Chapter 3439
At the beginning of this year, Haihan launched a military operation at the northern end of the Strait of Malacca and successfully occupied three islands, Penang, Langkawi, and Phuket, in an almost bloodless manner. But for Haihan, the really difficult stage is not sending troops, but the development and construction process after occupying the local area.
Even though Haihan already has extremely rich experience in operating overseas colonies, he still faces many practical difficulties in developing these relatively primitive islands.
The current situation is somewhat similar to that of the founding period of Xingdao. The local area requires a large amount of materials and labor, and these can only rely on external shipping inputs.
Although the Xingdao Region has entered a stage of steady development and has a certain degree of economic strength, the support it can provide to new colonies is still relatively limited. Especially the precious young labor force, which is also an important resource with a demand gap for Xingdao, and it is difficult to give priority to new colonies.
After Qian Shaobao listened, he took advantage of the situation and talked about how he saw the immigrant fleet coming south to Xingdao during his stay at Cam Ranh Port.
Qian Shaobao said: "If the north can provide a sufficient immigrant population, will transportation capacity become the main bottleneck at present? Can we continue to increase the transportation capacity on the route?"
Tan Juren responded: "For small money, this is true, but the real problem that restricts us is not the transportation capacity, but the transportation cost."
"Not to mention the recruitment costs of ordinary immigrants, we assume that there are still a large number of prisoners of war and refugees in the north who need to be sent overseas for resettlement. These immigrant groups do not need to pay additional recruitment costs, but we still cannot ignore the high transportation costs."
"The cost of transporting immigrants by sea is not the same as transporting ordinary goods. Migrants need to continuously consume materials on the way, the number of people shipped is also limited, and even medical personnel and armed guards need to be equipped on the ship, so the actual transportation cost is quite high .”
"With the same voyage and the same weight, the cost of transporting immigrants is at least three times that of ordinary cargo! For the shipping company, after years of hard work, the consumption of immigrants every day on the ship has been reduced to the minimum level of survival. This cost is almost fixed and will not decrease significantly as the route capacity increases. The longer the entire voyage, the higher the transportation cost!”
"In addition, if a large number of immigrants are concentrated in the port, a lot of resettlement work will also be required. One or two thousand people will be transported a month, and ten or twenty thousand people will be transported a month. This will bring a lot of trouble to the local civil affairs department. The pressure is completely different. With the current conditions of those islands, it is really impossible to receive and resettle large numbers of immigrants in a short period of time.”
After listening to Tan Juren's explanation, Qian Shaobao realized that his understanding of shipping and immigration matters was still too superficial, and he quickly expressed his gratitude to Tan Juren for his guidance.
Tan Juren said: "You have been in the military for a long time, so it is inevitable that you do not know enough about these common affairs. Since we have to rest in Xingdao for a few days, I think it is better to take advantage of this time to visit the local shipping and civil affairs departments."
Tan Juren invited him, but Qian Shaobao didn't dare to refuse and quickly agreed. Tan Juren immediately asked Tan Tianlei to be responsible for arranging the itinerary and asked him to take Qian Shaobao and Li Dechang around to learn more about the daily operations of local government agencies.
That night Qian Shaobao was placed in a hotel specially designed to receive officials, while Li Dechang naturally went home to reunite with his family.
The next day, Tan Tianlei came to the hotel where Qian Shaobao lived early in the morning, and Li Dechang also appeared with him. The two of them grew up together on Xingdao. In front of Qian Shaobao, Li Dechang obviously did not regard himself as a foreigner, but regarded himself as the master.
The first stop they went to was the port not far from the hotel. When arriving at the port yesterday, Qian Shaobao saw part of the port at a glance. However, with Tan Tianlei as his companion today, he was able to learn more about the local port construction and trade exchanges from the other party.
Since the initial construction of Sing Tao, Sing Tao Port has completed seven phases of construction. It now has seven port areas including a military port, more than 40 terminals, and more than 300 large and small berths. .
As for the various hoisting and transportation facilities using steam power at the port, they are all manufactured domestically and then shipped over for installation. The cost can be imagined.
Tan Tianlei proudly told Qian Shaobao that in terms of the area of the built port area alone, Xingdao has even surpassed Sanya, and is still expanding.
According to the long-term plan formulated by the Singdao Management Committee, the western half of the southern coast of Singdao will be built into a port in the future. It is expected that the length of the coastline of the entire port area will reach about 50 miles. This is undoubtedly an extremely amazing development. number.
Qian Shaobao was also stunned when he heard this. Before he came to Xingdao, the largest port he had ever seen was probably Zhoushan Dinghai Port. The length of the coastline of the port area was more than ten miles, which was what he knew. A super big port. He really couldn't imagine what the fifty-mile port area would look like.
Star Island does not have a natural bay with superior conditions, but it is located exactly at the southeastern entrance and exit of the Strait of Malacca, so it has the potential to become a regional port.
Of course, only Haihan can truly develop this place and build it into a regional trade center. Just the continuous expansion of the port area over the past two decades will require an investment of manpower, material and financial resources that is difficult to estimate.
However, judging from the number of merchant ships from various countries calling at the port, it should have entered the payback period now.
After visiting the port, Tan Tianlei led the way to the nearby trade area. In addition to the large and small commercial halls opened by Haihan merchants, there are also commercial institutions set up in Xingdao by many countries in the South China Sea region.
Aceh, Johor, Banten, Perak, Yogyakarta, Kedah, Selangor, Terengganu, Kelantan, Pattani... The number of commercial halls and shops opened by countries in the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra alone has already accounted for A whole street.
There is an endless stream of foreigners wearing all kinds of strange clothes on the streets, but Han people are in the minority, and there is a subtle sense of disconnection from the actual local belonging.
"This trade zone has commercial institutions from more than 30 countries. As long as there are products in Sanya, we basically have them here. If Sanya doesn't, we also have them here!"
Tan Tianlei's introduction made Li Dechang feel proud, while Qian Shaobao was surprised by the large scale of business here.
Tan Tianlei continued: "I know that people in China think that the area around Xingdao is a wild land with little economic value, but in fact many people are wrong. This place has always had great potential, but only we can make this place work. .”
"According to my father, as long as our country continues to operate it, the port of Xingdao will be a big cornucopia. This alone can make this prosperity last for hundreds of years!"