Chapter 16 Chapter 2 Embracing the Moon. Opening the Way

Winter of 1988.Dongguan. On this day, Zheng Jintao, the mayor of Dongguan City, woke up very early.Yesterday before get off work, the province suddenly called. It was the secretary of Governor Liang Lingguang who called in a very urgent tone and asked him to come to Guangzhou as soon as possible. The governor asked him for something very important! The weather outside was cloudy. On the way to Guangzhou, Zheng Jintao sat in the car with a heavy heart.He vaguely felt that the governor summoned him to talk this time, for nothing but one thing: ask the teacher to punish him!Not long ago, Governor Liang just had a talk with him, because someone in Dongguan wrote a letter of complaint to the central government, suing the Dongguan Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government for illegal fund-raising. The commotion of this action is really too big.

Zheng Jintao's premonition was right.As soon as he stepped into the governor's office, Liang Lingguang immediately asked, "Old Zheng, what did you do? Why did the masses write letters to it again..." It all started with the promotion of Dongguan to a prefecture-level city at the beginning of the year. On January 7, 1988, an official document from the State Council turned Dongguan into a prefecture-level city. Immersed in the sound of drums celebrating the promotion of Dongguan as a prefecture-level city, the people of Dongguan suddenly had a dream that they had never had before: since Dongguan has become a real prefecture-level city, how can a city be a city? With the current layout and appearance of this small county, we should have a higher goal, and we should urbanize it on the spot and turn it into a real city.

At this time, the people of Dongguan are seeking change, but they don't know how to change it. They are full of energy, and they don't know where to make it.As a result, all the people in Dongguan who were gearing up for the fight fell into a kind of bewilderment while being joyful and looking forward to it. There is one person who is not at a loss.This person was Ouyang De who returned to Dongguan a month later to serve as the secretary of the municipal party committee. Ouyang De previously served as a commissioner of the administrative office in Huiyang area. From 1975 to 1981, he served as the secretary of the county party committee in Dongguan. He had been working in Dongguan before. He was a native of Dongguan. .

How to make Dongguan's development leap to a new level, the new leadership team agreed that the first step is to conduct in-depth research and ask the people for advice.Therefore, the Dongguan Municipal Party Committee Secretary, Mayor, Deputy Secretary, Deputy Mayor and other leaders each led a group of people to the grassroots to collect opinions extensively, find out the current development situation of Dongguan, grasp and understand the current difficulties in Dongguan and the constraints on the development of Dongguan the bottleneck. After one or two months of research, people from all walks of life returned to Dongguan to gather their opinions.Several seminars have been held with great enthusiasm.First of all, everyone reached a consensus that to accelerate development as soon as possible, to develop industry must be developed, no work is not rich, and foreign capital must be introduced to develop industry.With this kind of consensus, everyone began to speak freely on issues such as how to introduce more and faster foreign capital and discuss reforms freely.

The major problems that need to be solved urgently are roads, electricity, water, communications, etc. Let me talk about the difficulty of electricity first.The lack of electricity was a recurring complaint of all the town clerks.In fact, the difficulty in this area is not only the lack of electricity, but the power distribution facilities are also quite backward. Due to the pitiful lack of substations, the power grid leading to the towns in Dongguan is completely disorganized.To put it bluntly, even if Dongguan has electricity, it cannot be delivered, let alone Dongguan without electricity.How can we lack electricity to accelerate development?The electricity problem must be solved!

Then there is the issue of water.At that time, there were only two waterworks in the urban area of ​​Dongguan, and the combined water supply was at most 10,000 tons a day.In order to develop industry as soon as possible, there is no doubt that the water problem is also a big problem. Once the crux of the problem has been found, the next step is to prescribe the right medicine, that is, to come up with a planning plan. The planning plan is handed over to the corresponding departments for implementation, the electricity problem is planned by the power supply bureau, the talent problem is planned by the personnel bureau, and so on.As a result, various departments immediately worked overtime to study and discuss seriously.

