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Chapter 1162 The Price of Development (Third update, please subscribe)
Malaya is the youngest country in Southeast Asia and even in the whole of Asia.

As a country, it only declared independence in August 1957. However, although it is young, its per capita income ranks high among Asian countries.

This is entirely due to the industrial transfer from Nanyang to Malaya. In the past few years, labor-intensive industries represented by textiles, clothing, and toys have gradually shifted from Nanyang to Malaya. While promoting the economic development of Malaya, it has also attracted a large number of labor forces - millions of young people have moved from rural areas to cities.

The influx of a large population and the construction of factories made Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Penang, Taiping, Malacca and other cities prosperous in a short period of time. High-rise buildings sprang up like mushrooms after a rain, creating modern cities.

Among these cities, Kuala Lumpur is the most prosperous. On both sides of the road between Kuala Lumpur and Port Klang, there are factories and "new villages" where workers live. The neat six-story buildings are arranged in an orderly manner like soldiers between industrial areas.

The towering chimneys of the power plant spew out smoke, and the abundant electricity lights up the entire city. Every night, the lights turn the entire city into a city that never sleeps. In the brightly lit production workshops, hundreds of thousands of male and female workers are sweating, working overtime, and are busy. The products produced here will be shipped to Europe and the United States via container ships.

Although various countries have continuously criticized Malaya's sweatshops, it does not prevent its products from being imported into Europe and the United States. After all, cheap... is really delicious. Although its exports are restricted because it failed to pass the review of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, its production is affected by the import quotas of various countries.

However, for Malaya, which had a population of only 11 million, export trade still prospered the entire national economy.

Because of the economic prosperity, not only the specialty stores in the commercial street and the counters of department stores here sell products made in Nanyang.

This also made Malaya the first stop for the export of Nanyang culture. The posters posted in cinemas in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and other places were always Nanyang movies. The TV programs played on TV were also Nanyang TV programs.
When the Legend of White Snake became a big hit last year, I don’t know how many people wrote or called the TV station to ask for the broadcast time to be postponed to 10 pm - because everyone had to work overtime, and they had to wait until everyone got off work. It can be said that at that time, everyone stayed up late to watch White Snake.

It was precisely because of the huge popularity of The Legend of White Snake in Malaya and Singapore that White Snake Zhu Hong’s first stop in the new year was Kuala Lumpur. Her arrival immediately caused a sensation. For a time, the front pages of Malaysian newspapers were filled with photos and news about White Snake.

In terms of popularity, even news related to the Prime Minister cannot compare with it and can only be relegated to the second page.

In response to this, Prime Minister Lin Cangzuo not only did not say anything, but even specifically asked his wife to attend the meeting and asked for an autographed photo from White Snake, because he himself is also a fan of White Snake Zhu Hong.

This shows how popular this TV series is in Malaya and other places.

However, although Fairy Bai has come, Lin Cangyou has no time to chase stars or invite her to the Prime Minister's Office. Now, Lin Cangyou has more important things to do.

In the Prime Minister's Office in Kuala Lumpur, Lim Chong Eu stood there gazing at the city lights outside the window, smoking silently. He knew what was behind these lights and the bustling city.

There are people who work overtime day and night. Unlike in Southeast Asia, there is no such thing as an eight-hour workday in Malaya... It cannot be said that there is no such thing as an eight-hour workday, at least it is written in the law.

But...it's just writing.

Working overtime is the most normal thing here, and people also like to work overtime. After all, the factory provides overtime pay.

In fact, as the Prime Minister of Malaya, Lim Chong Eu was well aware that without overtime pay, the basic factory salary would only be enough to make ends meet.

Therefore, in order to make a living, workers have to work overtime day and night. Only in this way can they support their families!
But... this is the price of economic development.

"We must develop the economy at all costs. Only in this way can Malaya develop into a country like Nanyang!"

This is the price of development!

Thinking this in his mind, Lin Cangyou took a puff of his cigarette and said:

“When the first Four-Year Plan is completed, Malaya will be second only to Nanyang in terms of economy in Southeast Asia. Our purpose in promoting construction is to build Malaya into a country like Nanyang.”

Lin Cangyou said word by word:

“It’s that simple – that’s our goal!

We build cities and factories to make life better for everyone, and that’s what we’re after…”

Although there was no one in the room, he was still telling all this here. On the desk next to him was a manuscript, which was the manuscript for his public speech tomorrow.

In order to be able to give a speech without a script, he needs to memorize it in advance.

After all, many people will watch this speech on TV. Of course, his speech is in Mandarin. Malaya is the same as Nanyang. The national language is Chinese. After all, 70% of the population in Malaya are Chinese, far more than other ethnic groups. The language should of course be based on the language of the main ethnic group! There is no problem with this. Others, of course, have to learn Mandarin!
"We will not only build a textile industry, but also build more modern factories, including the chemical industry, which is also the focus of Malaya's "Four-Year Construction Plan"..."

The "Four-Year Construction Plan" mentioned by Lim Chong Eu is similar to the "Four-Year Plan" of Nanyang, which is to promote the development of enterprises and the economy through the government's adoption of mandatory plans and strong administrative intervention and government orders. For underdeveloped countries, planned economic control can indeed accelerate the pace of economic development to the greatest extent.

