Chapter 948 The Prototype of the Alliance
Although Van Diemen was still dissatisfied with the conditions proposed by Schneider, he also knew that if he was excluded from the future South China Sea Trade Alliance, the East India Company's trading situation in the Far East would be difficult, let alone keeping the north. It is hard to say whether the base of Batavia can be preserved as a result of its colonies and routes. Therefore, even if the conditions offered by Haihan are very harsh, the East India Company must join this trade organization in order to continue to make profits from East-West maritime trade.
Even after days of negotiations, the two sides still have many differences on specific conditions and details. Fortunately, the basic intentions of both sides are consistent, and Van Diemen also agrees with the prospects of this trade organization. In the face of sufficiently large interests, the Dutch finally decided to temporarily put aside their past hatred and chose to cooperate with Haihan - of course, it was only limited to trade, transportation, and finance, and did not include the more sensitive military and technical fields.
Haihan's navigation and shipbuilding skills are certainly tempting, but Van Diemen also knows that he has nothing good to exchange with the Haihan people now. He didn't even mention it at all, because he probably expected Haihan to What terms of exchange will be proposed?
Since the emergence of the Haihan people, they have never stopped expanding outward, and Van Diemen does not think they will stop at the Strait of Malacca and the Strait of Sunda. Haihan tried to control maritime navigation in these two straits. His purpose should not only be to control maritime trade between the East and the West, but also to prepare for the next step of continuing to advance the maritime control zone westward. If Van Diemen tried to request the transfer of military and navigation technology to Haihan, then the Haihan people might also ask for the handover of marine conditions data in the Indian Ocean and even further areas to the Netherlands in exchange.
It took the Dutch hundreds of years to open up the long route between the East and the West. The various navigation information they now have are the hard work of several generations. Its strategic value cannot be measured simply in terms of money, and Van Diemen is naturally not willing to give it up. Give these valuable information to your competitors. Moreover, he believes that Haihan's various advanced technologies will gradually spread in the future. After all, there are other countries that have close relations with Haihan and will receive the transfer of relevant technologies. Then it will be better to spend money to buy from the black market than to suffer now. Haihan is intimidating and strong.
After the public briefing, the private consultations with all parties took far longer than Heihan expected. Even though Schneider worked around for many days, he still could not fully coordinate the opinions of all parties. Instead, he I fell sick from exhaustion. Yan Chujie had to step up and temporarily take over this arduous task. It's just that he was not the architect of the entire plan, so naturally he was not as familiar with the terms and conditions of the plan as Schneider, and the negotiation process inevitably slowed down.
Fortunately, Yan Chujie was also prepared. Since the negotiations had slowed down, he first arranged for the representatives to visit the development status of the island, and explained to them Haihan's plan to build Ampurna Island. Haihan estimates that it will take two to three years to invest more than five million yuan on the island to build a series of leisure, tourism, and entertainment facilities. Yan Chujie even showed the design renderings of some of the facilities.
Although it is only a rendering, the novel architectural appearance and grand scenes still bring great visual impact to visitors. The design drawings of these hotels, casinos, amusement parks, and the safari park just delivered to Ambona Island were all designed by Tao Donglai who personally organized elites from the Ministry of Construction. The reason why the renderings were specially produced was to be able to borrow Taking advantage of this opportunity of multi-party talks, we will launch a wave of investment promotion activities.
In fact, Haihan is not short of this development cost. Although the budget is as high as several million yuan, Haihan's own existing economic capacity is enough to afford it. Even worse, there are Qiong Lianfa, Nanhai Business Alliance, etc., which Haihan controls. Investors, these commercial organizations have a lot of hot money to use, and as long as it is a Haihan development project, there is no need to worry about the investment enthusiasm of the bosses. After all, the projects operated by Haihan are high-investment and high-return, and the income is stable. There is no need to worry about whether you will lose everything if you invest.
