It was still drizzling in the early morning. Zhang Ke, Ye Jianbin, Chen Xinsheng, and Sun Shangyi had just taken a bus to Ye Zhenmin's red brick villa in the West District of Hong Kong Island. The street lights emitted a dim halo in the drizzle, illuminating the slippery cement pavement.

"What's going on so late?" Ye Zhenmin only received a call from Zhang Ke before saying that there were more important things to report to him in person. After he came to Hong Kong, he would go to bed after two or three in the morning every day, so he asked Zhang Ke and the others to go directly to his temporary residence to discuss the matter.

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

The raindrops patted the glass of the study window, and Zhang Ke told the whole story.

The causes and consequences of the matter are not complicated. As early as the beginning of 1995, in order to accelerate the development of its domestic electronic information industry, the Malaysian government decided to replicate Taiwan's electronic industry development model in the multimedia super corridor in Kuala Lumpur.

The development of Taiwan's electronics industry is based on TSMC, and the Malaysian government has actively promoted the construction of a wafer fab in the multimedia super corridor.

The initially led investor was Guo Songyan, the chairman of the board of directors of Guo Group.

At the beginning of preparations in the second half of 1996, the Guo Group had a strong financial resources. The wealthy Chinese businessmen in Malaysia were well-known in the entire Chinese business district. The most important thing in investing in wafer fabs was not a huge investment of more than 10 or 2 billion US dollars, but a technical team with manufacturing technology, equipment acquisition and a stable and reliable technology.

From a realistic perspective, if you want to invest in building wafer factories in Malaysia, only from Singapore and Taiwan can you attract large numbers of mature technicians; Singapore is willing to transfer some of its wafer manufacturing technology, so Guo Songyan can only hope to obtain technicians from TSMC and SDAQ, two Taiwanese wafer factories.

It was probably at the beginning of the year that Liu Zhichengcai was approached by Guo Songyan and participated in Malaysia's wafer fab investment plan.

In order not to arouse the vigilance of TSMC and SDAQ, investors such as Guo Songyan and Liu Zhicheng have never disclosed their wafer fab investment plans in Malaysia.

After so many secrets, when they were preparing to formally register a company, a financial storm in Southeast Asia suddenly hit. A comprehensive economic crisis broke out in Malaysia only ten days after Thailand. The companies under the Guo Group were hit hard. At this time, it was too late to raise funds to save themselves. How could there be too much wealthy funds to invest in wafer fabs?

The financial crisis has only been 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 to a historical low in a month. At this time, continuing a billion-dollar investment in Malaysia’s multimedia super corridor seems no longer a wise move. Previous investors have withdrawn their investment intentions, which is naturally expected.

The economic situation has deteriorated. Malaysian financial institutions that originally promised to lend to this investment plan were also forced to shrink their monetary policy at this time. No one is willing to make any previous promises.

For the vast majority of investors, they just suspended an investment project that has not been fully launched.

Liu Zhicheng is not only one of the investors, but also directly participated in the construction process. In the past six months, he has done a lot of work and reached private agreements with some technicians whose employment contracts are about to expire. In the past six months, under the influence of Liu Zhicheng, more than 30 engineers have not renewed their contracts after the expiration of their employment contract with TSMC and have chosen to leave TSMC to Malaysia for the preliminary technical preparations for the construction of the wafer factory.

Other investors patted their butts and lost some initial investments that were not large at most, but Liu Zhicheng needed to be responsible for the group of engineers who had left TSMC.

No matter what, it is impossible for him to be concealed for long. His relationship with Chang Zhongmou has long been tense. Even if he continues to stay at TSMC, he and his engineers who are willing to leave TSMC will be completely trampled on them until they are completely replaced by others...

The best way for Liu Zhicheng and his engineers is to continue to implement the fab's investment plan; the important task of the fab's investment plan leader was transferred from Guo Songyan to Liu Zhicheng.

Since most of the previous investors withdrew their investment intentions, Liu Zhicheng had to 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. It seems that Hong Kong has not been directly impacted by the financial crisis in the past month.

In fact, Hong Kong has been under a lot of pressure. The Hang Seng Index has fallen by one-third in more than a month. It already means the arrival of a bear market. After a month of hard support, the real estate market cannot withstand the momentum. The trading volume of the early active real estate market has shrunk to the extreme recently. The avalanche of the real estate market and the economic recession in Hong Kong can be clearly predicted. The most fatal, the current mainstream view is that the financial storm will continue to spread further.

Until he met Zhang Ke and the others, Liu Zhicheng's trip did not go smoothly.

The dilemma that Liu Zhicheng suffered made him unable to fight for control of the project at all. When he met Sun Shangyi, he asked Sun Shangyi to recommend the people in Kumho, and he was anxious to seek medical treatment.

