1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3644

Since the other party took the initiative to mention cooperation in maritime trade, Dong Shangyi was more certain that Sing Tao was in great need of external assistance in this area, which just happened to be in line with the cooperation conditions that Fujian could provide.

Dong Shangyi couldn't help but admire Xu Yuzhuo's decision this time. He had completely grasped the needs of the two overseas regions, Luzon and Sing Tao, and the cooperation plans he formulated were all tailor-made and highly targeted.

Dong Shangyi then briefly introduced the purpose of his visit to Sing Tao, which was to promote in-depth cooperation between the two places in various fields. Of course, the primary project was the shipping-related industry that Sing Tao took the initiative to propose.

As expected, Roger and Tan Juren both showed great interest in this and listened carefully to Dong Shangyi's introduction.

For Sing Tao, the cooperation conditions proposed by Fujian are indeed very attractive.

In terms of maritime transport capacity, Fujian can organize no less than one hundred cargo ships' ocean-going capacity in a short period of time to enter the area near the Strait of Malacca to carry out shipping tasks, and can continue to invest more capacity depending on demand in the future.

In terms of shipbuilding capacity, Fujian's three state-owned shipyards, seven private shipyards, and one or two hundred large and small workshops in various industries that support them have a capacity far exceeding that of Xingdao's shipbuilding industry. At present, they are continuously building slipways and docks, recruiting and training professional craftsmen, and expanding their shipbuilding capacity on a large scale.

"Lord Xu has set a goal for Fujian's shipbuilding industry to quadruple production capacity within three years, and to make civilian shipbuilding the best in the country within ten years! Fujian's shipyards will not only build ships for Fujian, but also for all of Hai Han!"

Dong Shangyi couldn't help beaming with excitement when he got to the point where he started to paint a rosy picture of Xu Yuzhuo's plan for everyone present.

Roger and Tan Juren were not affected by his emotions. After all, no matter how developed Fujian's shipbuilding industry is, it is still Fujian's industry. What Sing Tao needs now is not empty talk, but marine transport capacity that can be put into practical use as soon as possible.

However, there were too many people at this occasion and it was not convenient to discuss the details of the cooperation. Roger ended the topic at the right time and told Dong Shangyi that a formal meeting would be arranged tomorrow to discuss specific measures.

Dong Shangyi also realized that he was a little too excited, so he quickly calmed down and thanked Roger for his arrangement.

The next day, the two sides met again in a meeting room at the Sing Tao Combat Command, and the atmosphere was much more serious than yesterday.

However, Tan Juren did not attend the meeting. Only Roger and his adjutant Tan Tianlei attended.

Through yesterday's communication, the two sides have actually reached a basic intention for cooperation. The content of the next talks will be about specific cooperation projects and implementation details.

What surprised Dong Shangyi a little was that the demands put forward by Roger even exceeded his expectations.

Roger hopes that Fujian will be able to provide Sing Tao with a large cargo fleet of no less than 150 cargo ships within the year, which is half more than the number proposed by Dong Shangyi at the banquet yesterday.

However, regarding the operation mode of the freight fleet, Roger believes that it can be very flexible. Sing Tao can lease or buy these cargo ships, or the shipping companies in Fujian can operate them within the jurisdiction of Sing Tao, but the specific routes need to be designated by Sing Tao.

Dong Shangyi suggested that Fujian Shipping Company organize a fleet of 100 ships to operate in Xingdao to alleviate the current shortage of shipping capacity. In this way, the fleet can retain Fujian sailors and crew, and Xingdao only needs to provide pilots who are familiar with the environment, which can also reduce the urgency of Xingdao's demand for ship drivers to a certain extent.

For more shipping capacity needs, Sing Tao can place orders with a shipyard in Fujian, with deliveries starting from the first half of next year.

As for the price of the ship, Dong Shangyi gave a very competitive quote. Through the owner of the Fujian Merchants' Store, he had learned about the local shipbuilding costs in Xingdao, and added another 20% to the price as his own quote.

Although this price is slightly higher than if Sing Tao built its own ships, the advantage is that Fujian can provide additional production capacity which Sing Tao does not have, and it also leaves some room for the other party to bargain.

As expected, Roger immediately stated that if Sing Tao wanted to place a shipbuilding order with Fujian, it would definitely be a huge number, and there would be arrangements for long-term cooperation in the future, so Fujian would need to lower the price to be reasonable.

Finally, the two sides agreed to reduce the shipbuilding price by 10%, and Xingdao would purchase 150 civilian models of Yugong-class heavy-load sailing ships from Fujian, to be delivered in three years. In addition, it would purchase 10 500-ton expedition-class sailing ships and 20 200-ton exploration-class sailing ships, all of which were civilian models and delivered in two years.

Although these exploration-class and expedition-class ships are civilian models, it is not complicated to convert them into armed merchant ships. They can be deployed to the higher-risk southern continental routes, or simply handed over to the Star Island Mercenary Corps for use. The cost is much lower than military models.

This order quantity has already exceeded the Luzon region that Dong Shangyi visited earlier, and is almost catching up with the orders from Japan. However, the shipbuilding orders placed by Japan in Fujian are mainly warships, which is somewhat different from Xingdao.

At the same time, the shipping cooperation between the two sides will reach a new level. In addition to the hundreds of cargo ships that will enter the Xingdao area, a fixed commercial route will be established between Xingdao and Fujian, expanding the current trading goods categories from more than 30 to more than 400, and jointly reducing various miscellaneous fees after the goods arrive at the port.

In addition, the two places will organize high-level officials to visit Fujian every two years, and the two places will take turns to host them. At the end of this year or the beginning of next year, Sing Tao will send a senior official to visit Fujian and hold the first formal talks with Xu Yuzhuo after the cooperation between the two sides.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Dong Shangyi could feel from the negotiation process that Roger was a very pragmatic person. There was nothing fancy about his negotiation style. The demands and conditions he put forward were very practical and oppressive, which would not leave Dong Shangyi much room for bargaining.

Dong Shangyi believed that this was probably related to Roger's status as a military general, and he brought his decisive and ruthless style to the negotiating table.

However, Roger showed little interest in Dong Shangyi's proposal for political cooperation, saying that he needed to discuss the matter with Tan Juren before giving a response.

Dong Shangyi observed Roger's expression and thought that his attitude might indicate that he had some concerns about this, so he boldly asked if there was any inconvenience.

Seeing that he was very eager, Roger did not continue to beat around the bush and explained the reason to him very frankly: "As far as I know, Mr. Dong has already reached a political cooperation agreement with Luzon. Is this true?"

Although Dong Shangyi didn't know how Roger knew about this secret agreement, since the other party had already received the news, there was no need to conceal it, so he nodded in acknowledgement.

Roger continued, "In the development of the Southern Continent project, Xingdao and Luzon are direct competitors. Even a political alliance through Fujian, a third party, may damage Xingdao's interests in related projects."