On the second day of the Space Colonization Summit, fireworks were set off over the Mars colony.
It was a special kind of fireworks. The core was not gunpowder, but the holographic projection technology that Future Group was proud of.
Now Future Group's application of holographic technology had been perfected. The holographic image generating unit was made into a string of spheres less than the size of glass beads. After it was ejected into the air by electromagnetic cannon, it would be projected according to a specific program to produce beautiful and gorgeous fireworks.
For this day, the Mars colony had rehearsed countless times.
No.
To be precise, it should be called Tiangong City now.
Just yesterday, the Xin Congress officially approved the application of the Mars colony, and it became the fourth municipality in Xin after Lunar City. As the former governor of the Mars colony, Hong Zewei was also honored to become the mayor of Tiangong City.
Like other municipalities, Tiangong City was loyal to the Xin Constitution, and the mayor was directly appointed by Celestial Trade. The public support rate and municipal performance indicators would be used as the criteria for assessing the mayor's political achievements. This also meant that Tiangong City could no longer claim to be a "bottomless pit." How to turn losses into profits in the next four years had become the biggest problem facing Hong Zewei.
Fortunately, the military expenses of the Celestial Trade Marines and the expenses of eliminating Devil Worms did not need to go through the accounts of the Municipal Finance Bureau. Otherwise, they would go bankrupt in less than two years.
"This is an opportunity and a challenge."
"Future Bank has provided us with a low-interest loan of 50 billion Xin New dollars. Although we are not required to immediately turn losses into profits, from now on, our budget is no longer unlimited, and our decision-making will also experience the test of marketization."
"I want to hear your opinions."
In the conference hall of Tiangong City, Hong Zewei convened the leadership of Tiangong City. Most of these people were the first group of colonists to arrive on Mars. Their professional fields covered all walks of life, and they had rich experience in colonial production and management.
The first to speak was Lugani, the director of the Tiangong City Population Bureau. He was an Italian from Rome and was once an architectural engineer of the Mars colony. The oxygen and power transmission and distribution system of the colony was his masterpiece.
"Two thousand immigrants will arrive in Tiangong City next month, and now we only have 620 living spaces left. Not only the problem of living space, but also the supply of water, electricity, oxygen, spacesuits and other wearable equipment must be solved as soon as possible. "
"Is there any good solution?" Hong Zewei asked.
Hong Zewei had been thinking about this issue before the meeting started.
The cities on Mars and the cities on Earth were two extremes. The expensive thing here was not the land, but the houses themselves. Moreover, it wasn't just the problem of housing, but also food, air, fresh water, and electricity. These were all problems that had to be carefully considered.
Before digesting this population, how to solve the problem of settling these immigrants had become the top priority of Tiangong City.
If the colonial unit in Tiangong City was to be expanded to accommodate more immigrants, it would require a budget of about 2 billion Xin New dollars. It wasn't that the finance of Tiangong City couldn't afford this money, but it had to be carefully considered. After all, there were many places where money was needed, and every penny had to be used wisely.
"Of course." Lugani nodded. "In fact, the meaning of the higher-ups is very clear. Including this 50 billion Xin New Dollars low-interest loan, the Space Department hopes that we can solve the budget problem through the market, instead of blindly producing like before and asking for money after the production target is met."
"The problem is still money. Don't tell me you want the immigrants to pay out of their own pockets?" The Director of Finance, Dimiter, shook his head. "I don't think anyone can afford it."
"We can open tenders to the outside world and introduce international capital to participate," Lugani said straightforwardly.
Everyone's eyes lit up, and they immediately understood what he meant.
In fact, it wasn't that they didn't have the ability to think of this. Many people, including Mayor Hong Zewei himself, just hadn't adjusted their thinking for the time being. After all, a few days ago, they were still holding the budget of the Space Department. Today, it suddenly became a loan from Future Bank. The higher-ups asked them to find ways to be responsible for their own profits and losses, but now they were still confused.
"What kind of tendering method?" Hong Zewei looked at Lugani and said, "If we want others to build houses for us, we have to at least let them see the prospect of profit."
"They will see the prospect of profit. We just have to promise them that the facilities they invest in and build in Tiangong City will enjoy permanent housing and land property rights. A lot of people are willing to pay out of their own pocket to build houses for us, hire our engineering team, and buy our factory's steel, aluminum, and graphene building materials. In this way, not only do we not have to pay a penny, but we can even make a profit. "
As long as another regulation was issued, companies that set up factories in Tiangong City must guarantee the housing problem of their employees. At the same time, with the next immigration as the dividing line, Tiangong City would no longer provide free housing for subsequent immigrants. Instead, it would subsidize five months of apartment rent during the unemployment period, allowing the real estate of Tiangong City to slowly transition to the market.
"Is there no problem with the policy?" Dimitte hesitated.
"I can guarantee this, there is absolutely no problem!" Lugani nodded and said in an affirmative tone, "In fact, through the Space Colonization Summit being held in Celestial City, it can be seen that the intentions of the higher-ups are already very clear. They hope that more people will participate in the development of space resources and accelerate the progress of outer space colonization, instead of us taking on the entire burden alone. "
"A lot of people want to devote themselves to the upsurge of space resource development, but only a very small number of people can enjoy the cake of Himalia first."
"And we have provided an alternative for international capital."
Lugani's view was agreed by the vast majority of Tiangong City Hall officials, including Hong Zewei, who had been thinking about how to solve the budget problem.
From this moment on, his thinking had slightly changed from the position of the colonial governor to the role of mayor.
Not just housing, but also factories.
Tiangong City didn't need every steel plant and every mining station to be personally involved. As the mayor of Tiangong City, he could easily circle the industrial area on the map with a wave of his pen. Naturally, countless capitalists would pour in crazily, and factories would naturally emerge like mushrooms after a spring rain.
These shrewd businessmen would not only try their best to improve the productivity of the factories, but they would also solve the sales of their products themselves. Compared with the "public" steel plants in Tiangong City that only completed production targets, these businessmen would have a stronger subjective initiative for profit and would balance products and production capacity according to market demand.
As for whether it was profitable to set up a factory here?
The answer was obvious.
The iron ore here was cheaper than sand, and the low-gravity environment was inherently more suitable for industrial production than on Earth. Even if the expensive labor cost was included, the cost of producing a ton of steel was less than half of that of a steel plant on Earth, and with the gradual expansion of the production scale, this number could be even lower.
After the colony on Himalia was completed, there would also be cheaper chemical raw materials than on Earth.
Without a doubt.
In the near future, this place would become the industrial base of the entire solar system!
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