African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1625 Changes in Porto Suarez

East Africa has the greatest influence in South America, but it does not reach the level of control that the United States had over South America in the previous era. Apart from East Africa, the United States, Britain, Germany, and France also have considerable influence in South America. This does not even include the two former masters of South America, namely Spain and Portugal.

This situation is particularly evident in Argentina and Brazil, where the two countries have taken advantage of the contradictions among the major powers to check and balance each other, thus maintaining their relatively independent status.

However, it will be extremely difficult for Argentina and Brazil to go further and play a greater role in the region.

Since the late 19th century, Argentina has been significantly more active in the Americas than Brazil, which has given Argentina a far greater reputation in the international community than Brazil.

One important reason why Brazil is not well-known is that it is more difficult to integrate internally than Argentina. Institutionally, Brazil only ended its feudal monarchy at the end of the last century, and the imperial system was maintained in Brazil for nearly seventy years. However, this also makes Brazilian politics very conservative and slow to change.

Geographically, Brazil has a vast territory, divided by the Amazon rainforest, plateaus, and mountains. The economic ties between these regions are loose, making it easy for them to form their own spheres of influence.

Therefore, although Brazil has a vast land area and a large population, its development was far inferior to that of Argentina in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and it was not easy for Brazil to achieve success in the field of diplomacy.

Compared to Brazil, Argentina is more modernized, has a healthier industry, and is more politically united, but it is difficult for it to stand out in the face of repeated "baptisms" from various imperialist powers.

Take, for example, the Paraná River shipping issue. The lower reaches of the Paraná River are what Argentina calls the Río de la Plata. The right of passage on the Río de la Plata is a typical example of the struggle between South American countries and external forces.

After Argentina and other countries gained independence from Spain, Argentina inherited Spain's control over the Paraná River estuary. Argentina believes that, as a sovereign riparian state, it has the right to control navigation on the river and levy taxes on passing vessels.

This angered Britain and France, who jointly sent troops to blockade Buenos Aires and dispatched fleets deep into the Río de la Plata and Paraná rivers to forcibly open waterways and protect their commercial interests.

The essence of this conflict is a direct military confrontation between the "freedom of navigation principle" supported by maritime powers and the "sovereignty principle" of coastal states.

And it ultimately led to the signing of the Paraná Freedom of Navigation Treaty, making the Paraná River an "international shipping waterway".

Clearly, while Argentina accepted the outcome, it was entirely due to pressure from other countries. Later, when East Africa entered South America, it further strengthened its freedom of navigation on the Paraná River to ensure that East African warships could freely enter and exit the Paraná River and to strengthen ties with Paraguay.

Speaking of Paraná River shipping, these past few years have also been a crucial period for the transformation of the Paraná River.

Under the leadership of East Africa, major riparian countries, especially Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil, have carried out comprehensive renovations on the upper reaches of the Paraná River, significantly improving its navigation capacity.

The transformation of the Paraná River is also an important strategy for East Africa in South America.

This allowed East Africa's economic reach to penetrate deep into the heart of South America, thus successfully expanding East Africa's market reach in South America.

……

Puerto Suarez, Bolivia.

After several years of development, Puerto Suarez has become a thriving commercial port on the Paraná River, and it is also the last outpost of the East African Navy on the Paraná River.

Although the East African military presence in Puerto Suarez is largely symbolic, it has undoubtedly greatly bolstered the confidence of East African businesspeople and even local residents in the region, as economic development requires a peaceful and stable environment.

Now, the port of Suarez sees a large number of ships coming and going every day, making it an important distribution center for goods.

The city's population has increased to 40,000, which is considered a sizable city in Bolivia, and in Santa Cruz Province, it is the second most prosperous city after the provincial capital.

Like Asunción, Suárez's urban development also bears distinct East African characteristics, and many East African businessmen are active there, especially those from East African mining companies.

"The development of Puerto Suarez is now far ahead of the rest of Santa Cruz province. It is estimated that in another three to five years, it may surpass the provincial capital of Santa Cruz province and become the most economically developed city in Santa Cruz province."

"Looking at the bustling port of Suarez, the manager of Western Metals Company, Kouachi sighed."

