With the foreign capitals continuing to flee, if they could attract investment from the neighboring Future Group, it was a tempting choice for Malaysia looking to revitalize the economy. With Future Group’s speed of expansion, there was no one that even remotely matched them.
In order to hop on the rocket rapidly accelerating, Malaysia sent out a delegation for the third time.
This time it was a parliament member with a renowned reputation and also was acting as the economic development consultant of Papua Province. While his rank may not be higher compared to the previous times, the visitor possessed a background from both the Malaysian government and the local government. That meant, he brought enough chips with him to the table.
Also, his name is Yu Weida, a Han.
Han faces are no uncommon in Malaysia, but definitely as rare as the giant panda in Malaysian politics.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Jiang Chen, I have long heard your name.”
When they met, Yu Weida in a suit sincerely extended his hand and greeted Jiang Chen. After some small talk, Jiang Chen invited the parliament member to sit down. The concierge staffed poured tea for them.
Following the basic procedure of foreign delegation, he already shook hands at the Presidential Place with the President of Xin, but in front of Jiang Chen, his attitude and actions seemed reserved. Clearly, he did his homework before he came and knew that the person in front of him was the actual owner of Xin.
“I trust that Mr. Jiang Chen already knows the purpose of my trip. The last time, our ministers already expressed our welcome to your investment in Malaysia.” Yu Weida paused and looked at Jiang Chen. Then lowering his eyes, he said sincerely, “what’s your party’s consideration?”
“To be honest, I’m still considering. ” Jiang Chen took a sip of the water, smiled, and said in an unrushed tone.
Yu Weida was not defeated by the response and started to joke with Jiang Chen, “The old saying is that, visiting the straw hut three times show one’s sincerity. (A reference to Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei) Now that we have already been here three times, Mr. Jiang won’t let us leave empty-handed right.”
“That might not be the case.”
“Future Group’s operation in New Guinea is fine. The local government and the central government both are ‘extra protective’ of their assets. The port government was recently discussing if they will permit Celestial Trade’s Marine Corps to establish an ’employment hiring base’. If permitted, Celestial Trade will be able to acquire sufficient soldiers in New Guinea. The desire to immigrate to Xin will motivate a lot of New Guineans to apply. Since this is the only way for the islanders without a high education background to immigrate to Coro Island with a higher and higher barrier to enlist.”
Jiang Chen looked at Yu Weida dubiously, “Looks like Mr. Yu knows the Hua culture very well.”
“Of course, my ancestor is a Han merchant and settled in Kuala Lumpur during the Republic Era before moving to Papua Province.” Yu Weida explained.
“Then you should know that Lu Bei promised Zhuge Liang to be the state secretary,” Jiang Chen paused, leaned slightly forward, and smiled at him, “then, what can you give me?”
“Mr. Jiang, not everything has to be based on gains.” Yu Weida opened his hands, “at the very least I’m representing a country. We invited you three times, even for Apple, we weren’t this sincere.”
“What was the GDP of Malaysia last year?”
“312.7 billion US dollars,” Yu Weida answered quickly.
“Future Group’s market cap is 500 billion, and this is a conservative estimate from Wall Street.” If Jiang Chen gave an estimate, the number would have to at least double.
“This way of saying it is too out…” Yu Weida adjusted the diction in his mind before he forced a smile, “this is without reason.”
“It’s not about having a reason or not,” Jiang Chen waved his hand in disagreement, sat up straight, and looked at the Malaysia parliament member in front of him. “I’m a businessman, my decision to invest is based on what you can provide me.”
“We have the third largest labor market in the world with a strong economic foundation. At present, ASEAN is the third power in Asia, and Malaysia is undoubtedly the leader in ASEAN. If you can come to invest here, we are willing to provide you with a series of benefits such as loans, land, recruitment and so on… ”
“But your labor cost is higher than them.” Jiang Chen smiled, “take the steel plant for example, including overtime, the workers at New Guinea only needs to be paid 750 US dollars per month, but your basic wage without overtime will be more than 800 uS dollars.”
“It is unfair to purely discuss cost. Our country’s education level is higher than them,” Yu Weida explained.
But Jiang Chen was clearly not having any of this.
“Do you need higher education to learn how to operate a boiler? You just need to know how to read.” Jiang Chen then continued, “especially since we’ll be sending technical experts to be stationed in each steel plants. As long as we have good production procedures, even if the workers have a low education level, our group can still accept this.”
Yu Weida gritted his teeth. He knew that if he didn’t bring out any attractive proposal, this negotiation would be without fruition. Although before he came, the parliament and local government already gave them their bottom lines, but bringing out the chips this early was not helpful in haggling the price.
“One year, tax-free!”
“New Guinea gave us three years.”
“Then we’ll do three years!” Yu Weida thought about the ore agreement with BHP, he continued, “Also, limited to just the ports of Papua Province, we’ll exclude the income tariff on iron, aluminum, nickel, and cooper; as long as the total investment in Malaysia exceeds 2 billion US dollars.”
Jiang Chen was moved.
They eliminated the import tariff! In this case, it would save Future Group at least 200 million USD in expenses! Currently, Future Group’s massive expansion projects did put a strain on its cash flow. If he could save this expense, he could distribute the budget to the projects burning more money.
But just the elimination of the ore import tariff was not enough to convince Jiang Chen, unless they could add more benefits…
“You almost convinced me.”
“Can I know where I’m lacking?”
Seeing how big Jiang Chen’s appetite was, Yu Weida was growing more displeased.
He already offered all the benefits he could on the table, if Future Group is still raising the price without agreeing, he didn’t plan to discuss further.
“I admit that your offer is generous and attractive, but,” Jiang Chen suddenly took a sharp turn in the conversation, “we already invested 1.7 billion US dollars in New Guinea with a 5 billion US dollars investment project coming up. If we give up 2 billion of initial investment because of a 200 million policy benefit, if you are in my spot, is this clearly a less appealing choice?”
[5 billion US dollars more!]
Yu Weida held his breath.
He didn’t notice the second half of Jiang Chen’s sentence because all his focus was caught by the number.
“What do you want?”
“Everything before that and one more, a special pass,” Jiang Chen raised one finger, “all the trucks and employees of Future Group can freely move between Malaysia’s Papua Province border and New Guinea. All documents and tariffs must be—”
“This is impossible!” Yu Weida shouted out.
It was impossible! Absolutely impossible! Not only did it pertain to tariffs, but it was also related to national security! Even if Future Group bears enough weight, the parliament would not agree to such a ridiculous term.
Jiang Chen didn’t care that much; he extended his hand with a smile.
“If possible, cheers to our cooperation.”