Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1082 Where the Dream Begins (First Update, Please Subscribe)
Everyone who has witnessed the industrial civilization of the Western world has a dream of becoming a strong country.

In this regard, Hassan, who had studied in Britain, King Pahlavi and other Iranian political elites were all the same. They were all eager to achieve national prosperity by introducing Western technology and equipment.

Turn Tehran into the Birmingham of the Middle East, and turn Iran into the England or Germany of the Middle East.

Don’t say that they really dare to think. In fact, this is also the common perception of elites in developing countries after studying in the West.

For this reason, two years ago, Iran received a $4500 million development grant and a $2.45 million loan from the United States. It used this as start-up capital to launch a vigorous seven-year development plan, trying to make the country prosperous and strong and thus escape its tragic fate.

As the chairman of the Economic Committee, Hassan personally participated in the formulation and implementation of the plan, which planned to invest $12 billion in infrastructure construction in industry, agriculture, transportation, education, etc. Once this plan is completed, Iran will change its ancient appearance of 20 years and give birth to a new look in the th century.

But two years after the implementation of the plan, both the ambitious Pahlavi and Hassan and others discovered a problem - it was not an easy task to build a Birmingham in Iran.

As a country, Iran is extremely poor in terms of industry. Even in the whole of Iran, the most modern factory is the refinery opened by foreigners. There are only a few maintenance shops in Tehran that can barely be considered modern enterprises.

At the beginning, Hassan was also ambitious. He had first-class industrial equipment in Europe and $12 billion in his hands. Was he worried that he could not buy a modern one?
Of course, the $12 billion could not all be used to purchase equipment, and Hassan knew this. To develop industry is a systematic project, which requires the construction of factories for petroleum, chemicals, textiles, sugar, flour, cement, fertilizers, etc., as well as the construction of power stations and supporting transmission networks to provide power, the improvement of transportation, and investment in agriculture. In short, all of this requires money.

12 billion US dollars may sound like a lot, but in reality it is not enough.

Besides, the funds in the plan are just plans, and they will eventually be maintained by oil revenues. However, two years after the implementation of the plan, oil revenues could no longer support the seven-year plan, and rising military spending was also squeezing out the limited funds. Now Iran can only rely on deficit finances and high foreign debts to maintain itself.

Therefore, this time, Hassan came to Nanyang to seek loans to keep the plan going. Of course, Hassan, who is familiar with modern society, also knows that it is not enough to rely on words to get loans. In his pocket, there is 5000 million US dollars in foreign exchange, which is all the foreign exchange he can mobilize at present.

All he needed was to use this $5000 million order to obtain a loan of at least $2 million from Nanyang.

During the few days in Nanyang, Hassan has been accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to visit Nanyang's enterprises. Hassan, who originally knew little about Nanyang, took the high-speed rail around the island. On the "bullet train" with a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour, he felt the dramatic changes of the times at lightning speed.

Thinking in front of the large hydroelectric power station in Nanyang and looking at the dense power grid, he felt the power of modern civilization.

Afterwards, Hassan and his team entered Nanyang's enterprises. In those enterprises, he learned for the first time about Nanyang's mechanical manufacturing, which could not only manufacture various types of machine tools, but also large-scale industrial equipment.

"Generators. We are very short of electricity at the moment."

Sitting in the high-speed train carriage back to Chang'an, Hassan pointed to a promotional leaflet for a steam turbine and said,

“All factories cannot do without electricity.”

"Yes, this is a 10-kilowatt main engine. Its technology level is world-leading and more advanced than that of the United States and the United Kingdom."

Taremi, an engineer, pointed to the photo on the brochure and introduced it.

"And you see, they have also introduced electronic computers into the control system of the power station. This is really advanced!"

Taremi exclaimed beside Hassan. From the photos, the power station workers are completely different from ordinary workers. They wear blue shirts, hold coffee in their hands, and have rows of monitoring panels in front of them.

“This is like a science fiction world!”

Sci-fi world!

This was the place that Hassan was most impressed with after arriving in Nanyang. Just like the high-speed railway he was riding on, sitting in the comfortable first-class carriage, Hassan seemed to understand why His Majesty turned his interest from airplanes to railways.

It's not just because railways are suitable for Iran, but because high-speed railways - advanced high-speed railways will benefit more Iranians.

"Yes, it is a science fiction world, but it takes money to realize this science fiction world."

Having said that, Hassan took another look at the promotional leaflet in his hand.

"Although this equipment is good, it is not cheap. If you want to build a 10-kilowatt power station, you will need tens of millions of dollars..."