Despite this, the Haihan Ministry of Commerce still hopes to absorb a certain amount of investment from neighboring countries, especially the member countries that are about to join the South China Sea Trade Alliance. Only by making the interests here closely related to all parties can we better ensure that the business and safety here in the future will be basically guaranteed.
"Everyone, after the construction projects planned here are completed, Ambona Island will become the premier entertainment paradise in the South China Sea. As long as you have money in this place, you can enjoy the best services in the world, food, wine, Beautiful women, everything. If you want to seek excitement, we also organize wild hunting activities in the wildlife park in the south of the island. You can choose from a variety of weapons and prey, and experience the most primitive hunting pleasure while ensuring your personal safety! "< br>
The person in charge of explaining the project to guests from various countries is Li Dagui, who used to serve as Roger's deputy on the island. In addition to being responsible for the intelligence work of the Security Department, he is also the deputy director of the Ambrosia Island Investment Promotion Office - the official position is held by Roger himself. Concurrently. However, Roger is currently in charge of the work in Xingdao and cannot return for the time being, so he will come forward to assist the Ministry of Commerce in the investment promotion activities on Ambona Island. The goal he wants to achieve is to attract these guests to invest in these projects that are still being planned.
"Isn't it... too remote to operate these projects on Ambona Island? This is in the South China Sea. You have to take a boat for several days to get here. Who would have such leisure?" The representative from Aceh took the lead. Questioned this.
However, to Li Dagui, this kind of questioning is not bad news, because what the other party is questioning is not the quality of these projects themselves, but the geographical location of Ambona Island, and Haihan has long been prepared for this. rhetoric.
"I am sure that the representative of Aceh is not the only one who is concerned about the traffic problem, but I would like to remind everyone that it is precisely because the location of Ambuna Island is not within the borders of any country that makes it possible for us to implement this plan." Li Dagui He spoke eloquently: "Just like why everyone here can feel free to come here to participate in this meeting, this is the same reason. This place does not belong to any country, and you don't need to worry about being targeted by anyone here. Even our old rival Dong India Company, isn’t Mr. Governor personally present this time?”
When Van Diemen heard Li Dagui mentioning himself, he just snorted and had no intention of cheering for him.
Li Dagui did not feel dissatisfied and continued: "We believe that relations between countries will tend to become tense or even lead to armed conflicts. More often than not, it is due to a lack of communication that leads to a certain degree of misjudgment of the situation by decision-makers. Nowadays, One of the purposes of our establishment of this trade alliance is to provide a channel and platform for countries to communicate their opinions, and Ambuna Island is a place where everyone can not only speak freely and exchange opinions. You can also relax and enjoy life here. As for transportation issues, we will gradually open shuttle boats from Ampur Island to major seaports in various countries, so that guests traveling to and from Ampur Island will not have to worry about it. Of course, we will. I believe that when the time comes, many people will be happy to stay on this island and never want to leave." Putting aside the bragging about Ambon Island in Li Dagui's words, most people still agree with what he said about international relations. Southeast Asia. There are frequent wars in the region. In the past, no international organization has been able to mediate these disputes and conflicts. However, if there is such a place where all parties can sit down and negotiate calmly like this meeting, it will indeed be a way to solve the problem. Good idea.
Of course, everyone is also well aware of the implications of Li Dagui's words. If this place can really become the neutral place claimed by Haihan in the future, it will give diplomatic envoys from various countries - that is, people like them, a reasonable public expense tour. Chance. If the future situation requires it, maybe some of them can stay permanently in this place described by the Haihan people as the "South China Sea Paradise". This will be one of the reasons for them to promote the implementation of this plan.
Haihan's Department of Commerce has an experienced veteran like Schneider, and various marketing methods from later generations have been widely used in Haihan's business activities. This model of investment promotion was originally copied from later generations. Naturally, some of the tricks were not something that people of this era could take the initiative to guard against. When they realized that this was a temptation, it was actually difficult to resist its effects. Although Li Dagui's eloquence is still far behind Schneider and others, he has been with Roger for a long time and has learned a lot of skills. He is more than enough to deal with these envoys.
