Rise of the Argentine Empire

After the important meeting of the uncompromising Radical Civic Union party concluded, it was already August 22, 1958. At least, the main members of the Radical Civic Union in La Pampa Province had reached a basic consensus in their thinking and had been informed of some of the plans of the Radical Civic Union headquarters.

In general, the overall work goal of the uncompromising Radical Civic Union in La Pampa Province for the next stage is to focus on economic development, especially in the greater urban areas and the districts and counties below the city level. In the next four years, the power of the provincial government will be decentralized, especially the power of economic development. Now that most of the people in the Radical Civic Union are our own, we can do some advance preparation, which is a small perk.

The weather today was not bad. The sun shone down in the morning, and with winter almost over, the weather was warming up a bit. The cold wind receded, and bathing in the sunlight made people feel warm.

After the meeting, the city's forces in Blanca began to operate, preparing to meet the new development challenges. As the trump card in Saint-Hesse's hand, Blanca City bears the heaviest burden and is also the second city in Argentina with the potential to challenge Buenos Aires, after Córdoba.

Saint-Hesse made new demands on Blanca City's economy, requiring that by 1963, the economic scale of Blanca City should reach more than 3 billion US dollars, and the economic scale of La Pampa Province should reach more than 4.5 billion US dollars, to complete his work deployment.

Saint-Hesse estimated that at least 20 new medium and large-sized hydroelectric and thermal power plants would need to be built to meet the huge electricity demand of La Pampa Province. In addition to coal power, natural gas power generation also needs to be put on the agenda. Argentina is seriously short of coal, and the valuable imported coal resources need to be used for smelting steel. Other things like wind power plants can also be technically prepared, and even solar power plants, but photovoltaic power generation requires more advanced technology, which is difficult for Argentina to achieve.

This can just achieve a new five-year plan, and the time can just connect with Peron's third five-year plan. Although Argentina's five-year plan can now be said to be completely abandoned, since Peron came to power in 1947, Argentina has successively implemented two five-year plans. The first five-year plan can barely be considered successful, and the second completely failed.

To achieve this goal, Blanca City's economy needs to grow by about 4 times, and the remaining cities need to expand by 1.5 times. This is a very difficult task, but it is not impossible to achieve.

This includes the Cohen Consortium's expansion plan, the establishment of 300 new medium and large-sized state-owned factories in La Pampa Province within 4 years, the upgrading plan for small and medium-sized factories, and the plan to introduce domestic and foreign capital. If it is fully achieved, it is possible to realize it. The rapid development of Japan is a precedent.

Moreover, this is not from 0-1, but from 1-10. Although it is also very difficult, it is no longer the kind of situation where there is nothing. It is equivalent to the process of a gazelle company to a unicorn company. It has completed the thrilling leap from a small and medium-sized company to a large company. It is time to carry out steady development and expansion.

Blanca City's industry already has a certain economic foundation, and the prosperous trade has stimulated the birth of many small and medium-sized commercial enterprises, with great potential. Last year, there were nearly 200,000 various commercial enterprises in Buenos Aires, which is eight or nine times that of Blanca City. Blanca City still has great potential to be tapped.

In terms of population, Blanca City will soon be close to Buenos Aires, and the administrative area is twenty or thirty times that of Buenos Aires. This is a huge market and also an important talent resource. The overall quality of the population may not be as high-end as Buenos Aires, but economic development does not completely depend on high-end talents. With the current Argentine industrial system, it has not yet reached the level of high-end industries.

Saint-Hesse has already prepared for such competition, including the newly built universities and various research institutes.

Saint-Hesse has established an efficient administrative system, a service-oriented city hall, and the registration of commercial entities is also very simple. The tax policy is also very relaxed, and there are many opportunities to make money. This is an era of entrepreneurship, and the number of commercial entities is increasing explosively.

The new state-owned enterprises have received strong support from the public, the city hall, and the provincial government. Corresponding regulatory measures are few and easy to implement, and most tax rates in Blanca City are at a lower level.

Lower tax rates are a good thing for many people, including shops with fewer than two employees, husband-and-wife shops, and the like.

Interestingly, the investment expenditures of the La Pampa Provincial Government and the Blanca City Municipal Government do not show adverse effects. The capital expenditure projects of the two governments range from coastal expressways to the crazy construction of new universities, hospitals and other public facilities, investing in various public research institutes, research institutes, building the La Pampa Reservoir and digging canals, and building various municipal facilities in advance.

If conditions did not allow, Saint-Hesse would have even wanted to build a civil airport. Although several military airports have already been built, if Argentina wants to go to the world, various air routes are a rigid demand, especially transoceanic routes.

This pursuit of large-scale construction was once regarded as a waste, but now it seems that this move has great foresight. For example, Saint-Hesse considered the needs of 1 million people when there were 200,000 people.

This has increased Saint-Hesse's approval rating a lot, after all, it has provided a lot of employment opportunities.

