Rise of the Argentine Empire

Argentina is a federal country. Although it appears to be a unified whole, it feels somewhat fragmented. The gap between rich and poor and regional disparities are evident. Buenos Aires Province, Cordoba Province, La Pampa Province, and Santa Fe Province have large populations, strong economies, rapid development, and significant influence. They can also exert a degree of checks and balances on the Presidential Palace.

La Pampa Province can be seen as a miniature Argentina. The provincial capital, Bahia Blanca, is the most prosperous and powerful, followed by the former capital, Santa Rosa. The three coastal cities are developing rapidly, while the rest of the region is dilapidated and sparsely populated.

These are just simple descriptions of economic development. A significant reason for this is insufficient centralization and each region acting independently.

José Cohen is attempting to use his power to transform the administrative structure of La Pampa Province, and he has already achieved some small successes.

The transition from a federal system to a unitary system is a process of centralization, a process of synergy, and a process of reform.

In the future, the provincial government can be responsible for coordinating the operation of the entire province, achieving rapid policy implementation, unified and efficient infrastructure construction, cultural and commercial exchanges between cities, and efficient and comprehensive rule of law.

La Pampa Province, as the second-largest economic province in Argentina, even has some advantages over Buenos Aires Province. Everything is cheaper here. Taking advantage of this temporary window of opportunity, it is establishing a relatively complete prototype of light and heavy industrial systems. This is the economic foundation.

José Cohen's personal prestige and the Southern Radical Party he leads are political guarantees.

Based on the current situation, there is already a tendency towards success.

Of course, it is still too early to talk about success.

Regarding the economy and industry:

José Cohen's development goal for La Pampa Province in industry is similar to that of Shandong Province in New China, which is his benchmark.

After entering the new millennium, Shandong Province's development has somewhat lagged behind the economic giants, Guangdong Province and Jiangsu Province, but its primary, secondary, and tertiary industries are extremely developed. It has the strongest chemical industry in New China, a powerful steel industry, and its agricultural development is also very impressive. Compared to Guangdong Province and Jiangsu Province, it can be said to be a well-proportioned strongman.

Guangdong Province is constrained by development, history, and the self-destructive actions of various third-tier administrative regions, among other reasons. The gap between the core and non-core areas is often jokingly referred to as the difference between Europe and Africa.

Jiangsu Province has consistently ranked second, and the development of its various third-tier administrative regions is more balanced. There are almost no weak areas, but there are some minor problems such as hidden third-tier administrative region debts. However, this does not affect Jiangsu Province's strength.

As a top-three province, this is not something José Cohen can simply emulate. He is psychologically more inclined towards Shandong Province's industrial system. La Pampa Province's current weakness also lies in its imperfect industrial system.

Establishing an industrial system is not as simple as building a few factories and declaring success.

José Cohen now needs to remove institutional obstacles to the industrial development of La Pampa Province.

Turning La Pampa Province into a unified and centralized province will unleash strong economic driving forces in a short period of time. It can also use administrative power to borrow heavily and attract capital from within Argentina to invest and develop in La Pampa Province, creating an agglomeration effect.

La Pampa Province's current trump card is Bahia Blanca, which dominates and has created a celebrity effect. This is a path that less developed provinces can learn from.

Concentrate major resources and fully develop major cities to counter the siphon effect of other first-tier cities in the country on talent and capital, avoiding outward flight.

This was done when José Cohen was in charge of Bahia Blanca, and now it is time to replicate this model.

The goal of concentrating resources to develop Bahia Blanca will not change, but administrative power will be used to transform the system of La Pampa Province. Then, elite troops and strong generals will be organized to replicate the Bahia Blanca system, at least ensuring the development of the four cities of the three coastal cities and Santa Rosa, which can also help the development of Bahia Blanca.

The strength and potential of a city are always limited, but the strength and potential of a province can be completely different.

It is difficult to double the population of Bahia Blanca again in the short term, but it is not too difficult for La Pampa Province.

La Pampa Province's natural conditions are not bad, and although Argentina's wealth is a thing of the past, it does not affect the mindset of the poor in neighboring countries, which will not be transmitted in a short time.

This gives José Cohen a lot of room to maneuver.

Let the three small coastal cities develop a foreign trade processing system, which can be processing with imported materials or export-oriented.

As for where the factories come from, it is investment promotion and the expansion of existing factories.

The main external markets are Europe and the United States. Other regions of Latin America are also huge markets, enough to support the development of the coastal areas of La Pampa.

The current La Pampa Province does not even have $1 billion in export trade, which is not eye-catching.

As for whether the products produced are competitive, they are already quite advantageous. In terms of various production equipment, most have reached the world's second-rate level, and the quality is not bad. The most important thing is that the products produced are indeed cheap.

The education of the labor force has already been paved. After José Cohen invested heavily, the development of basic education in La Pampa is not bad now.

The development of higher education requires the accumulation of time, but basic education only needs to be oriented towards Buenos Aires. It is not easy for ordinary university graduates in the capital to find jobs, but Bahia Blanca can provide them with stable and well-paid teaching jobs.

Argentina manufacturing, as seen in Bahia Blanca, is not too far from first-class countries.

The textile and apparel industry, food processing industry, and processing with imported materials in the three coastal cities have slowly started.

The factories in Bahia Blanca can also get more orders because of this. The important role of Santa Rosa is to connect with the western, northern, and southern provinces and provide raw materials for the development of coastal cities, such as petrochemicals, various energy metal minerals, and the transfer center of wood.

José Cohen always believes in one sentence: as long as the distribution of benefits is reasonable, everything can be cooperated, so he can smoothly obtain the support of local autonomous cities for reform.

What José Cohen has to do is to continuously make the cake bigger and distribute it.

