Chapter 1625 Changes in Suarez Port
East Africa ranks first in influence in South America, but it cannot reach the control that the United States had over South America in the past. In addition to East Africa, the United States, Britain, Germany, and France all have considerable influence in South America, not to mention the two old masters of South America, Spain and Portugal.
This situation is particularly evident in Argentina and Brazil. The two countries have taken advantage of the contradictions among many major powers to check and balance each other, allowing the two countries to maintain a relatively independent status.
However, it is extremely difficult for Argentina and Brazil to go further and play a 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 much higher reputation in the international community than Brazil.
One of the important reasons 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 lasted for nearly seven decades in Brazil. But it is also because of this that Brazilian politics is very conservative and changes are slow.
Geographically, Brazil is a vast country divided by the Amazon rainforest, plateaus, and mountains. The economic ties between the various regions are loose, making it easy for each region to form its own sphere of influence.
Therefore, Brazil has a vast land area and a large population, but from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, its development was far less than that of Argentina, and it was not easy to achieve results in the diplomatic field.
Compared with Brazil, Argentina is more modernized, has relatively healthy industries, and is relatively united politically. However, it has found it difficult to make a breakthrough in the face of the successive "baptisms" of various imperialist powers.
For example, the issue of navigation on the Paraná River. The lower reaches of the Paraná River are what Argentina calls the La Plata River. The right of passage on the La Plata River is a typical case of the struggle between South American countries and external forces.
After Argentina and other countries gained independence from Spain, it inherited Spanish control of the Paraná River estuary. Argentina argued that as a riparian sovereign, it had the right to control navigation on the river and levy taxes on passing ships.
This angered Britain and France at the time. The two countries jointly sent troops to blockade Buenos Aires and dispatched fleets deep into the La Plata River and the Paraná River to forcibly open the waterway by force to protect their commercial interests.
The essence of this conflict is a direct military confrontation between the "principle of freedom of navigation" supported by maritime powers and the "principle of sovereignty" of coastal countries.
It also ultimately led to the signing of the Paraná River Free Navigation Treaty, making the Paraná River an "international shipping waterway."
Obviously, although Argentina accepted this result, it was completely pressured by other countries. Later, when East Africa entered South America, it further strengthened the freedom of navigation in the Paraná River to ensure that East African warships could freely enter and exit the Paraná River and strengthen ties with Paraguay.
Speaking of Paraná River shipping, these years have also been a critical period for the transformation of the Paraná River.
Under the leadership of East Africa, major coastal countries, especially Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil, have carried out comprehensive transformation of the upper reaches of the Paraná River, greatly improving the shipping capacity of the Paraná River.
The transformation of the Paraná River is also an important strategy for East Africa in South America.
This has allowed East Africa's economic tentacles to penetrate deep into the heart of South America, thereby successfully expanding East Africa's market reach in South America.
…
Puerto Suarez, Bolivia.
After several years of development, Porto Suarez has become a prosperous and important commercial port on the Paraná River. It is also the last stronghold of the East African Navy on the Paraná River.
Although the East African garrison in Puerto Suarez is more symbolic, there is no doubt that this has greatly consolidated the confidence of East African businessmen and even local residents in this place. After all, economic development also requires a peaceful and stable environment.
Now, many ships come in and out of Port Suarez every day, and it has become an important commodity distribution center.
The city's population has also increased to 40,000, which is considered a fairly large city in Bolivia. In Santa Cruz Province, it is the second most prosperous city after the provincial capital.
Like Asuncion, the urban construction of Suarez also has distinct East African characteristics, and there are many East African businessmen active here, especially some East African mining company personnel, who are active here frequently.
"Puerto Suarez is currently developing at a very fast pace in Santa Cruz Province. It's estimated that in three to five years, it will likely surpass the provincial capital and become the most economically developed city in the province."
Kuyachi, the manager of Western Metal Company, sighed as he looked at the prosperous Port of Suarez.