Although education is quite universal, there are many Argentine citizens and foreign workers with low education levels. This is another form of work-for-relief. US President Roosevelt played it quite well.

Due to the large number of women and young people joining the labor force, the unemployment rate in Blanca City has risen slightly, and wages have fallen slightly, but the gold content is still the highest in Argentina, constantly attracting unemployed people from other places.

"The desire for prosperity is a universal human trait, but of course not everyone in every country can get the necessary opportunities."

This is what Aristotle said, and even after two thousand years, it still makes sense.

With the large increase in population, Saint-Hesse has no way to strictly control the increase in fertility, but the social atmosphere here has indeed changed, so the birth rate is still very considerable.

La Pampa Province's young population structure and strong economic growth have allowed it to enter a golden age.

In the short term, this is a great thing. Argentina lacks people. If it wants to compete with foreign countries, the cheap labor of backward countries is a huge advantage. This is how East Asia and the Nanyang countries have risen, but they have far more people than Argentina.

If industries such as textiles and clothing want to exert their competitiveness, female workers are still very important. Other industries need more male workers, such as steel mills and machinery factories. This is the trend of the times. Saint-Hesse has no way to stop it. In the past few years, Blanca City did not have many people, so he could do whatever he wanted without much problem. Now that there are more people, he can't do it.

Blanca City's productivity has indeed increased very quickly, and at least it already has a tendency to move from the world's third-rate to second-rate. The constantly increasing savings behavior has provided Saint-Hesse with sufficient funds, and the competition among several banks and the increase in interest rates have finally overwhelmed inflation, making the people of Blanca City willing to save money.

The new president's coming to power has boosted market confidence, the excessive issuance of currency has been stopped again, and the oil dollars, or rather the development rights of Patagonian oil, have been transferred to the old Americans, but it has indeed enriched foreign exchange, and La Pampa Province has also increased a lot of foreign exchange for the Argentine Central Bank.

Argentina seems to have entered a brief period of prosperity, and the domestic economy looks bright. Moreover, the new president realizes the importance of heavy industry and no longer relies solely on light industry and agriculture, which has increased domestic and foreign investment.

Besides the spending, the two carriages had arrived. Despite the numerous crises at the national level, the original recession trend had indeed been reversed, proving that Frondizi had some ability.

Saint-Hesse had also offered many policy suggestions, some of which were adopted, which was a great thing for him.

In fact, as long as it wasn't those single-minded warlords who loved to make money coming to power, and if they controlled currency issuance and lowered inflation, Argentina could last a long time. This land was too rich; just growing grain and mining could lead to a good life, like future Australia.

The Land Down Under might seem like a developed country, but it was actually just mining, sheep farming, and agriculture. There wasn't much real industry because the population was too small and lacked a domestic market.

…

The next day, Saint-Hesse went to the provincial government building early in the morning. He needed to plan some things, including some of the latest personnel changes, all of which required his personal attention.

This Radical Civic Union meeting lasted a total of 3 days. In addition to some progress on economic development, they discussed the follow-up work.

During the meeting, Saint-Hesse also frequently met with city staff and state-owned economic system personnel who had performed outstandingly in their work and commended them at the meeting.

Although these commendations were internal to the Radical Civic Union, they were real qualifications for promotion. They were of great benefit to their election campaigns and promotions and salary increases, not just mere commendations.

The information analysis work for these meeting personnel was mainly composed of four parts: first, information intelligence from the Falcon Bureau; second, analysis from the Pampas Investigation Bureau; third, internal assessment by the Radical Civic Union; and fourth, work assessment by the Provincial Government Hall. Saint-Hesse was responsible for the final summary and review.

The Radical Civic Union within La Pampa had already established a secret file for the core members of all of La Pampa. No more than 10 people could access it, and these 10 people were all Saint-Hesse's confidants.

This personnel file was updated every month, mainly recording important personnel to help Saint-Hesse make judgments. It was Saint-Hesse's important talent pool, which was also why Saint-Hesse was able to control La Pampa Province well. Who was sent by whom, who had contact with whom, who was suitable for promotion, and who was suitable for demotion were all recorded through the file.

Among them, the most important part was the rise of the state-owned economic system, which was extremely important to Saint-Hesse's economic strategy.

Many of the heads of state-owned factories and state-owned companies in La Pampa Province had not lost their civil servant status and were relatively experienced, allowing them to be re-appointed by Saint-Hesse when necessary.

This was a civil servant model learned from the Soviets, although such a model appeared more often in New China.

Being able to manage state-owned companies with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people and having excellent development experience meant having unique economic experience in managing the economy of a super city or even the economic development of a province.

Moreover, frequent transfers could also prevent state-owned company assets, personnel, and finances from becoming too dependent, causing the company to become an independent kingdom and the private property of some people. Currently, these conditions were gradually maturing, and it could start with companies under the Blanca State-owned Assets Committee.