Hassan looked out of the car, at the endless plantation outside the window, and said:

"The electricity it provides can indeed meet the needs of many factories, but the price is still too expensive. Moreover, our power plant uses American loans. In this case, it is difficult to purchase similar equipment from Nanyang,"

This is exactly where Hassan is helpless. With the aid and loans from the United States, they can only buy industrial equipment from the United States. Of course, if Nanyang can provide loans, they will also import industrial equipment from Nanyang.

The only question is, is Nanyang willing to provide the loan?

In other words, how much loan you are willing to provide.

Sitting in the first-class seat, Hassan put the brochure in his hand aside, which was piled with product brochures containing a wide variety of industrial equipment.

But when looking at them, Hassan had no interest at all. He just felt that the dream of building a strong country in his heart seemed to be further away, even though he had found the direction of development in this vast ocean.

But, to achieve all this you need money!
In fact, $7 billion...is not a lot, and it is spread over 2 years, averaging less than $ million per year!
To achieve industrialization with such a small amount of money is simply a pipe dream!
Why is the road to industrialization so difficult?
Hassan thought sadly. When he was studying at the University of London, he had imagined that if Iran wanted to get rid of the control of Britain and Russia and get rid of poverty, it must develop industry and implement secular reforms.

In the past, when he was in charge of the local government, he had been pushing forward everything little by little within his jurisdiction, and he hoped that one day he would be able to realize this dream. But they still thought the problem was simple, and the development of industry could not be accomplished by just a few technicians. The development of industry not only required a large number of technicians, but also a large amount of capital.

Iran lacks both the funds and the talent needed to develop its industry.

There are neither people nor money.

What can we use to develop industry?
Hassan couldn't help but think of the European technicians in the Nanyang enterprises. Even in Nanyang, foreign technicians were needed. The same was true in Iran. There were many engineers from the United States in Iranian factories.

“When introducing equipment from Nanyang, we also need to hire technicians from Nanyang.”

This is inevitable.

But is industrialization and industry so easy to build?

Soon, the high-speed train arrived at the station. After Hassan and his party finished their tour around the island, they stayed at the Peace Hotel - this is the place where Nanyang entertains guests from all over the world, and the name of the hotel is definitely auspicious.

The next morning, Hassan finally met Li Guoren again. In the conference room of the hotel, the meeting between the two sides was warm. After a brief exchange and compliments on Nanyang's construction achievements, Hassan finally stated his purpose.

"It is because of witnessing the miracle of Nanyang that we have deepened our idea of ​​developing industry. However, Mr. General, although we have formulated a seven-year plan, we have neither funds nor talents. Therefore, we hope to get help from Nanyang."

"help……"

Li Guoren pondered for a moment and said.

"We are of course willing to provide assistance within our capacity. After all, Your Excellency and His Majesty the King reached a consensus in Tehran as early as last year, and we are also willing to help you, but..."

Looking at Hassan, Li Guoren asked back.

"What kind of help do you need?"

"This……"

While Hassan was pondering, Li Guoren spoke again.

"If the government comes forward, the financial community in Nanyang can provide you with a loan of no less than 300 million Nanyang Yuan, but the interest..."

Two hundred million dollars!

Without waiting for Li Guoren to finish, Hassan spoke excitedly.

"6.5%!"

Hassan said quickly, fearing that the other party would refuse.

“That’s the same interest Iran gets on a 10-year loan from Wall Street.”

Faced with Hassan's offer, Li Guoren shook his head, and his shaking head made Hassan's heart tighten.

"Is the interest rate too low? Mr. General, this is already a very high interest rate."

Indeed, 6.5% is the prevailing international lending rate in the market. For $1300 million, the interest is $8 million a year! If it is a country with poor credit, it may exceed 10%, or even reach %, which is a huge profit!

The level of interest rates is linked to a country's credit. For example, the interest rates for international financing in Europe and the United States are around 4%, while those in South America are above 6%, and some even exceed 10%. There is no way to avoid having bad credit.

It is even possible that the person who borrowed the money had no intention of paying it back at all.

Nanyang’s financing cost was 4% from the very beginning - Nanyang was a member of the Commonwealth, and the Commonwealth’s financing costs had always been influenced by the United Kingdom. In other words, it was backed by the United Kingdom - this was one of the reasons why the debt crisis dealt a severe blow to the United Kingdom decades later.

Li Guoren said.

"It's not about the interest! It's about..."

Looking directly at Hassan, Li Guoren asked.

"But what do you want? Are you here to seek a loan, or are you here to seek a comprehensive solution for the modernization of the country!"

Is that even a question?
Of course, it is to seek an overall plan for national modernization...wait!
Hassan seemed to suddenly understand something and asked:
"A comprehensive plan for national modernization? Is there such a plan in the world?"

Facing Hassan who was full of curiosity, Li Guoren smiled.

"Isn't this plan right in front of you? What you have seen and heard in the past few days is exactly what will happen after the plan is implemented?"

(End of this chapter)