"I originally thought that Suarez Port was just a dedicated port for transporting iron ore, but I didn't expect that after it was built, other commercial activities besides iron ore would flourish, even attracting Brazilian businessmen to come here."
To a large extent, the original purpose of East Africa's aid to build the Port of Suarez was for the Mutong Iron Mine, but now, in addition to the iron ore business, the Port of Suarez has actually become a regional comprehensive port.
Because of the perfect infrastructure and advanced management of Suarez Port, it has formed a siphon effect on the surrounding areas.
You should know that next to the Port of Suarez is the Port of Corumba in Brazil, but many Brazilian businessmen and companies choose the Port of Suarez in Bolivia to receive and send goods, which is very telling.
Kuyachi's secretary, Val, said, "Manager, this is perfectly normal. With the Empire's help, the original design and construction of Suarez Port were completed to a very high standard. Its efficiency is even comparable to some modern ports in China."
"The basic conditions of the Port of Corumba in Brazil were indeed better than those of the Port of Suarez, but Brazil clearly lacks the ability to build and operate high-quality ports."
"Coupled with Brazil's lack of attention to the Port of Corumba, it is destined to be at a disadvantage in its competition with the Port of Suarez."
Brazil's economic center is on the eastern coast, and Corumba, an inland area, is unlikely to receive much support from the Brazilian government in this era.
Kuyachi nodded and said, "This also shows that the Brazilians are short-sighted. If Brazil had chosen to cooperate with us at the time, Porto Corumba would have had a chance. Even if they had been more sincere, it is still unknown whether Porto Suarez could be built."
Port Suarez is only a dozen kilometers away from Port Corumba, so if Brazil had made a compromise at the time, the construction plan of Port Suarez might have been stillborn.
However, now that Puerto Suarez has been built, it is too late for the Corumba government to make amends. Of course, because the transformation of the Paraná River has made the pie bigger, although Corumba's development is far less than Suarez, it can still share some of the benefits.
"It is foreseeable that it will be even more difficult for the Port of Corumba to surpass the Port of Suarez in the future, unless Brazil makes a major effort to expand the Port of Corumba," said Kuyach.
That being said, it is very difficult for Columba to obtain development funds from the Brazilian government because Porto Suarez has already developed, and if Columba increases its investment now, the actual results may be somewhat unsatisfactory.
Val said: "Suarez Port is the Empire's key investment project in South America. It is a key link to strengthen ties with Bolivia and seize the inland market of South America."
"Therefore, if the Port of Corumba wants to surpass the Port of Suarez, the Brazilian government should at least invest the same amount of funds. However, the Brazilian government's finances and the inertia of its economic development make it difficult to make such a decision."
"Furthermore, the Empire's port construction capabilities are obviously very different from Brazil's. Unless they outsource the project to us or other industrial powers, the cost of port construction will only be higher."
"Besides that, if they want to turn Corumba into a modern port like Puerto Suarez, they will most likely have to rely on the Empire. For example, container lifting equipment and other equipment may have to be imported from the Empire."
As a country that promoted containers, East Africa is also the main setter of container shipping standards, which means that most of the world's container ports have East African participation.
The Port of Suarez fully adopts the East African standards, so its efficiency has a crushing effect on the Port of Corumba, thereby attracting companies from Bolivia, Brazil, and even Paraguay to choose the Port of Suarez to transport 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 to surrounding areas by road via trucks from East Africa.
Of course, compared with the transportation of raw materials, the scale of container transportation in Suarez Port is not large and can only be regarded as the starting stage.
This is mainly because the population around Puerto Suarez is not large and there are no large cities and towns, so the consumer market is very limited.
Kuyachi said, "The upper limit of Port Suarez is far greater than this. Currently, the transportation of goods such as iron ore and timber is its main business, but the local market is clearly insufficient. Even if the border area between Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay is included, its consumption capacity is not even as high 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 department."