The Blanca City State-owned Assets Committee had been established for more than three years, and there were already four or five state-owned companies with a large scale of more than 10,000 employees.

The real focus of work was after the meeting. It was time to solve some of the hidden dangers in La Pampa Province.

Although there had been great development this year, the political situation was full of compromise, and most importantly, there was not enough talent. Even though so many election teams had been sent out, there was still a lack of sufficient talent.

Except for Blanca City, the other cities were like hungry little wolves, extremely eager for talent.

After Blanca City expanded to more than two million people, a large number of outstanding talents had truly been selected.

It was time to release them to train and replace some people. Moreover, state-owned companies had also trained a large number of outstanding talents who could supplement the vacancies and train another batch of compound talents.

In terms of population, Blanca could already be regarded as a global super city.

Of course, some specific personnel arrangements would be done slowly. After all, it wouldn't do to mess things up again just after the lower levels had just been integrated. This couldn't be rushed, and Saint-Hesse planned to solve it slowly.

However, where there was upward movement, there was also downward movement. Many district chiefs in Blanca City were transferred to the Provincial Government Hall to serve as ministers, and many ministers were also sent by him to various administrative regions to serve as district chiefs, forming a linkage.

The resources of the Provincial Government Hall were not actually that many, but Blanca was very large. The focus of support was still on La Pampa Province, and then it was transferred to other cities through Blanca City. The Provincial Government Hall also provided support to other backward cities through other channels.

As of now, the cooperation between the two-level government halls was actually very good, with a high degree of trust. Personnel transfers were also conducive to communication, and the flow of people, finances, and materials was accelerated.

Saint-Hesse used various newspapers and periodicals of the Provincial Government Hall to convey various policies and influence public opinion.

The Propaganda Department of the Provincial Government Hall was the most important propaganda department, and currently, in terms of broadcasting and newspapers, it was basically at the first-class level in Argentina.

Saint-Hesse had his own set of ways to engage in propaganda, and he was also a professional in this field. The 'New Argentine People's Daily' was one of the three most successful newspapers in Argentina.

The original New Argentine Newspaper Office was still one of the most powerful newspaper media companies in Argentina. Other newspapers he had handled, such as the 'Blanca Economic Daily,' the 'Pampas People's Newspaper,' and the 'Blanca Evening News,' had very impressive circulations. This was also why he could quickly influence the entire La Pampa Province.

There were many other newspapers, such as the 'La Pampa Defense Military Newspaper' and the 'Radical Civic Union Internal Journal.' Now was not the era of Perón, nor was it the era of the military government. Public opinion had become more free and more indulgent.

In the public opinion arena, he had no opponents in La Pampa Province. When he ran for election last year, he spent a lot of effort on various public opinions, but he no longer needed to personally come forward.

Saint-Hesse was actually very good at using propaganda to achieve his goals, and the Cohen Consortium controlled at least three media newspaper offices nationwide through complex means, which gave Saint-Hesse a lot of help and also influenced a lot of public opinion, most of which was very positive.

This meeting also allowed him to get a feel for the situation at the meeting and discover more talent. After all, no matter how detailed the files were, they were still intelligence. If he really wanted to win over and promote someone, actual communication was also very important.

…

In addition to the affairs of this province, Saint-Hesse gradually realized that the development of La Pampa Province had approached its current limit. It was necessary to deeply explore more development channels, such as the vast resources of Argentina's northern provinces.

The $4.5 billion major development plan must allow him to go out, both domestically and internationally. The focus of work was still domestic.

Now his power had been consolidated, and provinces like Córdoba, Buenos Aires, and Santa Fe, which were traditional major provinces, had great potential to be tapped.

Establishing cooperation in the sense of the Provincial Government Hall was also very important. Many of the major northern provinces did not value Saint-Hesse very much before, also because he was too young, but from his actions this year, he had proven his ability, so equal exchanges could already be carried out.

Recently, several high-ranking officials from major northern provinces had sent invitations to La Pampa Province for exchanges and cooperation to discuss the development of the two provinces. Saint-Hesse was also actively preparing. This time, he could be considered to have truly entered the upper echelons of Argentina's civil service society, no longer just playing around.

In other aspects, some construction plans also needed to be accelerated. Saint-Hesse would once again receive a large amount of funding.

Argentina's population was already close to 30 million, and it was no exaggeration to call it a populous country now. The net outflow of population had been temporarily curbed, and a large part of it had flowed to Blanca City. Recently, more and more new immigrants were flowing mainly to La Pampa Province and Blanca City.

The easiest place in Argentina to obtain Argentine citizenship was Blanca City. The Argentine Ministry of the Interior had repeatedly warned Blanca City, but it had not had a great impact on Saint-Hesse. He outwardly complied but secretly disobeyed. There were 400,000 to 500,000 illegal foreign residents in Blanca City, and thousands or tens of thousands of people were obtaining new household registrations every month, and it was still regular and legal.