In order for these envoys and representatives to continue to promote this plan after they return, and even take the initiative to invest in shares, Schneider and others believe that it is not enough to rely solely on the attractiveness of the project itself. They also need to make them aware of the impact of the development plan of Ambon Island. They all have a personal stake in tying the benefits they can gain to the development of Ambrosia Island.
At times like this, Haihan always has people who take the initiative to stand up and cheer for him. The first person to express his position this time was Annan Zhengzha: "I am very interested in the project mentioned by Director Li. I wonder if I can invest in it?"
Li Dagui was waiting for someone to take the initiative to mention this issue, and immediately responded: "If Prince Zheng is interested, we have prepared a detailed investment plan and will send you a copy to your residence later."
This kind of investment is not like the agricultural and forestry project investment invitations organized by the Haihan Ministry of Commerce in the past. The specific investment policies and quotas will not be disclosed to the public. All conditions are negotiated one-on-one in private. Therefore, Li Dagui will not immediately talk to Zheng Have in-depth exchanges. However, Zheng Zha's statement was enough. At the beginning, representatives from Daming also expressed interest in the Ambona Island project. Of course, this is reasonable. After all, most of the existing foreign investment projects in Ambona Island actually come from the Ming business community that has cooperated with Haihan for a long time. Now the Haihan people want to play the game of Ambona Island even bigger, and those who have already tasted the sweetness will naturally follow suit and raise their bets. The people from the Ming Dynasty were said to be representatives of the government, but in fact they also represented the investors from the Ming Dynasty who had invested heavily in the areas under Haihan's rule. They would not miss this good opportunity to share the meat with Haihan.
After so many companies expressed interest in joining, the remaining people were not to be outdone and also asked Li Dagui for relevant information. They may not all be clearly aware of the investment prospects here, but since representatives from other countries have expressed their attitudes, it should mean that this place is indeed worthy of attention.
Li Dagui repeatedly agreed and did not forget to continue to tout his own project: "In fact, as we all know, we in Haihan are not short of money. The reason why we give external funds a chance to join is to unite the member countries of the South China Sea Trade Alliance and let everyone realize that they can work together." The benefits of doing business. By the way, I would like to remind everyone that only members of the Trade Alliance are eligible to invest in the business projects I just explained on Amborna Island.”
Schneider's idea is to turn this business organization into a high-level membership club in the region, so that all countries will realize that only after becoming a member can they enjoy various internal benefits, such as the investment plan in Ambon Island. Of course, the benefits provided by this huge international club go far beyond this. The Haihan Ministry of Commerce is also gradually improving its systems and operating mechanisms.
After Schneider recuperated for three days, he finally recovered and returned to work. At this time, Haihan's negotiations with various countries were actually at an advanced stage. All the showdowns that should be shown were done, and all the bottom lines that could be given were given. After that, all that’s left is to sign the framework agreement.
On January 17, 1634, the South China Sea Trade Alliance Cooperation Agreement, led by Haihan and participated by nine other countries, was signed on Amborna Island. Among them, the Ming Dynasty, Fujian Province, Annan, Champa, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Mata Blue, as the first group of countries to join the alliance, while Siam, Aceh, and Johor are temporarily serving as observer countries. They will decide whether to join after the envoys attending the meeting return to the country to report to their superiors.
It is worth noting that this framework agreement only generally stipulates the operating system of the alliance, the obligations and responsibilities of member states, as well as the most basic trade opening, mutual market between countries, etc. As for the specific operational details, each country still needs to Carry out long-term consultation and adjustment, and slowly promote and implement it. Schneider believes that this process may take as long as two to three years, but if it can be successfully implemented, it can at least affect the political, economic and trade pattern of Southeast Asia for decades or even centuries to come. Although the existing South China Sea Trade Alliance is only the prototype of an international organization, it already has extraordinary significance in Haihan's view, because it also means that Haihan's international status has been recognized by many countries, laying the foundation for the next step of nation-building. A good foundation for the international environment has been laid.
(End of chapter)