Even until now, the economic development of Nanyang is still promoted by formulating a "four-year plan" to determine the direction of economic development. Malaya, Siam, Mindanao and Surabaya, as the children of Nanyang, also formulate corresponding development plans according to their economic scale and environment.

In fact, their economic development was directly planned by the Nanyang Ministry of Commerce and Industry. While determining the export-oriented economic development strategy, Nanyang formulated economic plans for itself based on its own "flying geese model" needs and its own characteristics.

Just like in Siam's development plan, agriculture occupies a considerable proportion. This is because Siam's high-quality rice enjoys a very high reputation in the international market. Developing rice planting industry and exporting it can obtain foreign exchange needed for economic development.

However, Malaya’s economic development cannot simply copy its model. Apart from tropical plantations such as rubber plantations, the mountainous rainforest terrain limits its agricultural development path, so it naturally requires targeted investigations into its economic construction plans.

However, Malaya did not put itself on the development path of completely taking over the labor-intensive industries of Southeast Asia. Two years after independence, Prime Minister Lim Chong Eu, on the advice of a group of young aides around him, embarked on the next stage of development.

From labor-intensive industries to heavy chemical industries.

At the end of last year, Lim Chong Eu visited the United Kingdom. After the London smog incident, the UK's tolerance for highly polluting industries has been greatly reduced.

During the visit, Lim Chong Eu noted that the year after the 1952 smog incident, the British government set up the Beaver Commission to investigate the smog incident, formulated countermeasures, and promulgated the world's first modern air pollution prevention law, the Clean Air Act, in 1956. The Act included large-scale transformation of traditional stoves of urban residents, gradual realization of natural gas in residents' lives; reduction of coal consumption, centralized heating in winter; establishment of smoke-free zones in cities, prohibition of the use of fuels that can produce smog; forced relocation of power plants and heavy industries as major smoke emitters to suburbs, etc.

It was this bill that made Lim Chong Eu see an opportunity - the relocation of factories in London was not going smoothly. Just because a company was not welcome in London did not mean that other cities or regions would welcome it. After all, no one wanted their city to become a "fog city".

Therefore, this has led to many industrial enterprises being rejected by many cities due to pollution problems, and some factories have even been forced to temporarily close.

It even includes several factories of the British Imperial Chemical Industry. Highly polluting enterprises like Imperial Chemical Industry have become incorrect in the UK after the London smog incident and are the kind that everyone wants to punish.

Although the chemical industry is not a low-end industry at present, and is even a "high-tech" industry with high technical content, its pollution is indeed not small.

However, once bitten, one becomes afraid of the rope for ten years. No one in the UK wanted to become the second "Fog City", so Imperial Chemicals was faced with a difficult problem - there was no suitable location to set up a factory.

To this end, Lim Chong Eu personally went to their homes to lobby and invite them to invest and set up factories in Malaya.

In this era, the chemical industry is still cutting-edge technology.

If it were any other country, Imperial Chemicals might not necessarily consider it, but Malaya is a member of the Commonwealth and has a stable political situation, so there is absolutely no problem with Malaya's reliability.

Imperial Chemicals, which had been considering relocating, naturally accepted Lim Chong Eu's invitation and agreed to visit Malaya.

After some investigation, the British immediately discovered that Malaya had advantages that London could not match.

First, the labor cost in Malaya was very low, much lower than in London.

Second, Malaya is closer to the oil-producing areas of the Middle East than London, which means that the cost of transporting raw materials is cheaper.

Third, and this is very important, the Chinese in Malaya are highly educated, and most young people have a junior high school education or above.

Moreover, the relations between Malaya and Nanyang were friendly, the situation was stable, and the government was efficient.

With all these, the two sides naturally reached a consensus on investment. Imperial Chemical planned to invest 2000 million pounds in Malaya to build a modern chemical enterprise. This was the largest investment in Malaya's history, and even Nanyang had never invested in such a large project.

Although the two sides reached a consensus, there is still one issue that needs to be considered - pollution from chemical companies!

Therefore, Lim Chong Eu needed to go to Perak to explain to the local residents in person the importance of this factory to Malaya’s economy and future. Of course, he also needed to tell them that the government would pay attention to the pollution situation and ensure that it would not cause harm to the residents’ health.

In short, no matter what, this project must be promoted, just like the steel plant in Port Klang. Although Lim Chong Eu was well aware that Malaya's population and education level restricted its development, he still tried his best to develop the local industrial economy.

He once returned to Tangshan during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Although he was a doctor and served as the director of the Medical Department of the Navy Headquarters, he saw the price of the country's backward industrial economy from the wounded soldiers, so he knew very well what should be developed.

"... eventually, we will build steel, chemicals, shipbuilding and various other high-tech industries. Perhaps, in the process, we may face some pollution problems, but... this is the price of development!"

As Lin Cangyou recited the contents of the manuscript, he once again looked out the window, staring at everything outside, and muttered to himself:
"This is our country. We will hand over a prosperous and developed Malaya to our children and grandchildren, not a poor and backward Malaya. This is the responsibility of our generation..."

At this moment, his words were passionate, as if he was calling out to the people, or blowing the horn of the future.

(End of this chapter)