Chapter 217 Quasi-Developed Regions
After lunch, Lai Shengli parted ways with Ahasi and others.
In addition to having an exclusive office in the Commodity Trading Center, COFCO also rents a 15-story office building in Yangon, with the lower 7 floors being office areas and the upper 8 floors being employee dormitories.
Usually every afternoon, Lai Shengli would switch shifts with another deputy manager, with the other manager going to the commodity trading center while he would return to the branch office to work.
In order to save costs, many multinational companies do not even rent office buildings, but directly choose exclusive offices in commodity trading centers as their office locations.
After a busy day in the office, Lai Shengli looked at his watch and found that it was already 5:40 in the evening.
After instructing his assistant on some things, he went directly to the dormitory on the 15th floor. His wife Wang Lizhu and daughter Lai Xiaoni, who had come from China to visit him, also rested for the whole day.
Lai Shengli changed into a set of short-sleeved casual clothes, and then asked his wife who was watching TV: "Do you want to go shopping in Yangon?"
Wang Lizhu turned her head and looked at her daughter: "Xiao Ni, do you want to go shopping?"
Lai Xiaoni, who just returned from studying in Australia this year, tapped on her laptop with a nonchalant look on her face: "I don't care, you decide!"
Lai Shengli immediately decided: "Let's go for a walk! Xiaoni, you can also observe Yangon. This will help you in your future career in finance."
"I don't think there is anything worth observing in Yangon." Lai Xiaoni closed her laptop and shrugged with disdain.
As a master's degree holder in finance, Lai Xiaoni had actually searched the Internet for Hongsawadi's financial system and rules before coming to Yangon.
After seeing Hongsavadi implement a limited gold standard monetary policy, she knew that the future of this place was worrying.
The gold standard looks very good, but the problem is that gold production is limited, and the industrial value of gold is not irreplaceable.
If Hongsavadi does not change the gold standard in the future, the upper limit of currency issuance will be at most two or three times the gold reserves.
This will cause money to become scarce, which will in turn cause deflation and is not conducive to economic development.
Of course, Lai Xiaoni also saw through Hong Shawadi's intention. Anchoring the currency to gold and advantageous goods can indeed make the gold yuan very strong as long as the exchange can be guaranteed.
It’s a pity that this model has become outdated with the collapse of the Bretton Woods system.
Gold is limited after all.
Lai Shengli didn't think too much about it and directly handed several thousand yuan in cash to his wife and daughter: "Everything is good here, but it's more troublesome that I can't directly exchange it for gold yuan. The company only gives me a usage quota of 50,000 gold yuan every month."
"Dad, do you think others are fools? If foreign currencies are allowed to be directly exchanged for gold yuan, hundreds of tons of gold in Hongsawadi will be sucked away by other countries in less than a day." Lai Xiaoni rolled her eyes.
As Lai Shengli closed the door, he smiled and shook his head: "Of course I know, but this restriction is too great. If you want to buy something, you have to be careful with your budget."
Went downstairs.
As the sun sets over Yangon, the streets are bathed in the golden glow of the setting sun.
The street where COFCO Group’s office building is located is full of office buildings of all sizes.
However, the three of them did not take a car, but took a walk in the evening breeze.
As I walked, I unknowingly arrived at the intersection of another street.
There is a large supermarket at the intersection.
Lai Shengli took one look at the sign and instantly knew that this was one of the subsidiaries of the United Group.
Wang Lizhu, the wife who likes shopping in supermarkets, took the father and daughter into the United Supermarket. As soon as they entered the supermarket, a gust of cold wind gave people goose bumps.
Lai Shengli pushed the shopping cart while Wang Lizhu was selecting items.
Lai Xiaoni, who was feeling a little bored, picked up a bag of freeze-dried jackfruit. The net content was one kilogram and the price was 0.5 gold yuan.
She looked at the other fruits on the shelf.
A bag of pitted durian flesh (1 kg) costs 4.5 yuan...
A pack of Black King Kong wax apples (1 kg) costs 1.5 yuan...
A bag of bananas (2 kg) costs 2.3 yuan...
A bag of Feizixiao lychees (1 kg) costs 2.2 yuan...
This price surprised Lai Xiaoni a little. She secretly converted the exchange rate in her mind and found that the price was very cheap.
"Dad, what's the median salary in Hongsavadi?"
Lai Shengli, who was pushing a shopping cart, was stunned for a moment: "Uh... probably about 3,000 gold yuan per month!"
"3000?" Lai Xiaoni quickly passed the tropical fruit area and entered the vegetable area.
After a quick look, I found that the prices of vegetables here are also not high.
Taking 1 kg as a unit, carrots are 0.7 yuan, tomatoes are 0.6 yuan, cucumbers are 0.8 yuan, yellow onions are 0.8 yuan, cream cabbage is 1 yuan, cabbage is 0.6 yuan, white radish is 0.6 yuan, loofah is 0.9 yuan, and macaroni is 0.6 yuan...
Then she went to the meat section again.
Also in units of 1 kilogram, chicken breast is 7.2 yuan, chicken leg is 8.1 yuan, pork belly is 16.6 yuan, pork leg is 15.5 yuan, boneless pork ribs is 17.5 yuan, pork tenderloin is 16.2 yuan, lamb leg is 22 yuan, beef eye is 38.4 yuan, beef brisket is 32.6 yuan, beef short ribs is 42 yuan...
“This price is quite cheap!”
Lai Shengli shook his head: "If you use the United Group employee card, you can get a 25% discount, and there are also special discounts during holidays."
"United Group? Is it one of the three major conglomerates in Hongsavadi? If other people use employee cards to make purchases, wouldn't there be a loophole?" Lai Xiaoni discovered the problem instantly.
But Lai Shengli explained with a smile: "They deliberately let the employee cards flood out. Even if they are discounted by 25%, the three major groups will still make a profit."
Lai Xiaoni took a breath of cold air.
The price is simply too low.
"Isn't Hongsavadi a large population?"
"It's about 57 million now." Lai Shengli answered as he picked up a large bag of packaged two-kilogram boneless beef ribs and put it in his shopping cart.
"With almost twice the population of Australia, how do they maintain such a huge food supply?"
Lai Shengli shrugged: "Not only are they self-sufficient, they can also export in large quantities. In the first two quarters of this year, China imported 23.25 million tons of roughage and 2.8 million tons of rice from Hongsavadi."
“……”Lai Xiaoni was shocked.
Her previous impression of Hongsavadi was that it was a backward and chaotic area. Even if there had been changes in recent years, the changes should not have been so drastic.
What does she see now?
A "quasi-developed country" with extremely complete welfare and extremely low prices?
If calculated based on the purchasing power of currency for food, with the average median income of Hongsavadi at 3,000 per month, Hongsavadi has basically reached the standards of a developed country.
After all, in a developed country like Germany, the median income of ordinary people is only more than 2,000 euros per month after tax, and the prices of goods are similar.
Lai Shengli himself also felt somewhat skeptical about life at first, but after living in Yangon for more than half a year, he gradually figured out the key:
"I can't envy you for this. After all, the natural conditions in Hongsavadi are so favorable for agriculture."
In fact, Lai Shengli still has some things to say. The key to Hongsawadi's ability to rapidly increase the median income of residents does not entirely rely on agricultural potential, but on the pervasive business model of the three major groups.
"I suddenly become interested in this place." Lai Xiaoni's eyes showed a gleam of seeking the truth.
But her mother, Wang Lizhu, was having trouble making choices because of the cheap agricultural products on the shelves.
It took the three of them more than an hour just to go shopping in the supermarket.
