Hollywood Hunter

Rovno Oblast, Ukraine.

Northwest of the city of Rivne, in just over two months, a brand new residential community has sprung up on flat land near the western bank of the River Ustia, which passes through the city.

This is November 1.

The move-in ceremony, co-hosted by the state government and Aldec, took place today.

A makeshift stage was set up in front of the plaza at the entrance to the community, with guests from all sides seated on the stage and a large group of media reporters surrounding it.

UFMS President Klim Gerevyanko did not listen carefully to the speech of the governor on the stage, but gazed for a long time at the beautiful red and white seven-storey apartment building not far away, and said to Sergei Komorov, the head of Aldec, who was sitting next to him, who had recently lost a noticeable amount of weight and looked tired: "I suddenly realized that our boss should be an idealist. "

Sergei, who hadn't had much rest for more than two months in a row, had no desire to speak, and when he heard Clem say that, his eyes also looked to a large brand new apartment building not far away, with a certain satisfaction in his expression, but he said, "Do you really think so?"

"Or else what?" Clem motioned toward the apartment building, "Wasn't the original plan to build the tube building? Now, it's such a beautiful apartment, I can't help but live in it."

"Actually, I feel the same way as you do."

"In that case, what's wrong with what I just said? A true capitalist should not be willing to spend money to build such a beautiful apartment."

Sergei shook his head slightly, "But, Clem, have you ever thought that these apartments are not so easy to live in."

"Isn't that a matter of course?" Krim was not at all surprised and said, "It would be unfair to live in such a nice apartment without paying enough for it."

Sergei hesitated a little and didn't argue further with Krim, or else he would be suspected of saying right and wrong about his own boss.

Sergei was also satisfied to no end with the first batch of 30 apartment buildings within the named 'Ustiya Community'. He had been racking his brains for more than two months to complete this project, and had lost a whole lot of weight.

Often, even Sergei himself felt that these apartments were too extravagant for the factory workers.

As Kerim said, in the beginning, with the money given by Simon, Sergei only wanted to build a number of tube buildings, the kind of long, narrow and crude apartments like trains that began to spread during the Khrushchev era and are now everywhere in both Kiev and Rivne.

Unfortunately, our own boss didn't think so at all.

He says he wants to build a home for the community's residents, not a cold dormitory.

As a shrewd businessman, Sergei's first reaction was that this was going to cost a lot of money, and the loss outweighed the gain.

It just wasn't something he could decide.

There wasn't much time to argue in order to clean up that hidden shantytown west of Rivne before the winter freeze time arrived, and in the end, it was the big boss's side who personally finalized the plan to build a uniform six-storey apartment building, and it had to be the kind of 50 square meter or 70 square meter one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartment building with a full kitchen and bathroom attached.

At first glance at the plan given by the boss, Sergei only felt the pain, and finally argued reasonably.

The boss's side also compromised a little.

The six-floor apartment was increased to seven, as for Sergei's suggestion of eight floors was impossible, even though he had somehow managed to persuade his boss that '8' was a very auspicious number, but the reply was that eight floors was too high without an elevator, and seven floors was already the limit.

OK.

Because Rovno State up and down as one, the preliminary design planning and project approval only took two weeks, the only thing that made Sergei comfortable was the land given by the state government, which was almost equal to a free gift, and for this reason, a temporary bill was also introduced again, as long as they were willing to build cheap resettlement housing for the residents in Rovno State, any developer could get the corresponding preferences.

Only, except for the self-made big bosses, other people are brain-dead to drop money on this northwestern border state of Ukraine.

Moreover, the state government has left another mind, limiting the bill's time limit to only three years.

In short, it was tailor-made for this project, and the allocation was also for public land, 370 hectares at a time. In fact, it was initially 250 hectares, but it was reported and got a short, unexplained response from the boss, 'You're all 250!!!' Everyone was baffled, but it was clear that the bosses were not happy about this.