"Ah, that's it..." After hearing Zhang Ke explain the whole story clearly, Ye Zhenmin took a deep breath, thought for a moment, and looked at Zhang Ke, "Do you want to take this project back to the mainland?" There was some expectation in his eyes.

"I can't take this project back to China. How can I have the time to get so late and get busy?" There is no doubt about this. A simple wafer factory investment may not be able to make a smooth profit within a few years. Only by building it in the mainland and firmly controlling it in the palm of your hand can it be in line with the interests of Jinhu and the overall interests of the country. Zhang Ke smiled and said, "But it is too difficult. Maybe after a long time of struggle, I still find that I'm working hard."

"Tell me, how difficult it is in reality..." Ye Zhenmin sat in a corner of the desk with his chest in his chest. His posture was always casual. Although the media understood him as an overly pessimistic scholar-type official, he then made sharp criticisms of the economic systems of Southeast Asian countries a year ago, but accurately pointed out the profound incentives behind the sudden outbreak of this financial storm, which made him famous in the economics community.

"Are you a professional, please introduce the situation..." Zhang Ke kicked the ball to Chen Xinsheng.

"The first is the problem of capital. To build an eight-inch wafer factory, generally speaking, it is necessary to have an investment budget of US$12 to 1.5 billion to be enough... The second is the introduction of manufacturing technology and production equipment. The United States, Japan, Europe and other countries have blocked relevant 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. This is also the key reason why wafer factory investment is called "semi-inverted" - this "inverted" is the fallen down-..." Chen Xinsheng has a very thorough understanding of the depth of this pool of water, and many unknown secrets are also told in a leisurely manner. "As far as I know, when Zhang Zhongmou, Liu Zhicheng and other groups left Deyi and returned to Taiwan to build TSMC, senior management hoped to hire technicians from the mainland for training, in this way, it hoped to be helpful to the mainland's electronics industry, and also for

In the future, it will provide convenience for the construction of factories in the mainland, but this time the idea was firmly stopped by the Taiwanese authorities. Later, a large number of Chinese engineers were hired from Malaysia and other places. The treatment of these engineers at TSMC was not good. This time, the engineers planned to release TSMC with Liu Zhicheng, which was mainly the engineers; Singapore's fabs hired many mainland engineers. The real headache may still face severe technical blockades. However, this time is the best time for the mainland to prepare for the construction of fabs. The Southeast Asian financial crisis will further spread, which will also cause further blows to the Asian electronics industry, prompting the entire industry to enter a trough period. The gap in technology blockade may loosen the larger gap due to the deterioration of the economic situation, and there may be more room for negotiation for the price of introducing technology and equipment..."

"In the funds needed," Ye Zhenmin glanced at Zhang Ke, "How many of your 4 billion are you going to take out?"

Zhang Ke said: "I have considered the issue of funding. The investors before this project did not completely give up. They could raise 100 million US dollars from the original investors. We can take a short meal and almost take out 300 million US dollars. We work hard and pull another 100 million to Hong Kong or the mainland. With 500 million US dollars to the bottom, and then raise 500 million US dollars to the financial institutions. The problem of funding should not be the most difficult..."

Zhang Ke considered that after the second wave of financial storm destroyed the economy of H Country, he would withdraw the 1 billion he had invested from the hedge fund. This part of the funds was innocent. Zhang Ke took out 1.4 billion from the Kumho account and could raise 300 million US dollars, which would not affect the current capital flow in Kumho.

"Although there is a shortage of funds everywhere in China, if we can really take this project back to China, I think Prime Minister Zhao Jidong will personally come forward to help you beg for major banks..." Ye Zhenmin saw that Zhang Ke and the others were sure to solve the 500 million US dollars of funds, and the remaining part would be easy to solve. He even believed that as long as there were 300 million US dollars of start-up funds, it was enough. The country was too eager to make a breakthrough in this. Liu Zhicheng and a team of engineers mainly from Southeast Asian Chinese fell into a dilemma, which could solve the difficulties of the technical team. He said, "It seems that the only thing left is manufacturing technology and equipment introduction is a difficult bone to crack?"

"It's very difficult to chew, but you always have to try it out before you know..." Zhang Ke thought to himself that at least the Singapore government would not deliberately make things difficult for additional obstacles, and Deyi could only consider introducing second- and third-rate technologies that entered the elimination period.

At three o'clock in the morning, I left Ye Zhenmin's temporary apartment in the West Side of Hong Kong Island, and the rain did not stop at night.

