent years has been far from keeping up with the growth of demand, which has ultimately caused a serious imbalance between supply and demand. And this is an important reason for the skyrocketing property prices in Hong Kong in recent years!"

Zhou Nan listened to Li Xuan's long discussion, and was a little confused about what the other party meant. Oriental Group is one of the few first-class consortia in Hong Kong that does not focus on real estate. But Zhou Nan didn't believe that the other party used such a long article and such detailed data to discuss the issue of Hong Kong housing prices with him, which had no purpose.

I only heard Li Xuan continue: "Not long ago, when I had dinner with Mr. Li Jiacheng, the boss of Cheung Kong Group, I also talked about this problem! After Hong Kong's high housing prices have been passed on, it has led to inflation in the entire Hong Kong economy, which has increased the production costs of Hong Kong enterprises and greatly weakened the international competitiveness of Hong Kong as a whole!

In the face of this problem, Mr. Li Ka-shing and I both believe that it is necessary to appropriately curb the excessively rapid growth of housing prices in Hong Kong, otherwise it will not be conducive to the long-term prosperity of Hong Kong's economy. Therefore, in recent times, Mr. Li Jiacheng and I have been actively contacting other real estate developers in Hong Kong, and we have all agreed to let the real estate industry in Hong Kong, which has some fever, return to a rational and healthy track!

It may not be long before the Hong Kong Real Estate Association lobbied the Hong Kong government, hoping that the Hong Kong government could pay attention to the current imbalance between supply and demand in Hong Kong's property market, and introduce some targeted policies to improve the current situation, such as increasing the land supply area of commercial and residential buildings, and increasing the construction of low-rent housing for the public!

Of course, when it comes to issues such as the increase in the area of land supply and the distribution of land transfer fees, we must not bypass the central government in the mainland! Therefore, the Hong Kong Real Estate Association will certainly send a representative to visit you in the near future and give a detailed explanation of the situation! If necessary, you can also organize a special Hong Kong delegation to report directly to the central leaders in the capital and strive for it!

Although our business does not involve real estate, the Hong Kong property market is a major event related to the long-term development of Hong Kong's economy, and will also have a profound impact on the future development of Oriental Group. Therefore, like countless other ordinary citizens who are suffering from Hong Kong's high housing prices, I hope that the mainland and the Hong Kong government will attach great importance to this issue and create a good governance for the six million Hong Kong citizens!"

Zhou Nan finally understood what the other party meant from Li Xuantu's poor words. Li Xuan wants to break through the restriction in Annex III of the "Joint Declaration" that the Hong Kong government can only sell 50 hectares of land per year during the transitional period! Zhou Nan, as the head of the Chinese delegation in the Sino-British negotiations, is very clear about the significance of this annex III.

The reason why the Chinese side requested the addition of this Annex III was to restrain the British government authorities in Hong Kong from breaking the jar and selling land on a large scale to make money in the last few years before the return to the motherland, leaving a mess for the future SAR government. Therefore, uncovering the restriction that only 50 hectares of land can be sold per year is undoubtedly a big problem that affects the whole body, and Zhou Nan's first reaction was to refuse.

But Zhou Nan was very rational and did not answer immediately, because from Li Xuan's words just now, we can know that this is a well-planned action! If increasing the supply of land is not necessarily a bad thing for Hong Kong real estate developers, then increasing the construction of cheap public rental housing is definitely cutting meat on real estate developers!

If everyone goes to live in government public housing, then who will spend money to buy commercial housing developed by real estate developers! You must know that the annual area of 50 hectares does not include the land granted to the Hong Kong Defence Council for the construction of public housing. As long as the Hong Kong authorities are willing to spend money, no matter how much public housing is built, the Chinese side will raise their hands in favor.

But these real estate tycoons in Hong Kong are willing to sacrifice their own interests for the long-term stability of Hong Kong's economy, which makes Zhou Nan a little incredible. He didn't believe that the capitalists would think that they had a lot of money, after all, people opened companies instead of good houses!

Thinking of this, Zhou Nan couldn't help but glance at Li Xuan again. The smiling man in front of him is the most well-known philanthropist in Hong Kong. According to the statistics of relevant domestic departments, the other party has spent more than 2 billion Hong Kong dollars in domestic education, medical care and other fields in recent years.