“And accelerate transportation construction within Santa Cruz Province so that Port Suarez can connect with more towns and regions.”
There is no doubt that Santa Cruz Province will develop sooner or later with its resource advantages, but for East Africa today, seeking overseas markets is more important than the demand for raw material suppliers.
Through so many years of efforts, East Africa's layout in the world's mineral and other raw materials fields has basically been completed. The cost of obtaining important development resources such as oil, iron ore, coal, and copper ore is among the lowest in the world, and the quantity is large and sufficient.
Therefore, East Africa does not lack sources of raw material supply, and its demand for overseas markets is even more urgent.
The role that Port Suarez now plays is more of a raw material supply base, that is, the rich local iron ore resources.
However, East Africa is obviously not a country that lacks iron ore. East Africa's own iron ore resources can fully meet the needs of local industrial development, and East Africa's South Seas colonies also have relatively abundant iron ore resources.
In addition, East Africa's iron ore investment in Western Australia is also astonishing, and iron ore can be imported from places such as India.
Not to mention iron ore suppliers outside South America, even in South America, East Africa also has many options. Among them, Brazil, Colombia and West Africa are the main sources of iron ore imports on the west coast of East Africa.
Kuyachi said: "The empire is more concerned about the future of Puerto Suarez. Strategically, Santa Cruz Province is a key development area for Bolivia in the future. However, it may take more than ten years, or even decades, to stimulate the market potential of Santa Cruz Province."
"In the past, Bolivia's economy and population were concentrated in the western highlands. Furthermore, Bolivia itself has a relatively small population. These problems have hindered the development of Santa Cruz Province."
Secretary Val said somewhat helplessly, "If the Empire hadn't intervened, the development of Santa Cruz Province, where Puerto Suarez is located, would probably have been impossible until the next century."
"We have given Santa Cruz Province this opportunity. It depends on whether they can seize it. Of course, based on my personal guess, if we rely entirely on the local government, it will be almost impossible for them to accomplish this task."
Without East Africa's intervention, it would be difficult for Santa Cruz Province to receive attention from the Bolivian government, so the Santa Cruz Provincial Government should be grateful for East Africa's intervention.
Moreover, East Africa not only helped them gain policy advantages, but also lifted local traffic restrictions. In the past, the Mutong Iron Mine had not been developed, and transportation was a difficult pain point to solve.
Although the Mutong Iron 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 iron ore mines in Australia, Guinea and Brazil.
Now, East Africa has directly stepped in to coordinate the smooth navigation of the Paraná River, and has carried out comprehensive transformation and management, and built ports such as Suarez Port, making the water transportation of the Muton Iron Mine a reality.
In the past, as the backyard of the United States, South America was not feasible for other countries to achieve this. For example, the Far East Empire was extremely lacking in a stable source of iron ore. If it was feasible, with their infrastructure and economic strength, they would have no technical or financial problems in developing the Mutong Iron Mine.
However, in the past, the Far Eastern Empire not only had to consider economic, technological and other issues, but also political issues. It was difficult for the Far Eastern Empire to bypass the interference of the United States and invest in the local area.
To transport the iron ore from the Mutong Iron Mine to the seaport by water, it is necessary to pass through at least four countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.
As long as the United States can pick any one of these countries and make some moves, the Far East Empire's huge investment will be wiped out.
East Africa, on the other hand, has no such concerns at all. Its warships can even sail directly to Port Suarez and have troops stationed there. Military support is the basis for East African companies to invest in South America with confidence.
Val said, "Bolivia's development of the Santa Cruz Province will facilitate the Empire's future strengthening of its economic control over Bolivia. The Empire will even have military access and station troops there."
"It is precisely because of this military guarantee that companies like us can confidently increase our investment in the region without worrying about the local government's default or sabotage from hostile forces in the empire."
"If it were other countries, even the United States and the United Kingdom, it would be difficult to achieve this, and the South Atlantic happens to be the Imperial Navy's advantage area."
(End of this chapter)
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