Unexpectedly, after the plan was presented, it was rejected by Ouyang De in his hands.The reason is that the field of vision is not enough, the vision is short-sighted, and we have to re-plan. Take water for example. At that time, the plan submitted by Dongguan Water Supply Bureau was to increase the daily water production to 30,000 to 50,000 tons.Ouyang De said no, it should be 200,000 tons; the same is true for electricity, everyone's initial proposal is very conservative.Ouyang De swiped his pen on the drawings, saying that he would build two large power plants, a large number of substations, and a large substation of 220,000 kilowatts!

It is not difficult to see that the first secretary of the municipal party committee of Dongguan prefecture-level city was a bold reformer who adopted the development method of large-scale planning and large-scale construction.Ouyang De threw off his arms and fucked it! A common characteristic of reformers is that they are ahead of their time.Facts have proved that it is precisely this point that brought Dongguan to where it is today, and it is also precisely this point that leads to the opening plot of this chapter, which makes the author describe the crucial road construction process in Dongguan. Don't worry about readability for lack of conflicts.

The cause of the conflict is not hard to imagine: a question of money. The electricity problem is easy to handle.Through hard work, the Provincial Electric Power Bureau has given great support to Dongguan. It has not only invested in and transformed the substation project, but also done a lot of work to connect it to the power grid. After all, Dongguan consumes a lot of electricity, which is equivalent to Zhongshan, Foshan, and Nanhai. The total electricity consumption of the place.The water problem is also easy to solve. You can borrow money from the bank to build a reservoir, and then repay the loan in the form of collecting water fees. Besides, the investment of 220,000 tons of water was only more than 100 million at that time.The communication problem also had to be raised to a higher level. At that time, the entire communication project transformation required 1.5 billion, but because of the bank loan, this problem was not too difficult.

The difficulty lies in the road. As we all know, the biggest development bottleneck in Dongguan is the road. Although some muddy trails were paved with a layer of asphalt in the early and mid-1980s, the carrying capacity of that road was really limited. With the advancement of rural industrialization, many processing factories for incoming materials have also entered the countryside along those narrow and simple roads. After several years of development, problems have followed. The most annoying problem is that many container trucks have to go back and forth. When entering and leaving Dongguan, those drivers shook their heads and sighed when they talked about the roads in Dongguan: the roads in Dongguan are really difficult.At that time, there was a saying among Hong Kong container truck drivers: Don't be afraid of Dongguan guys, but most afraid of Dongguan road.