It can be seen that suppressing Hong Kong's housing prices is beneficial to Li Xuan's Oriental Group, so it is likely that this God of Wealth Li is behind the actions of Hong Kong real estate developers! I have to say that Zhou Nan got close to the truth of the matter in a blink of an eye.

We are willing to listen to the true voices of the Hong Kong citizens, and it has always been the unswerving revolutionary conviction of our communists to build the party to serve the people, to govern for the people, and to go from the masses to the masses!" Zhou Nan said sincerely.

It was already 10 o'clock in the morning when Zhou Nan arrived at the Rainbow Residence on Gefu Mountain Road, and after talking with the guest and the host for about an hour, Li Xuan began to entertain the guests for lunch! The focus of the family banquet was not whether the dishes were sumptuous or not, but reflected a close and friendly attitude.

What's more, it's not that the richest man's family eats abalone, shark fin, bird's nest and sea cucumber every time, in fact, Li Xuan's recipes are not very different from ordinary people's, but his chef's skills are more exquisite.

After the luncheon, Zhou Nan said goodbye. He needs to go back and digest all the information he has obtained today as soon as possible, and some aspects may need to be collected for detailed analysis. Li Xuan was dubbed the underground czar by the Hong Kong people, and his influence on the city of Hong Kong is certainly unquestionable.

Since Li Xuan solemnly raised the issue of Hong Kong's housing prices to Zhou Nan today, Zhou Nan felt that even if the domestic side finally disagreed with the other party's request to increase land supply, it must give a full and reasonable reason. Otherwise, this God of Wealth Li will use a little guidance from public opinion to make the central government lose the will of the people in Hong Kong!

No matter how much Zhou Nan was thinking in his heart, Li Xuan sent the guests to the door very politely, and only breathed a sigh of relief after seeing them drive away from the gate in a car.

"You seem to attach great importance to this President Zhou, I haven't seen you treat his predecessor so politely before!" Zhong Chuhong stood beside her husband and asked with some curiosity. Outside the male protagonist and inside the female protagonist, she, as the hostess, is naturally the operator of the entire family banquet, and she also watched the guests leave with her husband.

"I don't attach importance to him, but to the mainland government behind him! The future development of the Eastern Group will revolve around two core strategies, one is the high-tech represented by the Internet and IT industries, and the other is the Chinese market with great growth potential!" Li Xuan took his lover's hand and explained softly.

"I feel that you didn't seem to pay much attention to the mainland market before, why did you suddenly change your mind!" Zhong Chuhong naturally grabbed her husband's arm and continued to ask.

"When did I say that I don't pay attention to it, but I have always emphasized that the Chinese market is the market with the most growth potential in the next 30 years, if the European and American markets are the present of the Eastern Group, then the Chinese market is the future of the Eastern Group!

Do you know that Oriental Commercial also handed over a report yesterday, and the TV-related industry alone earned as much as $100 million from the Chinese market last year!" Li Xuan said, shaking his head.

"There are so many? I remember that RCA doesn't seem to be vigorously developing the domestic market!" Zhong Chuhong showed a look of surprise, as Li Xuan's wife, although she did not participate in the specific management of the Oriental Group, she was still clear about the basic situation of the company.

"Yes, when we invested in the construction of a production base in the Shenhai Special Economic Zone, the purpose was to reduce the production cost of our color TVs and computer monitors with the help of cheap domestic labor costs, so that we could gain an advantage in the competition with Japanese enterprises! RCA's production capacity in the Shenhai Special Economic Zone was mainly for the export of European and American markets, and the mainland's domestic market was only incidental!

In contrast, the Lu Group has worked much harder to penetrate the domestic market than we do, and there are as many as eight joint venture factories all over the country! Lu Qintian's profits from the mainland last year were as high as 400 million Hong Kong dollars!" Li Xuan saw that Zhong Chuhong was interested in listening to these business things, so he spoke in detail.

Although the Oriental Group has not developed the mainland TV market on a large scale, its subsidiary RCA is a supplier of upstream technology for the domestic TV industry. For example, among the hundreds of TV production lines introduced in China in the 80s, more than one-third were completed by RCA.

For example, Lu's company, the number of TVs it sells in China far exceeds that of RCA. However, most of the key technologies of Lu's color TVs are obtained from RCA company, and a large amount of technology licensing fees need to be paid to RCA every year. It can be said that every TV set sold by Lu's in China has indirectly contributed a part of the profits to RCA and the Oriental Group. (To be continued.) )