The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 854 Saudi Arabia has an industrial heart

The members of this mercenary group come from all over the world.

This can be heard from everyone's accent.

Liu Tao has been traveling around the country in recent years and has met many people. He can recognize many of their accents.

Accent is not something that can be easily changed.

Some people go out and explore the world for their whole lives, and when they return to their hometown when they are old, their accent has not changed much.

Liu Tao cares about everyone's lives and asks if they need any help.

It was not until the evening that Liu Tao left the military camp.

The next day, Liu Tao held closed talks with King Fahd, Prince Sultan and others.

The two sides negotiated cooperation.

Liu Tao's participation in the ocean voyage this time was naturally not just for the test of the Type 818 large electronic reconnaissance ship during its first ocean voyage. He also took this opportunity to come to the Middle East and had a lot of things to do.

For example, here in Saudi Arabia, many things need to be negotiated.

Liu Tao hopes to make Saudi Arabia the most important strategic fulcrum of Panshan Group in the Middle East, so that its products can enter the Middle East and ensure the competitiveness of its own products.

Saudi Arabia has money, and so do many countries in the Middle East. This is a huge market for cars, motorcycles, and computers.

They had already cooperated in communications and the Internet long before.

But Saudi Arabia is progressing too slowly. The popularization of 2G is very slow. At this rate, it may take ten years to popularize 2G. As for the Internet infrastructure, it is also slow. It is estimated that ten years will not be enough to ensure that every household has Internet access.

As for cars and motorcycles, sales work, maintenance work, car washing and the like, the Saudis simply disdain to do such dirty, tiring and low-paying work, so Panshan Group must mobilize them from China, which involves visa issues.

Some people come with their families, which involves education, medical care, etc.

Then there is the issue of the safety of Panshan Group’s employees in Saudi Arabia, which must also be taken seriously.

Panshan Group still has a lot of work to do if it wants to monopolize the entire Middle East market.

Saudi Arabia also needs help from Panshan Group. Saudi Arabia has a heart for industrialization.

Because the Saudi royal family and Saudi elites realized that only industrialization can make a country strong, and oil trade can only make Saudi Arabia a rich country, not a strong country.

However, Europe and the United States are not willing to help Saudi Arabia with industrialization, and Saudi Arabia is well aware of this. Saudi Arabia is actually very dissatisfied with the practices of Europe and the United States.

Saudi Arabia believes that any country has the right to become industrialized.

Industrialization should not be enjoyed exclusively by European and American countries.

When Liu Tao heard that Saudi Arabia hoped to get support from Panshan Group in industrialization, he was actually at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

Saudi Arabia relies solely on oil to earn huge amounts of foreign exchange every year, becoming a world-famous rich country. Saudi Arabia has a very good social welfare system, and can maintain its high social welfare with annual oil revenues.

Since there are such good social welfare benefits, who among Saudis would be willing to do tiring, dirty and low-paying jobs?

Besides, the cost of producing these low-end manufacturing industries in Saudi Arabia must be very high. How can Saudi products compete in the market under such circumstances? Even in Saudi Arabia, mid-end manufacturing industries cannot meet Saudi Arabia's requirements.

Only by developing high-end manufacturing can we truly meet Saudi Arabia's requirements.

However, there are only a few high-end manufacturing industries, such as high-end machine tools, aircraft, aerospace, electronics industry, etc. These all require high-end talents, a large number of qualified workers, and consume a lot of electricity and water. The question is, does Saudi Arabia have them?
Saudi Arabia has none of that.

Because Saudi Arabia does not have that many scientific research talents and workers.

Even China still has a lot to do in terms of industrialization.

"Saudi Arabia's ambitions are too big. It's not easy to industrialize!" Liu Tao sighed inwardly.

Unless a strong man descends from the sky to rebuild Saudi Arabia, he really sees no hope for Saudi Arabia's industrialization.

However, although he did not agree in his heart, Liu Tao kept nodding in agreement during the conversation and agreed that both sides should strengthen cooperation.

"Yes, Saudi Arabia is pursuing industrialization and becoming an industrial country. This is Saudi Arabia's legitimate pursuit. We recognize it. Every country has the right to pursue industrialization. There is no doubt about this."

"We are willing to help Saudi Arabia, so as to strengthen exchanges and learning between the two sides and play a positive and constructive role in Saudi Arabia's industrialization process." Liu Tao said with approval: "We are not a country like Europe and the United States with a very popular pirate culture. We are an ancient civilization. We have a civilization that has been passed down for more than 5,000 years and has never been interrupted. We Chinese are most eager to use and are willing to help friends. This can be seen from the past ten years."

"We Chinese and Arabs had contact more than a thousand years ago, and we have been dealing with each other for thousands of years. Believe me, our Panshan Group has always adhered to the concept of win-win cooperation. We are willing to play an active role in Saudi Arabia's industrialization construction projects and share the dividends brought by Saudi Arabia's industrialization process." Liu Tao said righteously.

In this regard, there is absolutely no problem with what Liu Tao said.

King Fahd, Prince Sultan and others were very happy to hear Liu Tao's statement.

This shows that Panshan Group is willing to support Saudi Arabia's industrialization.

"Liu, we have a vast market in Saudi Arabia. We will increase our cooperation with you in infrastructure projects, including water conservancy projects, railway projects, highway projects, etc." Prince Sultan said, "We know that you are very strong in this area. The high-speed rail I took when I went to China last time impressed me. We plan to build the Mecca-Medina high-speed rail."

Hearing Prince Sultan say this, Liu Tao's smile grew even wider.

Mecca and Medina are the two holy cities of Islam.

Rumors that Saudi Arabia plans to build the Mecca-Meddi high-speed railway began to circulate at the end of last year.

Liu Tao naturally knew it too.

Liu Tao came here with one purpose, which was to win the Mecca-Medina high-speed rail project. This high-speed rail project is 450.25 kilometers long, with a total investment of 600 billion US dollars and an average construction cost of 1.3326 million US dollars per kilometer.

There is no doubt that the profits here are very considerable.

If China were to build it, it would cost about 250 billion RMB, and the rest would be profit, which means it would be able to make about 2000 billion RMB.

Of course, there is a problem here, because this is a desert high-speed railway. There are many sand dunes and mountains along the railway. The surface along the railway is moving or semi-moving sand dunes. The surface is undulating and mostly loose back sand layers. The road conditions are very complicated, and it will face a hot climate of 55°C and extreme drought. This is a huge challenge for engineering design and construction.

Then there is the problem of sandstorms. The desert is covered with sand for one-third of the year, and most of the sand is mobile and semi-fixed. Some construction sites are located at the wind outlet, and even very low sand dunes move tens of meters each year, so the rails are easily covered by sand. The occasional sandstorms can also cause wear and erosion of the communication signal settings of electrical equipment. Sand particles can penetrate between the gates or the bottom of the gate layer, damaging the rails and fasteners, thus shortening the service life of the entire railway system.

It can be said that there are many problems that need to be solved, and even these will lead to a significant increase in construction costs.

But no matter how much it increases, the total investment of 600 billion US dollars will still generate huge profits.

(End of this chapter)