So the top government officials met overnight and allocated all the land they could to the project, which immediately increased its size to 370 hectares.

If you can't use it up, then build a park first, and stock it.

For more than two months, Sergei Komorov put aside most of the other work of the Aldec Corporation, has been personally responsible for the project, two weeks to get the preliminaries, followed by the groundbreaking, in order to catch up with the work, its Aldec Construction Company once summoned more than 3,000 workers, some of them are already in office Western Operations Command Commander-in-Chief Vasily Borisov sneaked over to earn extra money sappers.

Ground was broken simultaneously for the first 30 apartments.

Work was rushed day and night.

Sergei also lived almost on the site for more than two consecutive months.

It took less than 20 days from digging the foundations to the topping out of the apartment buildings, and the subsequent laying of the plumbing and electricity network was likewise only two weeks.

The temperatures in Ukraine in October were already very low, and in order to dry the new apartments as quickly as possible and ensure their occupancy, the heating systems in the 30 apartments were turned on for seven consecutive days, and finally on November 1, the move-in ceremony took place.

Looking back at this point, Sergey all felt that he had performed a miracle.

Of course, it's still a bit of a stretch.

Mostly it was the cost.

Even though Ukraine's political situation stabilized after Kuchma came to power and the new currency was successfully issued this year, the economy remains sluggish. Ukraine's public average monthly salary of $30 is really just a joke, and many people still don't even make $10 a month. The price of a house in a country or region is basically equal to the average monthly salary of its inhabitants.

In the case of this apartment, the average construction cost per square meter is $45, and that's even though Sergei is not only not making money from it, but he's also supervising the construction to control costs.

It's hard to get a sense of the unit figures, but the comparison is quite strong.

According to the original plan for the tube, Sergei was able to ensure that the cost per square meter would be just under $20. Now, because of the use of all kinds of building materials, it is not possible to pile up the floors and amortize the budget, even for a separate kitchen and bathroom space, which means an increase in costs.

In short, the average cost per square meter of construction has more than doubled compared to initial projections.

If you only count the unit area, it doesn't seem like much.

But, the entire resettlement community project is planned to build 3.5 million square meters of residential space alone, so the difference between $45 and $20, extended to the entire project, amounts to an additional investment of nearly $90 million. That's not counting the $200 million total investment in the remaining sectors to build schools, hospitals, malls, parks and other amenities.

The 3.5 million square meters of residential space, at a unit price of $45, only equates to a $157 million investment, with the remaining $43 million going to these amenities that are destined for even lower returns.

Looking at these figures alone, the self-owner is indeed an idealist.

But when you think about it, things are far from simple.

First of all, this new community is definitely not for everyone, and currently only employees of companies associated with the Rovno region's Westeros system can apply.

The reasoning is simple: if the Westeros system is not recognized, employees of certain companies will not even be eligible to rent a good apartment.

Over time, you can imagine the results.

Besides, for the residents, it seems that all they need to do is find a relevant job, but, once they leave or are fired by the company, they have to move out within a month, and along with that, even their children can no longer enjoy the various amenities associated with the community school.

It's also some kind of pretty deep bondage.

The condominiums in this chapter were built to inherently high specifications, and the surrounding amenities are even better, so you can imagine that once you live in it and get used to it, you won't even want to leave, and as the big boss envisioned, it's more like home than home.

The result is inevitably inevitable.

When the time comes, if you want to maintain a decent life, you will have to accept the harsh working conditions and completely give up the life that may be easy but inevitably embarrassing, and work tirelessly like ants.

Secondly, there is the cost.

This is a plan given by the team on the big boss's side themselves, and the relevant data is clear at a glance.

Take a couple with no children for example, both working in the factory, each earning 30 US dollars a month, with a total income of 60 US dollars.

So, after renting this 50 square meters one room and one living room, after the nominal subsidy, the rent will still be $20, directly occupying one third of the couple's income, plus the property water, electricity, gas and these daily expenses, even if very economical, at least need $10.