The foundation of these microcirculation laid by Dongguan back then is really too weak! The problem of the road is obvious, and it must be a stumbling block on the development of Dongguan. At first, the Highway Bureau proposed to widen the original road.But Ouyang De shook his hand, no, 4 main roads should be built, and the roads should be straightened and leveled, the standards should be raised, and it should be turned into a national first-class road!13 networked highways will be built in Dongguan! Such a big move is clearly a great leap forward! Some people muttered in their hearts, good things are good things, but how can things be so easy? Things are indeed not easy, because the investment of 4 trunk roads and 13 networked roads requires nearly 2 billion yuan. 2 billion!Astronomical figures! Wishes are beautiful, but reality is cruel.Dongguan's finances are only tens of millions. Let tens of millions become 2 billion?how to change?These cadres in Dongguan all looked at the secretary blankly. Ouyang De said: It's all about human effort! With the secretary's words, everyone began to use their brains fully. After a heated discussion, they agreed that the best solution was to go to the bank for a loan.However, this plan was quickly overturned, because everyone went to the bank, and all the banks spread their hands helplessly. There are policies on them, and we cannot lend you money.Next, everyone started a heated discussion, and the result of the discussion was to find a foreign business joint venture, so everyone split up and lobbied foreign businessmen through various relationships.But foreign businessmen are not as enthusiastic and motivated as they are.During the discussion again, everyone finally came up with some countermeasures. It was the same as the way of road construction before, using local methods: cement from the city, labor from the town, and land... But it still doesn't work, the money is far from it! On this day, the atmosphere in the conference room of the Dongguan Municipal Party Committee Building was abnormal.As soon as Ouyang De came up, he said: "Comrades, time does not wait for us. The key is that we must have the determination to change before we can change our actions. If you stick to the handicapped, you will not be able to live like a human being." Speaking of this, he glanced at everyone present. A person, with a majesty in his eyes, paused for a moment, and he threw out a concept that shocked everyone present: the city's finances would be used as a guarantee, and 1 billion yuan would be raised by means of private fundraising. Repay the loan in the form of tolls! Borrowing money from businesses and ordinary people?This action is too big!Immediately, the team of the Dongguan Municipal Party Committee formed two opinions. Needless to say, those who agreed, those who opposed mainly focused on risks. In fact, the leaders in Dongguan are not timid and conservative. When they first heard about this plan, they were also moved because after more than a month of research and investigation at the grassroots level, they have also witnessed the predicament of Dongguan and are aware of the problems. The crux of the problem, but also hope to find a good way to get rich quickly.However, this ingenious fundraising plan is too outrageous, it is not an ordinary risk! First of all, the whole country is engaged in macro-control and does not advocate large-scale infrastructure construction. In this general climate, isn't our doing so contrary to national policy?The key is that after the macroeconomic regulation and control, foreign businessmen have become cautious about investing in China, and many foreign businessmen have begun to withdraw their investment.Under such circumstances, how can you guarantee that foreign businessmen will come in in the future? Not only is it risky, but it is also difficult to implement. The work of ordinary people is definitely not easy to do!This kind of worry is not unfounded: a few years ago, some state-owned enterprises in Dongguan, such as nitrogen fertilizer factories, raised funds and started to promise hype. .The common people complained a lot about this matter, and even came to the city to petition, but the money has not been repaid up to now, and now they are asking them to raise funds, will they still pay? All in all, it is not the right time, and the road of raising funds to build infrastructure does not look promising, so why not wait? ! If this matter is placed on the heads of ordinary people, they will sigh a few times, and it will not be too late to wait.But Ouyang De is not an ordinary person, and he will never retreat easily when he is sure of something. He immediately stated that he can't wait, this project must be approved, and this fund must be raised! Immediately afterwards, when further refining the specific operation plan, Ouyang De proposed an even more astonishing idea: all vehicles in Dongguan, including motorcycles, must pay a toll.The reason is "Your vehicles have to go on these roads. Since you have to pass by, you have to pay the toll, but now I have collected your toll in advance at one time." There are also head fees, such as corporate fees. Migrant workers charge each of them 100 yuan, and ask for the money from the boss of the enterprise; those who have regular jobs borrow a month's salary from each of them... Everyone felt that Ouyang De's move was a desperate