The sound of the car driving was very quiet, and you could hear the sound of raindrops outside the car window. Zhang Ke sat in the car, picked up his cell phone, and called Yao Wensheng. Although it was three o'clock in the morning, Zhang Ke had no scruples when he found Yao Wensheng. Although Yao Wensheng yawned on the other end of the phone and threatened Zhang Ke, "There is nothing important, 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, Jinhu came forward to push, like a mantis pushing a cart, with thin arms and thin legs pushing

If you break it, you may not be able to push this project forward. In addition to the Oak Park plan, the new high-tech industry strategy named "Digital Gallery Concept" in Jianye City also lacks a truly impactful large project. As long as this fab project can be settled in Jianye, the development pattern of the electronics industry in Jianye City can replicate the successful model of Taiwan's electronics industry rise based on the large market of 1.3 billion people in the mainland. The digital corridor concept of Jianye City is a core part of the new high-tech strategy of Donghai Province.

I discussed with Ye Zhenmin that few people will be stingy in this project, and the key is which aspect is the problem. Although Zhang Ke is a very flawed person, he also knows that from the perspective of balance between various aspects, this project is more suitable for landing in the digital corridor of Jianye.

Zhang Ke naturally gave Yao Wensheng what he reported to Wang Weijun and Luo Jun. Yao Wensheng had been working in the Department of Telecommunications and Communications Affairs of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. He was very clear about the significance of the wafer factory, but Zhang Ke was still a little worried. He even ordered Zhao Peng, who stayed in Jianye to be responsible for the preliminary preparations of the Oak Park plan, to cooperate with Yao Wensheng.

Back at Yingwan Park, Zhang Ke returned to his room and took a shower and fell asleep. He didn't wake up until ten o'clock in the morning. Before, Zhao Peng called and they were going through the procedures and would fly to Shenzhen first to rush to Hong Kong before dark. Special matters were handled, and the transit procedures could be completed within one day.

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

Liu Zhicheng did not consider the possibility of moving the project to the mainland before: after all, the project was designed at the beginning to be tailor-made for the Malaysian multimedia super corridor; in addition to himself, most of the current investors are Malaysian Chinese businessmen. Although most of the investors withdraw, the remaining ones are still Malaysian Chinese businessmen. The project was also because it received the focus of the Malaysian government, and successfully achieved the cooperation intention of some manufacturing technology transfer with Singapore.

The decision-making project will be moved to the mainland. Malaysian Chinese business investors who have insisted on it and have not withdrawn yet may completely give up their interest in the project, and all the cooperation intentions reached with Singapore will be invalidated.

Liu Zhizheng saw that Zhang Ke himself did not come forward. Although he was very confused, since Chen Xinsheng and Sun Shangyi admitted that he was the last person to make the decision, there was no need to doubt his identity. He said to Sun Shangyi and Chen Xinsheng: "It seems that the conditions are more suitable to invest in and build a factory in Kuala Lumpur. What else does Ke Shao have to do today?"

Chen Xinsheng was not sure whether Zhang Ke had woken up at this time. Although he was in a hotel apartment on the same floor, he still called to ask if it was appropriate. The phone was answered. Fu Jun answered the phone and clearly heard the sound of waves slamming the shore. Chen Xinsheng looked at the bright sky outside the window and could only say to Liu Zhicheng sorry: "Sir Ke was indeed busy with other things at this time..." He also said, "The moving project to China will add a lot of additional obstacles to the project due to some political factors, but the Southeast Asian financial storm will further spread. How much will the electronic industry in Southeast Asia decline? How many years will it take to recover? These are unpredictable things. The closed financial system and sufficient foreign exchange reserves in the mainland can ensure that they will not be directly impacted by the financial crisis. The market of the mainland's population of 1.3 billion is the real object of dependence..."

Today, the sun is so fierce that the girls are all lying in the room, and Zhang Ke goes to the beach alone to learn surfing.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, Yao Wensheng, Zhao Peng and Zhu Xiaojun took a bus from Luohu, Shenzhen to Hong Kong. Yao Wensheng came to contact Liu Zhicheng on behalf of the Jianye Municipal Government, indicating that the mainland government would come forward to help solve some additional obstacles added to the project by political factors.

After Yao Wensheng met Zhang Ke in Hong Kong, he contacted Wang Weijun. Wang Weijun told him on the phone that the extraordinary meeting of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee had just made a decision to serve as director of the Investment Promotion Bureau of the High-tech Zone. His administrative level was still at the level of a department, but his position was actually a step forward from deputy director to director.

The appointment will have to wait until Yao Wensheng returns to the mainland before he goes 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 from the progress of the preliminary contact, Wang Weijun will also rush to Hong Kong within two or three days. On the contrary, it is a bit more difficult for officials of high-level positions to go to Hong Kong to handle the procedures for special matters.

The significance of the wafer fab project is very clear within the Jianye Municipal Committee.
Chapter completed!