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There was still a light rain in the early morning, and Zhang Ke, Ye Jianbin , Chen Xinsheng, and Sun Shangyi had just arrived at Ye Zhenmin's red brick villa in the western district of Hong Kong Island by car. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

"What's the matter at this late hour?" Ye Zhenmin only received a call from Zhang Ke before, saying that he had more important things to report to him face-to-face, and after he came to Hong Kong, he would not go to bed until two or three o'clock in the morning every day, so he asked Zhang Ke and them to come directly to his temporary residence to talk about things.

The financial turmoil is still raging in the skies over Southeast Asia, and other Asian countries are also feeling the increasing pressure, and Hong Kong's financial market can only be said to remain calm on the surface, but few people can sleep peacefully at night.

The raindrops papped on the glass of the study window, and Zhang Ke told the truth of the matter.

The cause and effect of the matter are not complicated. As early as the beginning of the 95th Five-Year Plan, in order to accelerate the development of its domestic electronic information industry, the Malaysian government authorities decided to replicate Taiwan's electronic industry development model in the Kuala Lumpur Multimedia Super Corridor.

The development of Taiwan's electronics industry is based on TSMC, and the Malaysian government has actively promoted the financing of the construction of a wafer fab within the Multimedia Super Corridor.

The initial lead investor was Malaysian billionaire Kwok Song Yan, chairman of the board of directors of the Kwok Group.

At the beginning of the preparations in the second half of '96, the Kwok Group had strong financial resources, and the wealthy Chinese businessmen in Malaysia were well-known in the entire Chinese business circle, and the most important thing to invest in the wafer factory was not the huge investment of more than ten or two billion US dollars, but the acquisition of manufacturing technology and equipment and a stable and reliable technical team.

From a realistic point of view, to invest in the construction of wafer factories in Malaysia, only wafer fabs from Singapore and Taiwan can attract a large number of mature technicians; Singapore is willing to transfer part of its wafer manufacturing technology, and Guo Songyan can only hope to attract people from TSMC and Shida Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., two Taiwanese wafer fabs.

It was probably at the beginning of the year that Liu Zhicheng was approached by Guo Songyan and participated in the wafer factory investment plan in Malaysia.

In order not to arouse the vigilance of TSMC and Shida Semiconductor Company, investors such as Guo Songyan and Liu Zhicheng have not disclosed their wafer factory investment plans in Malaysia.

After secretly raising for so long and preparing to officially register the company, the financial turmoil in Southeast Asia suddenly hit, and a full-scale economic crisis broke out in Malaysia only ten days after Thailand, and the enterprises under the Kwok Group were suddenly hit hard.

The financial turmoil has only passed for more than a month, but the Southeast Asian economy has been ravaged, import and export trade has plummeted, and the industry prosperity of the electronics industry has also dropped sharply to a historical low in a month's time.

As the economic situation deteriorated, Malaysian financial institutions, which had promised loans to the investment program, were forced to shrink their monetary policies, and no one was willing to mention their previous promises.

For the vast majority of investors, it is simply a suspension of an investment project that has not yet been fully launched.

Liu Zhicheng is not only one of the investors, but also directly involved in the preparation process. In the past six months, I have done a lot of work, and I have reached a private agreement with some technical personnel whose employment contracts are about to expire at TSMC. In the past six months, under the influence of Liu Zhicheng, more than 30 engineers have chosen to leave TSMC and go to Malaysia to carry out technical preparations for the construction of wafer factories without renewing their employment contracts with TSMC.

Other investors patted their butts and walked away, at most they lost some small amount of upfront investment, but Liu Zhicheng needs to be responsible for the group of engineers who have left TSMC.

In any case, it is impossible to hide his participation in the investment and preparation of the Malaysian wafer factory for a long time, and the relationship between him and Zhang Zhongmou has long been tense......

The best way out for Liu Zhicheng and his group of engineers is to continue to implement the investment plan of the fab; The responsibility of the leader of the investment plan of the wafer fab has also been transferred from Guo Songyan to Liu Zhicheng.

Since most of the previous investors have withdrawn their investment intentions, Liu Zhicheng can only find another investor, which is why he has been stranded in Hong Kong recently. Hong Kong is not only one of the financial and trade centers, but also the center of the Chinese business district, and it seems that Hong Kong has not been directly impacted by the financial turmoil in the past month or so.

In fact, Hong Kong is under a lot of pressure, the Hang Seng Index fell by one-third in more than a month, which has meant the advent of the bear market, the property market has been struggling to support a month, and it can not bear the momentum, the recent transaction volume of the active property market has shrunk to the extreme, and the avalanche of the property market and the economic recession in Hong Kong can be clearly predicted; The most deadly, and the current mainstream view, is that the financial turmoil will continue to spread.

Until he met Zhang Ke and them, Liu Zhicheng's trip was not smooth.