fight. After the fund-raising plan was launched to the public, the strong response it caused was not beyond people's expectations.Ouyang De immediately fell into the siege of common people's verbal criticism.Car owners scolded their fathers and mothers, bosses were full of complaints, and ordinary people were even more disobedient.The teachers of a school were angry when they saw that they had been borrowed a month’s salary for no reason because the operator did not explain the reason. A letter of exposure was reported to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress... At this time, Ouyang De walked through people's incomprehension and abuse, and was swallowed by huge waves one after another, struggling to move forward, and he was under tremendous pressure in his heart.In any case, however, he had to move the matter forward.Everything is difficult at the beginning, so Ouyang De started by mobilizing the staff of the agency. He asked everyone to "take the lead in paying, and pay as much as you have". In order to attract more people to invest in shares, the municipal party committee offered a favorable condition that was twice as high as the bank interest rate, 14%.Ouyang De said: "We also want to do something good for the people of Dongguan. The interest rate will be higher, so as to benefit the masses. In addition, we have repaired the infrastructure by raising funds. Isn't it killing two birds with one stone?" The enthusiasm of the common people caused dissatisfaction on the bank front, because this fund-raising affected their deposit business, so the leaders of the five banks in Dongguan united in private and prepared to file a complaint letter.When Ouyang De heard about it, he quickly called a meeting with them and patiently explained to them: "Dongguan's deposits have increased by 10 billion yuan, and our fundraising is only 1 billion yuan. This will not affect your deposits at all..." Ouyang De said well Reasonable and well-founded, after listening to several leaders, their thoughts became much clearer.Forget it, don't sue. Just as the fund-raising turmoil reached the central government and hadn't completely subsided, another troublesome incident appeared. This trouble has to do with the first road that has just started being built. The first road is called Guanchang Road, starting from Guancheng and ending at Chang'an Town, passing through Dalingshan Town. It stands to reason that this road seems to be no problem to outsiders, but after a little inquiry, problems arise, because Dalingshan Town is Ouyang De's hometown.Ever since, the words of Ouyang De's "praying for personal gain and using power for personal gain" have been widely spread.The common people already had a lot of resentment about the fund-raising. It turns out that the big leaders in the city are contributing to their hometown. Can this not make people angry?The angry common people responded in unison: Sue him!So there is also the scene at the beginning of this chapter where Mayor Zheng Jintao is called by Governor Liang Lingguang for questioning. That day, in Liang Lingguang's office, Zheng Jintao reported the ins and outs of the matter to the governor: "Governor, in fact, we did not plan to build Guanchang Road first, but also wanted to build the 107 National Highway first." Road. But then we found a problem. You see, this is National Highway 107. If this road is built first, the traffic on this road will definitely be affected when the road is built, but this road is very important to us , Guancheng, Houjie, Humen, and Chang'an all go to Shenzhen through this road. It is the only road, and these places have the most cars going to Shenzhen. When there are more cars, we will repair the road. Then, this road It is easy to be blocked, so foreign trucks will be in trouble, the problem will be serious, and it will definitely affect production. So we thought, we should first repair Guanchang Road..." Meanwhile, Liang Lingguang listened attentively.After listening to Zheng Jintao's report, he nodded and said, "I understand. It's okay for you to do so." Back in Dongguan, Zheng Jintao immediately organized a meeting of all cadres, and explained the reasons for building the road in detail, so that the grassroots cadres could explain the matter to the masses one by one, so as to eliminate misunderstandings. "After the road was opened, we found out that the city's approach is completely correct. From Dongguan to Guangzhou, starting from Guanchang Road is 13.5 kilometers shorter than going around to Humen Chang'an. In the long run, how much fuel can be saved and how much can be saved? Time." An old man from Dongguan told the author. After all the turmoil and dust settled, the first massive infrastructure construction battle began after Dongguan was promoted to a prefecture-level city. Road construction began in early 1989, and it was not until 1994 that all 4 main roads and 13 networked highways were fully connected.Don't underestimate these roads, they are the major arteries of Dongguan's traffic, and they have also brought Dongguan's urban construction to a higher level.Therefore, many people say that the official completion of the road network in Dongguan will start from the completion of the four main roads. In 1995, the road density in Dongguan reached 92.9 kilometers per 100 square kilometers, while the national average road density was only 11.6 kilometers per 100 square kilometers, and Dongguan’s road construction took the lead in the country. 