Chapter 1517 - The Future of Heavenly Palace City (2/2)

“We can open tenders to the public and bring in international money to participate.” Lugani made a concise point.

Everyone’s eyes brightened and immediately understood what he meant.

In fact, it was not because they did not have the ability to think from this perspective. Many people, including the mayor Hong Zewei himself, still did not convert their way of thinking yet. After all, a few days ago, they were still using the budget from the Space Department, and today it suddenly became a loan from Future Bank. The senior management asked them to find a way to take care of their own profits and losses, but at this moment, they were still confused and lost.

“How should we do the bidding?” Hong Zewei looked at Lugani, “If we want others to build for us, we must at least let them see the potential for profitability.”

“They will see the potential of profitability. As long as we promise them, the facilities they invest in and build in Heavenly Palace City will enjoy permanent housing and land property rights. This way, there will so many people who are willing to build houses for us out of their own pockets, hire our engineering team, and buy steel, aluminum alloy, and graphene from our factories. Not only do we not have to pay a penny, but we can also even profit from this.”

As long as they introduced another legislation that all companies operating factories in Heavenly Palace City had to provide housing for their employees. At the same time, the next immigration wave would be set as a cut-off point, as the city would no longer provide free housing for new immigrants in the future, instead, it would be subsidized rent for five months during the unemployment period, then it would gradually transition the city’s real estate to marketization.

“Are there any obstacles to implementing the policy?” Dimit hesitated.

“I can assure you that there is absolutely no problem!” Lugani nodded and said with certainty, “In fact, it can be seen from the Space Colonization Summit that the senior executives’ message is very clear. They hope that more people will participate in the development of space resources and accelerate the progress of space colonization instead of letting us shoulder all the weight.”

“A lot of people want to devote themselves to the craze of space resource development, but only a very small number of people can enjoy the benefits of Himalia.”

“And now, we’re providing another option for international capital.”

Lugani’s view was supported by most officials, which included Hong Zewei, who still searched for a solution to the budget problem.

From this moment on, his thought process started to change slightly from the position of the governor of the colony to the role of mayor.

The problem was not only in housing but also in factories.

Heavenly Palace City did not need to participate in every steel plant and every mining station. As the mayor, he could just zone an area, and a countless amount of money would flow in, and subsequently, factories would pop up like bamboo shoots after the rain.

These savvy entrepreneurs would not only try their best to improve the productivity of the factory for them but also find where to sell their products. Compared with those “public” steel plants in Heavenly Palace City that only complete production targets, these entrepreneurs would be more profit-driven, and they would balance products and production capacity based on demand.

As for whether it was profitable to set up a factory on Mars?

The answer was obvious.

The iron ore was cheaper than sand here, and the low-gravity environment meant this place was inherently more suitable for industrial production than Earth. Even if the expensive labor costs were included, the cost of producing a ton of steel was less than half of that of steel plants on Earth. With the gradual expansion of production, this number could go even lower.

When the colony on Himalia becomes completed, this place would have cheaper chemical raw materials than Earth.

Without a doubt.

In the not-too-distant future, this place would become the industrial base of the entire solar system!