“I originally thought that Suarez Port was just a dedicated port for transporting iron ore, but I did not expect that after Suarez Port was built, other commercial activities besides iron ore would also be so prosperous, and even attract Brazilian businessmen to operate here.”

To a large extent, the original purpose of East Africa's aid in building the Port of Suarez was to target the Mutun iron ore mine. However, in addition to its iron ore business, the Port of Suarez has now become a regional comprehensive port.

Because of its well-developed infrastructure and advanced management, the Port of Suarez has created a siphon effect on the surrounding areas.

It's worth noting that the port of Colomba in Brazil is right next to the port of Suarez, yet many Brazilian merchants and businesses choose to use the port of Suarez in Bolivia to ship and receive goods, which speaks volumes.

Kuyach's secretary, Val, said, "Manager, this is perfectly normal. With the help of the Empire, the design and construction of Suarez Port were completed to a high standard, and its efficiency is even comparable to some modern ports in the country."

"The port of Colomba in Brazil did have better basic conditions than the port of Suarez in the past, but Brazil clearly lacks excellent port construction and operation capabilities."

"In addition, Brazil's own lack of attention to the Port of Colomba has destined it to be at a disadvantage in the competition with the Port of Suarez."

Brazil's economic center is on the eastern coast, while Colomba, an inland region, is unlikely to receive much support from the Brazilian government in this era.

Kouac nodded and said, "This also shows that the Brazilians are blind to the truth. If Brazil had chosen to cooperate with us in depth back then, the Port of Colomba would have had a chance. In fact, if they had been more sincere, it would be uncertain whether the Port of Suarez could have been built at all."

The port of Suarez is only a dozen kilometers away from the port of Colomba, so Brazil was able to make compromises at the time, and the construction plan for the port of Suarez could indeed have been aborted.

However, now that Suarez has been developed, it's too late for the Colomba government to reverse things. Of course, because the transformation of the Paraná River has expanded the economic pie, Colomba's development, though far less advanced than Suarez's, has still managed to reap some benefits.

Kouacchi said, "It's foreseeable that it will be even more difficult for the Port of Colomba to surpass the Port of Suarez in the future, unless Brazil puts in a lot of effort to re-expand the Port of Colomba." That being said, it will be very difficult for Colomba to obtain development funds from the Brazilian government, because the Port of Suarez has already developed, and if Colomba increases its investment now, the actual results may be somewhat unsatisfactory.

Val said, "The Port of Suarez is a key project of the Empire's investment in South America, and a crucial link in strengthening ties with Bolivia and seizing the South American inland market."

"Therefore, if the Port of Colomba wants to surpass the Port of Suarez, the Brazilian government should at least invest the same amount of money. However, given the Brazilian government's finances and the inertia of their economic development, it will be difficult for them to make up their minds."

"Moreover, the Empire's port construction capabilities are obviously very different from Brazil's. Unless they outsource the projects to us or other major industrial powers, the port construction costs will only be higher."

"Besides, if they want to transform Colomba into a modern port like Suarez, they will most likely still have to go through the Empire. For example, they may have to import container hoisting equipment from the Empire."

As a country that promotes container shipping, East Africa is also a major standard-setter for container shipping, which means that East Africa is involved in the vast majority of container ports in the world.

The Port of Suarez fully adopts East African standards, which is why its efficiency far surpasses that of the Port of Colomba, attracting companies from Bolivia, Brazil, and even Paraguay to choose the Port of Suarez for transporting goods and cargo.

Today, the Port of Suarez is an important container transshipment port. Industrial products from East Africa are unloaded at the Port of Suarez and then transported by trucks from East Africa to the surrounding areas.

Of course, compared to the transportation of raw materials, the scale of container transportation at the Port of Suarez is not large; it can only be considered to be in its initial stage.

This is mainly because the area around Puerto Suarez has a small population and lacks large cities and towns, resulting in a limited consumer market.

Kujacchi said, "The potential of Suarez Port is far greater than this. Currently, it mainly operates in the transportation of goods such as iron ore and timber, but the local market is clearly not enough. Even if you include the entire border region of Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay, its consumption capacity is not even as good as that of a small or medium-sized city in the Empire."