1992 was an unforgettable year for the reform and opening up of China.At the beginning of this year, Comrade Deng Xiaoping visited Hubei, Guangdong, and Shanghai and delivered a series of speeches. Try, go boldly..." Comrade Xiaoping's "Southern Tour Speech" was like a warm current, warming the land of Dongguan at once, and also made foreign businessmen who were holding a wait-and-see attitude take immediate action. At this time, the people of Dongguan discovered that this maverick in Dongguan really took advantage of it. Under the background of governance and rectification at that time, infrastructure construction across the country was in a state of delay, so the price of cement and steel at that time dropped sharply. Not only did he pick up a cheap one with a low cost, the cost of a kilometer of road was only about 4 million yuan, but he also saved some of his own cement plants. When he saw the triumphant song of the infrastructure construction in Dongguan, cities such as Zhongshan and Nanhai came over. At a glance, they lamented that "Dongguan is leading the way". When they went back to follow up, the cost had doubled at this time, and 8 million yuan could not afford to build a kilometer. Not only that, Dongguan at this time has seized the opportunity and has become the first choice for foreign businessmen who have come in one after another.Under such a clear and gratifying situation, the effect of the phrase "big roads are rich, small roads are small, and no roads are rich" has also become immediate in Dongguan. In just two or three years, a dragon in Dongguan jumped to the top of the "Four Little Tigers". This leap is beautiful and wonderful, and it has jumped out of another splendor in the history of Dongguan's reform and opening up! When the round of infrastructure construction in Dongguan had almost come to an end, the people of Dongguan suddenly discovered that there were more and more Taiwanese around them. In fact, Dongguan, which has just been promoted to a prefecture-level city, has also entered a vigorous new stage of attracting investment from all citizens while overhauling roads.Going through the needles, using the township to lead the township, gradually, the Hong Kong people also introduced the Taiwanese. Merchants have been upgraded! Nearly 20 years later, the number of Taiwanese businessmen and their families in Dongguan has exceeded 100,000, making Dongguan one of the cities with the highest concentration of Taiwanese businessmen in the country.By the end of 2007, Dongguan had introduced more than 6,000 Taiwan-funded enterprises, accounting for one-third of the province and one-tenth of the country's total, and Taiwan-funded enterprises accounted for 40% of the total number of foreign-funded enterprises in the city; billion US dollars, accounting for one-third of the city's actual utilization of foreign capital; the import and export volume of Taiwan-funded enterprises accounted for 40% of the city's total foreign capital import and export; half of the city's IT companies are Taiwan-funded IT companies. When it comes to Dongguan's later dominant industry: the electronic information industry, we must mention Shijie. In the early years, Shijie was known to the world because it was the hometown of Yuan Chonghuan, a national hero in the late Ming Dynasty.What is remarkable about this simple and unsophisticated land of fish and rice is that it has rapidly grown into one of the international production bases of IT products in more than ten years.In this area of ​​less than 36 square kilometers, 450 electronic companies and 18 well-known multinational listed companies have gathered. What kind of "magnetic field effect" does the small Shijie Town have to form such a huge electronics industry phalanx?It's amazing! Speaking of it, at the beginning of the reform and opening up, the start of Shijie Town was full of difficulties, and the difficulty was that there was no road.Back then, Shijie and Guancheng were separated by the Dongjiang River, which made Shijie Town look like an isolated island from a distance, and you had to cross the river first.This small island surrounded by the waters of the Dongjiang River used to be excellent in agriculture. In 1978, it was rated as an advanced unit of the national agricultural system by the Ministry of Agriculture.It was really difficult for Shijie to attract investment back then!Leader Shijie often ran to the Shenzhen port, where he was eager to see through, hoping to win the God of Wealth, and later he did.Gradually, Shijie's investment attraction has finally improved, but compared with other developed towns, it is still far behind. The year 1989 is of special significance to Shijie Town.It was this year that Shijie Town opened the prelude to becoming an IT center. This prelude was opened by a young man from Taiwan. This Taiwanese is Ye Hongdeng, who graduated from the Economics Department of Soochow University in Taiwan.At that time, his business in Taiwan was under the pressure of high costs, forcing him to come to the mainland to look for development opportunities. In April 1989, he came to the mainland and went to Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dalian, Suzhou and other places. On this day, under the introduction of a Hong Kong person, he came to Shijie in Dongguan again. In the beginning, it