Chapter 1004 Meeting old friends

Hong Kong.

An island.

This island is located about 20 kilometers south of Hong Kong Island.

There are about a hundred families on this island, and they have been fishing for generations.

There are several seafood food stalls on the island, which is the favorite place for Hong Kong's wealthy to eat seafood.

You can catch fish and shrimps by yourself and let the owner of the food stall handle it; you can also order seafood from the food stall, which has the freshest seafood.

There are ordinary and precious seafood here.

The cooking method is not very complicated, mainly steaming and boiling soup.

The main feature is to taste the freshness of seafood.

Today Liu Tao brought guests here to entertain guests here.

"Al, Rashid, my friend, long time no see!" Liu Tao poured a glass of wine for the two.

Their friendship has been almost twenty years!

Compared with the past, they have all changed a lot.

The Panshan Group headed by Liu Tao has become an extremely huge behemoth.

Al and Rashid are already top figures in Iraq. Al is still the Iraqi foreign minister, running around for Iraq's interests, and Rashid is the first person in the Iraqi army.

They are bound by friendship and interests.

The families of Al and Rashid are both among the top five families in Iraq.

Their children are all developing in China.

With the turmoil in Africa and Southeast Asia, the Balkan Peninsula is now in chaos.

The international crude oil price has not risen but fallen, because the world economic growth law has caused the international crude oil price to fall to a low of 9 US dollars per barrel.

Oil companies in Latin American and other oil-producing countries have all gone bankrupt, directly stopped production and went bankrupt.

The Middle East oil exports are 9 US dollars per barrel, and the Middle East still has some profits, but Latin America and Africa are miserable, that is, it is purely a loss for every barrel produced.

Saddam cursed a lot for this.

The 1997 Southeast Asian financial crisis hit not only the financial countries of Southeast Asian countries and Japan and South Korea, but also hit major oil-producing countries.

You know, after all the hardships, Iraq's oil exports finally reached 4 million barrels per day. The oil price fell by $21 per barrel, and Iraq's daily oil revenue was reduced by $84 million, and the annual loss was $30.66 billion.

But even so, Iraq still had to export oil, because after the reconstruction of the Gulf War, Iraq was heavily in debt and needed oil revenue to repay its debts.

Panshan Group is Iraq's largest oil importer.

The oil exported by Iraq is basically imported by Panshan Group.

The two sides have extensive cooperation.

Al's family is the largest communications company in Iraq. Just relying on the communications business, the Al family can make a lot of money every year.

The Rashid family is the largest engineering contractor in Iraq. A large part of the post-war reconstruction work in Iraq was won by the Rashid family and then subcontracted to Huaxia Construction Group or other Huaxia Construction companies.

At the same time, the Rashid family is also the largest real estate developer in Iraq.

The cooperation between the two sides has always been very pleasant.

The two came to China this time and arrived in Hong Kong first. Liu Tao naturally had to entertain the two good friends well.

After three rounds of drinks, they began to talk about business.

However, with the development of Iraq's post-war reconstruction, Iraq's economy has recovered greatly, and Saddam wants to rebuild a strong Iraqi army.

In the Gulf War, the Iraqi army was severely damaged.

In order to protect himself and rebuild Iraq, Saddam had to be humble and recognize Saudi Arabia as the leader of the Arab League.

But it doesn't mean that Saddam is really convinced. On the contrary, Saddam is very unconvinced in his heart.

He has never given up the idea of ​​re-arming a strong army.

Only with a strong army can Iraq have a relatively high international status and he, Saddam, has a relatively large voice.

Over the years, Saddam has never given up.

Iraq sends an army to join the Arab coalition every year, that's it.

In the Gulf War, the poor performance of Soviet tanks disappointed Saddam. On the contrary, the excellent performance of China's advanced tanks made Saddam very satisfied.

Of course, in addition to building a strong tank armored force, Saddam also wants to restore a strong air force and navy, and strengthen air defense.

Now the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has taught everyone a lesson.

Iraq also suffered from air strikes in the Gulf War, so it naturally had to learn lessons. Panshan Group's "Aegis" air defense missile system is the best choice for Iraq.

Liu Tao found it incredible. Iraq has not started to live a good life yet, and Saddam is thinking about re-arming the Iraqi army?

You know, Iraq's foreign debt is still more than 20 billion US dollars!

Now that oil prices are falling, Iraq is not having a good time, after all, the sharp drop in oil revenue is obvious.

Even though a large part of Panshan Group's natural gas is imported from Iraq, 25% of the hydraulic natural gas transported by Panshan Group every month comes from Iraq, which brings considerable income to Iraq.

However, when business comes to the door, there is naturally no reason to push it out.

Of course, due to the agreement with the Americans, some weapons cannot be exported to Iraq.

The total value of military purchases is 15 billion US dollars, and the price has not increased compared to before, but Iraq has to make concessions on the oil settlement currency.

Before this, the RMB accounted for 50% of Iraq's foreign oil export settlement currency, the euro accounted for 30%, and the US dollar accounted for 20%!

The euro accounted for 30%, and this was when the euro was born. Saddam personally did it to disgust the United States.

If the person who hates the United States the most in the world, Gaddafi is at the top of the list, and the next is probably Saddam.

Saddam has been singing against the Americans in the international arena in recent years.

Liu Tao just hopes that Iraq's foreign oil export settlement currency can be increased to 70% or even 80%!

And this military purchase can also be settled in RMB.

Now RMB settlement is no longer a new thing in the world.

After all, using RMB as foreign exchange, almost anything you want can be imported from China.

As the world's factory, China has huge advantages in this regard.

For example, in Southeast Asia and the South Asian subcontinent, the circulation of RMB is very wide, and it can even be used in daily life.

In the Middle East, in addition to Iraq's oil export settlement currency accounting for 50%, Persia also accounts for 50%, and other countries such as Saudi Arabia have more or less adopted RMB settlement.

In Africa, such as Djibouti and Tanzania, a large proportion of trade settlements are also in RMB.

It is precisely because RMB settlements are becoming more and more common in the international market and account for an increasing proportion that the RMB exchange rate is very stable.

Now the RMB is under pressure to not depreciate, to appreciate, and to depreciate.

And how to maintain the degree is a test for decision makers.

This is also a trade-off issue, and it is also a game!

For weapons that cannot be purchased from Panshan Group, Liu Tao also pointed out the direction for Al and Rashid, that is, polar bears and others!

Al and Rashid couldn't help but brighten their eyes.