The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 361 Nanyang Development

The entire China-Laos-Cambodia railway is relatively easy to build within China. It starts from Kunming, passes through Yuxi and Pu'er and then reaches the border. The total length is about 420 kilometers. All that is required here is to dig tunnels and build bridges. The construction is difficult and the cost is high, but there is no need to worry about safety.

The Laos-Cambodia section runs from the border to Sihanoukville, with a total length of 1650 kilometers. This section needs to pass through many mountains and rivers, and the construction is difficult and costly. Most importantly, it faces security threats.

This kind of strip-like terrain can easily be cut off in the middle, thus interrupting the entire railway.

Therefore, this requires security companies to provide security, and also requires improving the military strength of Laos and Cambodia, so that they can at least protect themselves.

Laos has rich forest resources, which can provide at least 50 to 100 million cubic meters of wood every year. Reservoirs and hydropower stations can be built in the mountains, such as the Mekong River, which can easily meet the electricity needs of the entire Laos, and can even supply electricity to the border and export to Thailand.

Most of Laos' mineral resources are undeveloped. It is an extension of China's Sanjiang metallogenic belt and has more than 20 kinds of minerals including gold, copper, tin, lead, iron, gypsum, coal, and tobacco. In particular, tin reserves amount to 6.5 to 8 tons.

And this is the result of exploration, and there are probably more that have not been explored.

These can all be mined and transported to Yun Province for refining into finished products.

In terms of agriculture, Laos has an arable area of ​​about 2000 million mu, where rice, corn, coffee, mango, grapefruit, papaya, sandalwood, etc. can be grown. It can be said that there are still many resources to be developed.

Cambodia has richer mineral resources, including gold, phosphate, gemstones and oil. It is also rich in forestry, fishery and fruit resources. It is rich in precious teak, ironwood, rosewood, ebony, white tung and other tropical trees, as well as a variety of bamboo. The timber reserves exceed 11 billion cubic meters. Tonle Sap Lake is the largest natural freshwater fishery in Southeast Asia, known as the "Fish Lake", and the southwest coast is also an important fishery.

Cambodia also has a very large arable area, with nearly 5100 million acres of arable land, all of which can be used to grow rice, making it a huge granary.

You have to know that there is not so much arable land in the entire Great Northern Wilderness.

As for insufficient population, that is even less of a problem.

It is entirely possible for people from the mainland to go and cultivate the land, and it is also possible to attract Chinese people who were previously persecuted in Annan to come and cultivate the land and develop the land.

As for the issue of grain output and sales, that is even less of a problem.

Not to mention the grain produced by 5100 million mu of arable land, even if it is produced by 1 million mu of arable land, China can absorb this production capacity.

We need to fight the battle on the front line and train our soldiers.

However, the construction and development of resources must also be carried out for domestic development.

The efforts made in recent years have produced very obvious results. The most obvious improvement is the improvement of the security environment on most borders and the development of border trade.

Now part of the rice exported by Thailand is transported north through Myanmar and into Yunnan Province, so that Yunnan Province has sufficient food, and even the four southwestern provinces have sufficient food. The whole society is stable and developing rapidly.

The next day, Liu Tao went to visit the 3rd Division of the 3st Army. The 7rd Division was previously the 1969th Division of the st Army. When the entire army was re-arranged in , it was renamed the rd Division.

The 3rd Division was previously stationed in JH City, Zhejiang Province, and is currently undergoing equipment replacement training at the Ma Long Training Base. It will then go to the front line to replace the 2nd Division.

After walking around for a while, Liu Tao returned to Panshan Machinery Factory.

Also returning with Liu Tao were heavy weapons such as tanks and armored vehicles. These will be maintained and repaired at the Panshan Machinery Factory and then sent back to the Huben Battalion.

Maintenance and repair are not that troublesome. If there are not enough manpower, Liu Tao can directly activate the cheating function to solve the problems with the equipment.

After completing the maintenance and repair and testing the weapons and equipment, Liu Tao convened a meeting of the Party Committee of Panshan Group.

This party group meeting focused on five things. The first thing was to summarize the work of the past year, including which tasks were completed and completed in excess, which tasks were not completed, and to correct and resolve the problems exposed.

The second thing is to make overall arrangements for the work in the new year, that is, 1984. The third thing is to implement allowances in the new year and to implement family leave for some members of the entire group.

The fourth thing is that Panshan Group participated in the "Beijing-Kowloon Railway" project, contributing 70% and was responsible for solving technical problems.

The fifth thing is about the arrangements for this year’s 35th National Day.

1984 was a critical year for Panshan Group. Its newly built factories were put into operation, the Shenhai Expressway project entered its peak construction period, and the factories in Xiangjiang were about to enter the mass production stage.

The most important thing for Panshan Group is to move to the headquarters in batches this year.

Panshan Group Corporation, Southwest Ordnance Industry Group Corporation, Southwest Industrial Group Corporation and various research institutes will all be concentrated at the headquarters.

From now on, their offices will be located at the headquarters.

Panshan Machinery Factory, like other factories, will no longer be the core of the entire system as it used to be.

The entire relocation is planned to last a whole year.

All these tasks have to be arranged in advance.

As for allowances and home leave, this is a major innovation for the entire Panshan Group.

Allowances and other benefits can increase employees' income, but as for home leave, many employees leave when they are young and in the blink of an eye, they have not been home for more than ten years.

Even among them, there are many who have hidden their identities and have never contacted their parents or brothers and sisters by letter.

Although not every employee has fifteen days of home leave each year, it is undoubtedly a very important step.

Even for some non-confidential positions, certain controls will be relaxed to allow more people to return to their hometowns and reunite with their families every year.

For the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, Panshan Group will invest 500 billion RMB. Although it is not a one-time payment but spread over seven years, it still exceeds billion RMB per year.

In addition to the "Shenhai Expressway", a century-long project, it also means that Panshan Group is leading two Chinese century-long projects. These two century-long projects are currently unique in the whole of China.

This kind of century-long project has a very long capital recovery period, which is different from Panshan Group's investment in building a factory in Hong Kong.

Although the investment in building a factory in Xiangjiang is large, the capital recovery period is very short.

As for the Shenyang-Haikou Expressway project and the Beijing-Kowloon Railway project, the costs of both projects may not be recovered in the next 30 years.

哪怕按照现在最新汇率，官方汇率1美元兑换2.2043人民币，盘山集团可以1美元兑换2.5人民币，500亿人民币也得足足200亿美元。

The Southwest Ordnance Industry Group cannot export this much weapons and equipment in a whole year.

Liu Tao was very calm. The investment in the "Shenhai Expressway" project and the "Beijing-Kowloon Railway" project seemed huge, like astronomical figures.

But who could have imagined that in 1979 the exchange rate was 1 US dollar to 1.55 RMB, and now, just a few years later, 1 US dollar can be exchanged for 2.2043 RMB?
For Panshan Group, which mainly engages in export and foreign trade, it can be said that changes in exchange rates are very advantageous.

When the exchange rate becomes 1 dollar to 4 dollars, what now seems to cost 200 billion U.S. dollars to build will only cost 125 billion U.S. dollars.

(End of this chapter)