was Liu Fazhi, then mayor of Shijie Town, who received Ye Hongdeng.After nearly 20 years, Liu Fazhi, who is now the vice chairman of the Dongguan Municipal People's Political Consultative Conference, still remembers the scene vividly. He recalled to the author: "It was true that our environment was not very good at that time, but we told him a lot about our The planning and vision for the future also let him understand our government team. He came in April 1989, and he came to negotiate again in September. We are together, so we adopted a joint venture. We are responsible for building the factory and renting it out to them. At the same time, we also paid 1.5 million yuan, and he will solve the other working capital. After everything is negotiated, construction will start immediately, and production will begin in October. At that time, the monthly production volume he arranged was completed in 20 days, he was very happy, and immediately increased personnel and production funds." The government of Shijie town did its best to help Ye Hongdeng start his business, which moved Ye Hongdeng deeply.After getting along for a while, Ye Hongdeng formed a deep friendship with the town leaders, and gradually regarded himself as a Dongguan native, and in turn helped them introduce companies.When it's free, everyone chats together. Through chatting with Ye Hongdeng, the town leaders gradually became aware of a phenomenon: many enterprises in Taiwan are facing the possibility of relocation due to the pressure of rising costs.It is said that many companies have placed hundreds of thousands of job advertisements, but they can't recruit a few employees... That night, Ye Bingji, Secretary of the Shijie Town Party Committee, Liu Fazhi, Mayor of Shijie, and Ye Hongdeng chatted again. "Mr. Ye, you said that your business in Taiwan is not easy to do, and the cost has increased. They are planning to move out now, aren't they?" Liu Fazhi asked. Ye Hongdeng replied: "Yes, Taiwan's currency has appreciated sharply in the international market, which is a very bad thing for export manufacturers. The cost has increased, and they are trapped in a small island. The market space must be greatly limited, so they are having a hard time now, and they are all considering moving out. I heard that some of them have already moved to Southeast Asia.” "Then do you know how well they set up factories in Southeast Asia?" "I've heard they're not doing well in Southeast Asia. So I'm right to come to you." When Ye Bingji and Liu Fazhi heard this, they looked at each other and smiled, their eyes sparkling.Ye Bingji asked: "Boss Ye, tell me, does Shijie have the opportunity to recruit them all to set up factories here?" "I've been thinking about it recently. I think we have a very good side here, mainly because the labor cost in mainland China is low, and the workers here are hardworking, hardworking, with high comprehension ability and dexterous hands, which are very suitable for processing and manufacturing In addition, we are of the same origin, so it is easy to communicate and integrate. So I also think, in fact, this should be the best base for their development..." That night, the more they talked, the more speculative and excited they got. The next day, Ye Bingji and Liu Fazhi shared this idea at the meeting, and everyone immediately became excited. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!We must seize this opportunity without losing the opportunity to attract Taiwanese enterprises to Shijie!Immediately afterwards, Shijie's leaders held several meetings to study and discuss, and determined Shijie's general idea of ​​focusing on developing Taiwanese businessmen.The idea is clear, the goal is locked, and then everyone will split up and act immediately, mobilize all forces, and focus on attracting Taiwanese businessmen through various relationships. The people in Shijie feel lucky that when those Taiwanese first came in, they all carried out tentative development by renting factories for production.After a few years, after the return on investment, almost all manufacturers began to expand production again.By the end of the 1990s, joint ventures had become the leading force in industrial transfer, and the industrial division of labor between the two sides of the strait had become an important part of my country's industrial division of labor system, and this division of labor gradually developed from a division of labor in the production stage to a functional division of labor.By 2002, 14 of the 20 most profitable listed electronics companies in Taiwan had set up factories in the mainland, and the profits of the factories in the mainland became the biggest profit growth point for their Taiwan parent companies.So far, in the transfer of the first generation of Taiwan Electronics, Shijie has become the most important place to undertake in the Pearl River Delta. What makes Shijie people even more fortunate is that after the new millennium, a new phenomenon began to appear in Taiwan-funded enterprises that increased capital and expanded production in Shijie, that is, some large manufacturers gradually moved their product R&D centers to Shijie.This not only marks the beginning of the transformation of the electronic information industry in Shijie Town from pure processing and manufacturing to creative production, but also marks that these enterprises will be truly retained.