"We have gradually purchased a considerable amount of real estate in Loti City, especially the area near the port, which was originally a very dirty and messy slum... We have bought the land there and are preparing to carry out real estate development..."
Prior to this, West Africa Group had acquired a local construction company in Loti and renamed it Golden Africa Real Estate Company.
Next to Barron, the person who introduced him was the general manager of Golden Africa Real Estate Company. In addition, the CEO of West Africa Group, Enault Duran, was also by his side.
It can be imagined that with the development of Loti, especially the cargo transshipment, trade and oil extraction here, a relatively wealthy population of a certain scale will inevitably be formed.
These people will inevitably have the need to improve their living conditions, including living conditions.
The project that Golden Africa Real Estate Company is about to undertake is for this purpose. They plan to build a high-end residential area in Loti, including all the supporting facilities needed for daily life...
Of course, the "high-end" here is relative to other slums in Lottie.
After this, Barron returned to his villa, where he met with representatives of the Bank of England who had arrived in Lottie.
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom. It also serves as the UK's external financial liaison agency.
Barron had known Mervyn King, the person in charge of the Bank of England's visit to Colo. At the same time, he also knew that the deputy governor of the Bank of England, who was currently in charge of monetary policy, would take over the position of Governor of the Bank of England on July 1 this year.
I'm afraid this is also the reason why he is responsible for leading the team to Colo this time.
"We have reviewed the data of the Kolo offshore oil field, and we have to say that the reserves of the blocks currently to be developed are astonishing..."
"So for the benefit of Britain, we should complete this agreement..."
Hearing Barron's words, Mervyn King looked at him meaningfully and said:
"To be precise, this is more in the interests of everyone. Although there are risks involved, it is worth it..."
Mervyn King shrugged:
"If it can provide benefits to more British people, it is completely worth it. It would be even better if British Oil and Gas Investment Company was a public company rather than a private company..."
"Trust me, it's coming..."
A few days later, Mervyn King signed a low-interest loan agreement with the Colo government on behalf of the Bank of Scotland for a total amount of up to 4 billion pounds.
The Kolo government will use part of their profits from Kolo Oil as collateral and repayment channel to borrow 4 billion pounds from the Bank of England for domestic infrastructure.
The loans have a term of 10 years, with installments starting from the sixth year, and an annual interest rate of around 3.5%.
At this time, the exchange rate of the pound against the US dollar has returned to 1.92.4 billion pounds of funds is approximately equivalent to 7.64 billion US dollars.
The Kolo government plans to use these funds to build the Loda Railway and Loda Expressway, transportation arteries that run through the north and south of Kolo territory.
The line will run from Loti, the southernmost point of Kolo, to Dassau, the northernmost city, with a total length of nearly 600 kilometers.
It can be said that this will be the largest transportation construction project in Kolo's history. Next, the Kolo government will launch a global bidding to seek contractors for these two "super projects".
The significance of obtaining a 4 billion pound loan from the Bank of England this time is not only that it provides the Kolo government with construction funds, but more importantly, the process of lending to it through the Bank of England also, to some extent, provides "insurance" from Britain for the exploitation of the Kolo offshore oil fields.
After all, this time the loan was secured by the Kolo government using part of its future earnings from Kolo Oil Company...
…
From Barron and his team's personal experience on the way to Munger Base, they also realized the necessity of building the Lodha Expressway.
Because the Munger Base is located in the Prairie Province at the northernmost end of Kolo, although it is not as close to the northern border as the city of Dassau at the northernmost end of the Loti-Danube Expressway under construction - the Munger Base is close to the border between the Prairie Province and the Kara Province, but the straight-line distance from Loti to the Munger Base is still close to 500 kilometers.
This is just the straight-line distance. If the team relies on Colo's original road network to get there, after many detours, the actual distance they travel will increase by at least two-thirds.
Moreover, calling it a highway network is already a rather insincere statement.
In fact, many of the roads are so rugged that they can only be considered dirt roads, not even the most basic concrete roads.
This is the current traffic situation in Colo, so the Chinese saying, "If you want to be rich, build roads first" is very reasonable.
Finally, Barron and his group drove from Loti to the junction of the Maritime Province and the Prairie Province, and then took two Chinook helicopters of the Kolo Corps to Munger Base.
The reason for this is that the Chinook helicopter has a range of less than 500 kilometers, and starting from the junction of the Maritime Province and the Prairie Province, it can reach the Munger Base directly with a full tank of fuel.
Of course, the riding experience of a military helicopter like the Chinook is definitely not as comfortable as the luxury helicopter Barron bought in London.
The most obvious point is that in the crew cabin of this helicopter, one can still hear a lot of noise - they need to wear earplugs throughout the entire journey.
During this process, Barron and his team, looking out the window of the Chinook helicopter, could clearly see that Colo's roads and infrastructure still needed more development.
The helicopter landed directly at the Munger Base. After so many years of development, the Munger Base has grown to a considerable scale.
"Your Highness, welcome to the Munger Base."
After Barron and Fan Bingbing got off the helicopter, Markel Paulson, the head of the Munger Base, gave Barron a standard British military salute and said.
With Markel's introduction, Barron also learned more about the current situation of Munger Base.
Unlike the initial time when this place served as the Protector Military Company's base in Africa and most of its personnel were stationed here, after the establishment of the new Kolo government, more than half of the original Protector Military Company personnel here joined the Kolo Legion, and there are not as many people in the Munger base as before.
Well, this mainly refers to the armed personnel of the official Protector Military Company, but now in the Munger base, more black faces can be seen.
Similar to Biloxi Castle in Northern Ireland, which is mainly used for adaptive training of newly recruited British veterans before they go to Iraq, in addition to guarding the two mines controlled by the Protector Military Company (one diamond mine and one gold mine), another major task of the Munger Base is to train black recruits hired in Colo.
As mentioned before, Kolo was an underdeveloped country before, and the income of ordinary civilians was extremely low. In comparison, joining the Kolo Legion and becoming a hired soldier became a "high-income profession."
Therefore, local young people are very enthusiastic about "joining the army", because the salary of one person joining the army is likely to be enough to support a family...
In this way, the Kolo Legion will have more sources of soldiers to select from.
As we all know, the physical fitness of local Africans is very good, but their discipline and comprehension ability are relatively lacking.
For the Kolo Corps, the biggest headache is the training of these new recruits...