The remaining half, after food, clothing, housing and transportation, there will not be much left.

These daily expenses for food, clothing, housing and transportation are basically in the shopping malls, supermarkets, hospitals, concert halls, cinemas and other places under the control of the Westeros system, which is equivalent to the salaries earned from the Westeros-related enterprises, back into the hands of the Westeros system again.

For families with children, maintaining such a decent lifestyle is a struggle if not carefully calculated.

All in all, there is little left for the people who live and work in this area to do but live in a relatively comfortable and decent environment, and the large number of factories that Westeros and its affiliates have opened here will continue to generate profits for the capital behind them, thanks to low labor costs.

It was because he understood this that Sergei realized that his own boss wasn't naive at all.

However, on second thought, Sergei had to admit that this was the destiny of most ordinary people in this world. Those who were able to escape this destiny were only a few after all, and the transcendence of these few was undoubtedly built on the in-situ reincarnation of most people.

Realistic and brutal.

On the stage, Governor Andrei Smirnov finished his speech, and it was Sergei's turn, and he was busy collecting his thoughts and putting on a smile to walk quickly to the stage.

In any case, he was already a transcendentalist, a chess player, so why think so much?

After a round of speeches and ribbon-cutting, surrounded by a large group of journalists, the guests who attended the ceremony entered the community site to see the residents' housewarming.

The first apartments were built along the river.

The standard 7-story apartment building has 14 apartments on a single floor, 10 of which are 70 square meters with two bedrooms and one living room, and 4 of which are 50 square meters with one bedroom and one living room, each building has a total of 98 apartments with an effective housing area of 6300 square meters. Based on a living space of 20 square meters per person, the standard number of residents in each apartment building is 315 people.

The 30 apartment buildings are exactly close to 10,000 people.

However, this is only ideal for the future.

The reason why this community is in such a hurry is to get the residents of the shantytowns in the western part of the city, where 100,000 people were previously gathered, to move into safe and warm homes as much as possible before the winter arrives, so as to avoid all kinds of conditions in the very cold weather.

As a result, this time, the living capacity of the first direct apartment buildings has been more than quadrupled temporarily, and 40,000 people are expected to move into the 30 apartments.

This can't be helped.

Because of the influx of people, it is very difficult to find a place to live in downtown Livni, even if the rent has increased two or three times in the last two years, and even the surrounding villages and towns are full of foreigners, which is why the shantytown in the west of the city appeared in the first place.

So certain plans could only be postponed for the time being.

The capacity of the households here was temporarily expanded, and certain conditions were not relaxed, but replaced.

In addition to the employees who were already working in Westeros-related companies in the shantytown, the employees who were living in the dormitories of some Westeros factories are also moving to the brand new apartments here, leaving the vacated dormitories for the shantytown residents who are temporarily jobless or have unstable jobs.

Another 30 apartments are expected to be ready for occupation before a complete freeze prevents construction in December.

After that, the shantytown residents will be largely settled, those who have no place to go will be forcibly repatriated, the temporary shantytowns of the last two years will be demolished, and none of the Rifni area will be allowed to have such a potentially slum-developing area in the future.

To further the goal, from next year, Rovno region will also restrict the influx of people.

By then, only as many workers will be let in as this side needs. Even if certain groups of people are unavoidable, with the completion of large-scale resettlement communities and strict control by the authorities, there will be absolutely no more shantytowns or even slums.

On the other hand, once the resettlement communities are complete, the phenomenon of mass renting will no longer be allowed to occur.

Only as many people can live in the apartments as are approved.

After all, a crowded population places a serious burden on the fire, security and hygiene of the community, and in the long run, it may even become another form of slum.

That's the obvious reason.

More importantly, for the sake of the Westeros system, surely a group of people can't be allowed to share a room to dilute the cost of living.

Inside the community of Ustiya.