As long as they are officials who are willing to support him, they can basically get enough benefits.

It all started in the city of Blanca, and since Blanca was integrated into a single municipality, it has unleashed strong development potential.

In this reform, although the Blanca City Hall paid a high price, it truly gained the support of various regions. As the leader of La Pampa Province, it's not enough to be rich alone; the brothers must not be desperately poor.

Relying on just one city can, at most, create something like Singapore, which is not what Saint-Hesse wants. He has a more long-term vision; he wants a powerful La Pampa Province.

This is why many citizens and officials of La Pampa Province are willing to support Saint-Hesse's reforms. The new senior officials are genuinely providing money and manpower. The development of the original provincial capital, Santa Rosa, is a good example.

Of course, Saint-Hesse is not easily fooled. This time, he sent a full 17 direct subordinates, leading teams to take over the reform work of the newly established municipal administrative regions. These are all people he has carefully cultivated, aside from the mayor of New Blanca City, and it's time for them to stand alone.

This also allows him to free up more lucrative positions to attract more talent, with many positions opening up in the La Pampa Provincial Government and Blanca City.

A new round of civil service examinations has begun, open to all of Argentina, with a recruitment scale five times larger than the previous two sessions. This also indirectly reveals the scale of Saint-Hesse's talent "transfer".

Local people with any foresight know that these people are his direct subordinates and wouldn't dare to go against them. If they lack foresight or cannot control the situation, they should just step aside.

As for the ambition of his subordinates, he doesn't care at all; he's even afraid that his subordinates lack ambition.

In this way, with popular support, things go smoothly. Moreover, the original municipal governments were desperately poor. Although it seems to be at the expense of Blanca City Hall, the citizens of Blanca City are willing to support such financial reforms. This is the charm of propaganda, and it's not entirely boasting and empty promises.

Only by uniting can we develop. Blanca City has expanded from an area of one hundred square kilometers to dozens of times that size, and the urban area has also expanded wildly. Now, closely united under the leadership of the Blanca City Hall, the economy is developing rapidly.

From being fragmented to coming together, Blanca City has truly transformed. This is a ready-made example.

Before coming to Blanca City, many Blanca City residents had also witnessed the dazzling nightlife of Buenos Aires, but witnessing the rise of a city and enjoying the dividends of development is why they are willing to support Saint-Hesse.

Reform will not happen overnight; it is a long-term process.

........

This election actually exposed many problems of the Radical Civic Union and Saint-Hesse himself.

It also shows that many of Saint-Hesse's political ideas are too idealistic, revealing his naivety.

Fortunately, Saint-Hesse made timely adjustments to develop things in a positive direction.

He is somewhat dissatisfied with Argentina's election system of buying votes with money.

This leads many campaigning politicians to make endless promises. In order to gain power, politicians directly distribute money that could be used for economic construction as welfare, leaving the economy in a mess after their term ends.

Distributing large amounts of banknotes also causes inflation.

Saint-Hesse prefers economic investment, infrastructure construction, and building factories. He believes that this is truly useful for development.

The success of this election, breaking through the previous model of grand deception and vote-buying, is largely due to the fact that the Southern Radical Civic Union, led by Blanca, does have some foundation, and it has evolved a lot.

Buying votes with money is fast, but it has endless hidden dangers.

The big difference between Argentina now and in history is that the scale of money distribution is not as large as it was in the original history, which has slowed down the devaluation of the peso.

Trade exports are beginning to approach historical highs, and may even surpass them.

If the currency devaluation is not too large, it can indeed create export advantages, and a stable price index helps Saint-Hesse win votes.

The cost of living in Blanca City is now lower, more than half that of Buenos Aires. This means that the same 5,000 pesos salary can provide a higher quality of life and more services in Blanca City.

Generally speaking, in the process of urban development, the development of industry and commerce and public infrastructure often cause urban land prices to soar, creating a surge. In this way, some people may become rich in a short period of time, and correspondingly, there are urban slums.

This is also why the cost of living in Buenos Aires is so high, with extremely high rents and housing prices.

During Saint-Hesse's administration of Blanca City, he strictly controlled land prices, provided a large number of affordable housing, tenement buildings, encouraged locals to build peasant houses and urban villages, accepted unified planning, and provided the same infrastructure, which made the rent in Blanca City very low.

Other daily necessities such as vegetables, fruits, and meat are very cheap. Blanca City also has the largest number of department stores and supermarkets in Argentina.

In order to absorb more deposits for construction, the interest rate of Blanca City's banks is the highest in Argentina, and even many wealthy people and landowners from other provinces deposit their pesos in Blanca City's banks.

Some of Saint-Hesse's development ideas have gradually been recognized by a group of people, such as the idea that population is the foundation of a country, and encouraging childbirth can strengthen the country and consumption.

The La Pampa Provincial Government has also released La Pampa Province's first five-year economic plan, which focuses on increasing agricultural production, accelerating the development of inland industrial and mining industries, fully supporting the development of Blanca City's energy, emerging industries, and heavy chemical industries, focusing on supporting the three coastal cities and Santa Rosa, expanding import and export trade, and increasing more employment opportunities. While expanding the development of state-owned capital, it promotes and supports private capital.

At the request of the Provincial Government, the Blanca City Hall has truly established an Argentine "Special Economic Zone," integrating the functions of a free trade zone, a tax-free zone, and an industrial zone, in order to expand foreign trade, attract industrial investment, introduce the latest technology, and increase employment opportunities in the Blanca City Port Processing Export Zone, with the area of the export processing zone expanded to 40 square kilometers.

The Blanca City Port Industrial Zone has been officially upgraded.

The municipal governments of the coastal cities of Otto, Bratovici, and Puerto Colorado have also announced the establishment of their own export processing zones and have received financial support from the La Pampa Provincial Government.