Chapter 382 Huge Loan

"We have successively purchased considerable real estate in Loti City, especially the area near the port, which was originally a very dirty slum area... We have purchased the land there and are preparing for real estate development..."

Prior to this, West Africa Group had acquired a local construction company in Loti and renamed it Golden Africa Real Estate Company.

Next to Barron, the person introducing him was the general manager of Golden Africa Real Estate Company. In addition, the CEO of West Africa Group, Hainaut Duran, also followed.

It is conceivable that with the development of Loti, especially the cargo transshipment, commerce and oil extraction here, a certain size of relatively wealthy people will inevitably form.

These people will inevitably have needs to improve their living conditions, including housing conditions.

The upcoming project of Golden Africa Real Estate Company is provided for this purpose. They are planning to build a high-end residential area in Loti, including all the supporting facilities needed for daily life...

Of course, the "high end" here is relative to other slum areas in Loti.

After this, Barron returned to his villa, where he met representatives of the Bank of England who arrived at Lottie.

The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom. At the same time, it also has the function of Britain's external financial liaison.

As the head of the Bank of England who came to Colo this time, Barron had known Mervyn King before. At the same time, he also knew that the deputy governor in charge of monetary policy of the Bank of England was on July 1 this year. Will take over as Governor of the Bank of England.

I'm afraid this is also the reason why he was responsible for leading the team to Kolo this time.

"We have reviewed the data of the Colo offshore oil field and have to say that the reserves in the blocks currently to be developed are staggering..."

"So for the benefit of Britain, we should complete this agreement..."

After hearing Barron's words, Mervyn King looked at him thoughtfully and said:

"To be precise, this is more in line with everyone's interests. Although there will be risks, it is worth it..."

Mervyn King shrugged:

"If it can provide benefits to more British people, it will be completely worthwhile. If the British Oil and Gas Investment Company is a public company instead of a private company, then this will be even more perfect..."

"Believe me, it will be there soon..."

A few days later, Mervyn King, on behalf of the Bank of Scotland, signed a low-interest loan agreement totaling up to 4 billion pounds with the Colo government.

The Colo government will use part of their profits from Colo Petroleum Company as collateral and repayment channels to borrow 4 billion pounds from the Bank of England for domestic infrastructure.

The loans have a term of 10 years and are repaid in installments starting from the sixth year, with an annual interest rate of around 3.5%.

At this time, the exchange rate of the British pound against the U.S. dollar has returned to 192.4 billion pounds, equivalent to approximately 7.64 billion U.S. dollars.

The Kolo government plans to use these funds to build the Loda Railway and Loda Expressway, the transportation arteries that run through the north and south of Kolo.

Its line will run from Loti, the southernmost point of Colo, to Dassault, the northernmost city, with a total length of nearly 600 kilometers.

It can be said that this will be the largest transportation construction project in the history of Colo. Next, the Colo government will conduct a global tender to seek contractors for these two "super projects".

The significance of obtaining a 4 billion pound loan from the Bank of England this time is not only to obtain construction funds for the Colo government, but more importantly, through the process of loaning it by the Bank of England, it also provides the Colo offshore oil field to a certain extent. mining, plus “insurance” from England.

After all, this loan was pledged by the Colo government with part of its future earnings from Colo Petroleum Company...

…

During Barron's personal experience on the way to the Munger base, they also realized the necessity of building the Loda Expressway.

Because the Manger Base is located in the northernmost Prairie Province of Colo, although it is not as close to the northern border as Dassault City at the northernmost end of the Loda Expressway under construction - the Manger Base is close to the border of Prairie Province and Kara Province, but From Lottie to Munger base, the straight-line distance is still close to 500 kilometers.

This is only a straight-line distance. If we rely on Colo's original road network to get there, after many twists and turns, the actual distance traveled by the team will increase by at least two-thirds.

Moreover, to say it is a highway network is already quite contrary to one’s will.

In fact, there are many roads in the middle that are very rough and can only be regarded as dirt roads, not even the most basic cement roads.

This is the current traffic situation in Kolo, so Huaxia's saying, "If you want to be rich, build roads first" is very reasonable.

Finally, Barron and his party took a car from Loti to the junction of the Maritime Province and the Prairie Province, and then took two Chinook helicopters from the Colo Corps to reach the Munger base.

The reason for this is that the Chinook helicopter has a range of less than 500 kilometers. Starting from the junction of the Maritime Province and the Prairie Province, it can go directly to the Munger base with a full tank of fuel.

Of course, the riding experience on a military helicopter like the Chinook is definitely not as comfortable as the luxury helicopter Barron bought in London.

The most obvious point is that the helicopter can still hear a lot of noise in the crew cabin - they need to wear earplugs the whole time.

During this process, Barron and the others looked out the window of the Chinook helicopter and could clearly see that Colo's roads and infrastructure at this time still needed more development.

The helicopter landed directly in the Munger Base. After so long development, the Munger Base has become quite large.

"Your Highness the Duke, welcome to Munger Base."

After Barron took Fan Bingbing off the helicopter, Markle Paulson, the director of the Munger base, gave Barron a standard British military salute and said.

With Markle's introduction, Barron also learned more about the current situation at the Munger base.

Unlike when this was the base camp of the Protector Military Company in Africa, and most of the personnel stayed here, after the establishment of the new government of Colo, more than half of the personnel of the Protector Military Company here joined the Colo Army, and the Munger Base There are not as many people as before.

Well, this mainly refers to the official Protector Military Company armed personnel, but now you can see more black faces at the Munger base.

Similar to Beloo Castle in Northern Ireland, which is mainly used for adaptive training of newly recruited British veterans before going to Iraq, Munger Base here except for two mines controlled by the Protector Military Company (one diamond mine, In addition to guarding a gold mine), another major task is to train the black recruits hired in Kolo.

As mentioned before, Kolo was an underdeveloped country before, and the income of ordinary civilians was extremely low. Compared with this, joining the Kolo Legion and becoming a hired soldier became a "high-income occupation."

Therefore, the enthusiasm of local young people to "join the army" is very high, because if a person joins the army, his salary is likely to be enough to support a family...

In this case, the Koro Legion will be able to have more sources of troops for merit-based selection.

As we all know, the physical fitness of local Africans is very good, but their discipline and understanding are relatively lacking.

For the Koro Legion, the biggest headache is the training of these new recruits...