"To change this situation, we must accelerate the migration of Bolivia's population and economy to the east and fully develop the Santa Cruz Province."

"And accelerate transportation development within the Santa Cruz province so that the port of Suarez can connect with more towns and regions."

Santa Cruz Province will undoubtedly develop sooner or later due to its resource advantages, but for East Africa at present, seeking overseas markets is more important than the need for raw material suppliers.

Through years of effort, East Africa has basically completed its layout in the global mineral and other raw material sectors. The cost of acquiring important development resources such as oil, iron ore, coal, and copper is among the lowest in the world, and the quantities are plentiful and abundant.

Therefore, East Africa is not lacking in raw material suppliers, and its demand for overseas markets is even more urgent.

The port of Suarez now serves more as a source of raw materials, namely the region's abundant iron ore resources.

However, East Africa is clearly not a country lacking iron ore. East Africa itself has enough iron ore resources to fully meet the needs of its local industrial development, and its Southeast Asian colonies also have relatively abundant iron ore resources.

In addition, East Africa has made significant investments in iron ore mines in Western Australia and can import iron ore from places like India.

Even without considering iron ore suppliers outside of South America, East Africa also has many options, with Brazil, Colombia, and West Africa being the main sources of imported iron ore from the west coast of East Africa.

Kouachi said, "The Empire values ​​the future of Puerto Suarez more. Strategically, Santa Cruz Province is a key development area for Bolivia in the future. However, it may take more than ten years, or even several decades, to unleash the market potential of Santa Cruz Province."

“In the past, Bolivia’s economy and population were concentrated in the western highlands, and Bolivia itself does not have a large population. These issues have been obstacles to the development of Santa Cruz Province.”

Secretary Val said with some helplessness, "If it weren't for the Empire's intervention, Santa Cruz Province, where Suarez Port is located, would probably never have been able to develop until the next century."

"We gave Santa Cruz province this opportunity, and it remains to be seen whether they can seize it. Of course, based on my personal guess, it would be almost impossible for them to accomplish this task if they relied entirely on the local government."

Without East African intervention, Santa Cruz province would hardly have received the attention it deserves from the Bolivian government, and therefore the Santa Cruz provincial government should be grateful for East African involvement.

Furthermore, East Africa not only helped them gain policy advantages, but also lifted local transportation restrictions. In the previous life, the Mutung iron ore mine was not developed, and transportation was a difficult problem to solve.

Although the Mutung iron ore mine is a world-class iron ore mine with astonishing reserves, its inland location makes it difficult for its development and transportation costs to compete with those of iron ore mines in Australia, Guinea, and Brazil.

Now, East Africa has directly coordinated the smooth flow of navigation on the Paraná River and carried out comprehensive renovation and management, including the construction of ports such as Suarez, which has made it possible for the Mutung iron ore mine to be transported by water.

In the past, South America, as America's backyard, would not have been feasible for other countries to do this. For example, the Far Eastern Empire was extremely lacking in stable iron ore sources. If it were feasible, with their infrastructure and economic strength, developing the Mutung iron ore mine would have no technical or financial problems whatsoever.

However, the Far Eastern Empire in its previous life not only had to consider economic and technological issues, but also political ones. It was difficult for the Far Eastern Empire to bypass American interference when investing in the region.

The journey from the Mutung iron ore mine to the sea requires passing through at least four countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.

If the United States could just pick any one of these countries and make a move, it could wipe out the enormous investments of its Far Eastern empire.

East Africa, on the other hand, has no such concerns. East African warships can even sail directly to the port of Suarez and have troops stationed there. This military security is the foundation for East African companies to invest in South America with confidence.

Val said, "Bolivia's development of Santa Cruz Province will make it easier for the empire to strengthen its economic control over Bolivia in the future, and the empire will even have military passage rights and troops stationed there."

"It is precisely because of military guarantees that our companies can increase their investment in the local area without worrying about local government defaults or sabotage by hostile imperial forces."

"If it were any other country, even the United States or the United Kingdom, it would be very difficult to do this, and the South Atlantic just happens to be the area where the Imperial Navy has an advantage."

(End of this chapter)