The governors, Andrei Smirnov and Sergei Komorov, split into groups to tour around under the media spotlight, while Vladimir Korkosko, as deputy governor, led another group of people as they walked and chatted along the new concrete paved pathway along the river.

It was an investment team from Inditex Group, the main Spanish fashion chain.

Vladimir had learned in private detail that the Zara chain under the company's name was already present in more than a dozen countries around the world, that its sales would exceed $1 billion this year and was expanding rapidly, and that it belonged to a quality investor that was well worth pulling in.

"Javier, as you can see, this community, from the start of construction to occupancy, took only two months, and that's one of the biggest advantages of your investment in Rivne, super high efficiency. If Inditex were to open a factory in Rivne, depending on the size, the factory could be up and running in three to six months, and we could also take care of helping to recruit and train workers. You can't find such a superior location in the whole of Eastern Europe right now."

Leading the inspection team was a somewhat balding vice president of Inditex, Javier Cordero, in his mid-forties.

After listening to the explanation from the translator beside him, Javier shook his head, "But, Vladimir, we also found that there are actually a lot of problems over here, such as raw materials, the base of light industry over here in Ukraine is really poor, and if we open a garment factory over here, a lot of raw materials will need to be imported."

"We've been working on improving this, you know, Rivne already has a lot of garment factories, and their production is not affected by this. And even if they are imported, the relative cost on our side is still very advantageous."

"However, the tax benefits you are offering, with all due respect, are hard to resist. Even the other states and counties of Ukraine that we've been to have offered much better terms than this side of the border."

When Vladimir heard Javier talk about this, he knew that the other party was already starting to be tempted, smiling and patiently saying, "Javier, the tax benefits we can give are already the highest, and the taxes we get will be put into infrastructure in the next few years, as you must have noticed. And then there are other states and counties, and frankly, Javier, let's not talk about Russia, even the rest of Ukraine, or even Kiev, if you knew the business environment in those regions in more detail, you probably wouldn't even think of investing."

Vladimir wasn't being too blunt, Javier still immediately would have been impressed, but said, "Vladimir, can you guarantee that there aren't any of those problems here in the Rovno region?"

"Of course, I can assure you," Vladimir said with certainty, "Inditex has set up its factory over here to concentrate only on production, without encountering mob nuisance or unpleasantness at certain government levels, which is basic, yet difficult to achieve in other regions. Otherwise, do you think Mr. Simon Westeros would invest so heavily in this side?"

Javier Cordero didn't take up the subject, but understood that Mr. Lieutenant Governor was telling the truth.

Nowadays, Eastern Europe, because of the economic collapse has a chain reaction, the whole society is also collapsing. That's why Western European capital is still very cautious about investing in Eastern Europe, despite its cheap human resources. Not to mention the thin and decrepit industrial base here, just people, we can not have the heart to deal with the endless blackmail of officials to extort bribes and so on, and even many countries in Eastern Europe, even the safety of investors can not be guaranteed.

This border county in the northwest of Ukraine, however, is an outlier.

Javier Cordero and his entourage have been in Rivne for three days, and what they have seen and heard proves it.

The whole area, not only was the economy vibrant and vibrant, not at all like the dreary deadness of many other cities in Eastern Europe, but it was also devoid of any of the other areas of the country's darkness - it was a Garden of Eden.

The reason was clear to everyone as well.

A certain super-rich man not only kept an army on this side, but even controlled the bureaucratic class of the entire state and county, plus economic penetration, to put it bluntly, Rovno is now simply a colony of the Westeros system, and a colony with strong control simply without a second voice.

No one can make waves in Rovno except Westeros, and that super-rich man is pushing the economic development of the region, so the business environment is naturally very good.

Therefore, Javier Cordero actually finalized a plan last night with his boss in Spain, will set up a factory here, and even build Inditex's main production base in Europe. The next step is to ask for as many incentives as possible from the Rovno state authorities.