The dilemma suffered by Liu Zhicheng made him not qualified to fight for control of the project at all, and when he met Sun Shangyi, he asked Sun Shangyi to introduce the people of Kumho, and he was anxious to go to the doctor when he was sick.

"Ah, that's ......" Hearing Zhang Ke explain the truth of the matter, Ye Zhenmin took a deep breath, thought for a moment, and looked at Zhang Ke, "Want to take this project back to the mainland?" There was some anticipation in his eyes.

"If I can't take this project back to China, how can I have the spare time to be blind so late?" There is no doubt about this, the investment of a simple wafer factory may not be profitable in a few years, only built in the mainland, firmly controlled in the palm of the hand, in line with the interests of Kumho, but also in line with the overall interests of the country, Zhang Ke said with a smile, "but the difficulty is too great, it may be tossed for a long time until the end of the day still found that it is blind." ”

"Let's talk about it, how difficult it is in reality......" Ye Zhenmin sat in the corner of his desk with his chest crossed, his posture was always very casual, although the media understood him as an overly pessimistic scholar-type official, and then he made a sharp criticism of the economic systems of Southeast Asian countries a year ago, but accurately pointed out the deep triggers behind the sudden financial turmoil, which made him famous in the field of economics.

"You're a professional, or you're going to introduce the situation......" Zhang Ke kicked the ball to Chen Xinsheng.

"The first is the issue of funding, to build an eight-inch wafer fab, generally speaking, it takes an investment budget of 12 to 1.5 billion US dollars...... The second is the introduction of manufacturing technology and production equipment, and the United States, Japan, Europe and other countries have blocked the export of related manufacturing technology and production equipment to the country...... The third is the problem of the technical team, a stable and reliable technical team is extremely difficult to find, which is also the key reason why the investment in the wafer factory is called a 'semi-inverted' - this 'down' is a fallen down...... "Chen Xinsheng has a very thorough understanding of the depth of this pool, and many unknown secrets are also told, "As far as I know, when Zhang Zhongmou, Liu Zhicheng and a group of other people left Deyi and returned to Taiwan to prepare for the establishment of TSMC, senior managers hoped to hire technical personnel from the mainland to train them. It was hoped that it would be helpful to the electronics industry in the mainland and would also facilitate the establishment of factories in the mainland in the future, but this time the idea was resolutely stopped by the Taiwan authorities, and a large number of Chinese engineers were later hired from Malaysia and other places. The treatment of these engineers in TSMC is not good, and this time it is mainly these engineers who plan to reverse TSMC with Liu Zhicheng; On the contrary, the fab in Singapore employs many engineers from the mainland. The real headache may still face a severe technological blockade, but this is the best time for the mainland to prepare for the construction of wafer factories -- the financial turmoil in Southeast Asia will spread further, which will also deal a further blow to the Asian electronics industry, prompting the entire industry to enter a trough in an all-round way, and the opening of the technological blockade may be loosened due to the deterioration of the economic situation, and there will be more room for negotiation on the price of imported technology and equipment......

"Of the funds needed," Ye Zhenmin glanced at Zhang Ke, "How many of your four billion are you going to take out?" ”

Zhang Ke said: "I have considered the issue of funds, the previous investors of this project have not completely given up, and they can raise 100 million US dollars from the original investors, and we can almost come up with 300 million US dollars and work hard to pull another 100 million or 200 million from Hong Kong or the mainland; If there is $500 million or 600 million to make the bottom line, and then $5 or 600 million is raised from financial institutions, the problem of funds should not be the most difficult ......"

Zhang Ke considered that after the second wave of financial turmoil blew the economy of country H, he would withdraw the 1 billion yuan he had invested from the hedge fund, and this part of the funds was innocent, and Zhang Ke would be able to make up 300 million US dollars by taking out 14 billion yuan from Kumho's account, and it would not affect Kumho's capital flow at this stage.

"Although there is a shortage of funds everywhere in China, if you can really get this project back to China, I think Premier Zhao Jidong will personally come forward to help you beg in major banks......" Ye Zhenmin saw that Zhang Ke was sure that they would solve five or six billion US dollars in funds, and the rest would be easy to solve, and he even thought that as long as there were three or four hundred million US dollars in start-up capital, it would be enough, and the country was too eager to make a breakthrough in this. Liu Zhicheng and a group of engineers mainly from Southeast Asia are in a dilemma, which can solve the difficulties of the technical team, saying, "It seems that the manufacturing technology and equipment introduction are a difficult bone to gnaw?" ”

"It's hard to bite, but you have to try it to know ......" Zhang Ke thought to himself, at least the Singapore government would not deliberately make it difficult to create additional obstacles, and Deyi could only consider introducing second- and third-rate technologies that had entered the phase-out period.

At three o'clock in the morning, leaving Ye Zhenmin's temporary apartment in the western district of Hong Kong Island, the rain had not stopped at night.

The sound of the car driving is very quiet, you can hear the sound of raindrops outside the window, Zhang Ke sat in the car, picked up the mobile phone, dialed Yao Wensheng's phone, although it was three o'clock in the morning, Zhang Ke looked for Yao Wensheng without scruples, although Yao Wensheng yawned on the other end of the phone and threatened Zhang Ke and said: "There is nothing important, you just wait to go back to Jianye to look good!" Zhang Ke smiled and said, "I really want to remind you to get up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet...... "Some things, Kumho came forward to promote, like a praying mantis cart, thin arms and legs are pushed off, and it may not be able to push this project forward." Jianye City's new high-tech industry strategy, named "Digital Corridor Concept", lacks a truly impactful mega project in addition to the Oak Park plan. As long as this fab project can be located in Jianye, the development pattern of Jianye City's electronics industry can replicate the successful model of the rise of Taiwan's electronics industry by relying on the large market of 1.3 billion people in the mainland, and the concept of Jianye City's digital corridor is a core component of Donghai Province's new high-tech strategy.

I discussed with Ye Zhenmin that few people will be stingy in contributing to this project, and the key is the question of which party will take the lead. Although Zhang Ke is a very protective person, he also knows that in terms of balance in all aspects, this project is more suitable to fall within the digital corridor of Jianye.

The matter reported to Wang Weijun and Luo Jun, Zhang Ke naturally handed it over to Yao Wensheng to do, Yao Wensheng had been working in the Telecommunications Administration Department of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications before, and the significance of the wafer factory could not be clearer, Zhang Ke was still a little worried, and specially instructed Zhao Peng, who stayed in Jianye to be specifically responsible for the preliminary preparations of the Oak Park project, to cooperate with Yao Wensheng.

Back at Yingwan Park, Zhang Ke went back to his room and took a shower and fell asleep, and didn't wake up until ten o'clock in the morning. Zhao Peng had called before, they were going through the formalities, and they would fly to Shenzhen first, and strive to rush to Hong Kong before dark. Special affairs, the border crossing procedures can indeed be completed within one day.

Sun Shangyi, Chen Xinsheng, Jiang Wei and others have already had in-depth contact with Liu Zhicheng, clearly proposing that the project should be placed in the mainland, and also hope to have further contact with other interested investors in the project.

Liu did not consider the possibility of moving the project to the mainland: after all, the project was designed to be tailored for Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor; In addition to himself, most of the current investors are Malaysian Chinese businessmen - although most of the investors have withdrawn, those who remain are mainly Malaysian Chinese businessmen; The project is also due to the focus of the Malaysian government, and it has successfully reached the cooperation intention of some manufacturing technology transfer with Singapore.

If the decision is made to move the project to the mainland, Malaysian Chinese investors who have insisted on not quitting until now may completely give up their interest in the project, and the cooperation intentions reached with Singapore will also be nullified.

Liu Zhicheng saw that Zhang Ke himself did not come forward, although he was very puzzled, but since Chen Xinsheng and Sun Shangyi both admitted that he was the last person to make the decision, there was no need to doubt his identity, and said to Sun Shangyi and Chen Xinsheng: "It seems that the conditions are more suitable to invest in building a factory in Kuala Lumpur, Ke Shao has other things to do today?" ”

Chen Xinsheng is not sure whether Zhang Ke has woken up at this point in time, although in the hotel apartment on the same floor, he still called to ask if it is appropriate, the phone is connected, it is Fu Jun who answered the phone, and he clearly heard the sound of waves crashing on the shore, Chen Xinsheng looked at the bright sky outside the window, and could only say to Liu Zhicheng apologetically: "Ke Shao is indeed busy with other things at this time...... and said, "The project will be moved to China, which will add a lot of additional obstacles to the project due to some political factors, but the financial turmoil in Southeast Asia will spread further." To what extent will Southeast Asia's electronics industry decline, and how many years will it take for it to recover? These are unpredictable things, the mainland's closed financial system and sufficient foreign exchange reserves can ensure that it will not be directly affected by the financial crisis, and the mainland's market with a population of 1.3 billion is the real object to rely on......"

Today's sun is scorching, the girls are nested in the room, and Zhang Ke went to the beach alone to learn to surf.

At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, Yao Wensheng, Zhao Peng and Zhu Xiaojun crossed the border from Luohu, Shenzhen to Hong Kong.

After Yao Wensheng arrived in Hong Kong and met Zhang Ke, he contacted Wang Weijun, who told him on the phone that the extraordinary meeting of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee had just made a decision to make him the director of the Investment Promotion Bureau of the High-tech Zone.

The appointment will have to wait for Yao Wensheng to return to the mainland, but he can work directly in Hong Kong in the name of the director of the investment promotion bureau of the high-tech zone. Judging by the progress of the initial contacts, Wang Weijun will also rush to Hong Kong within two or three days, but it is a little more difficult for high-ranking officials such as Wang Weijun to go to Hong Kong.

The significance of the wafer fab project is very clear within the Jianye Municipal Party Committee.