really--
After listening to Chen Dong's brief explanation, Yulia frowned deeply.
The next second, a delicate shout rang out.
"Damn it! How dare they! Chen, are you... alright?"
Even though Chen Dong was right next to her, Yulia still felt a sense of unease.
Kidnapping, threats, gunfights, and even... waging a war concerning the food security of over a billion people.
If Chen Dong hadn't personally confirmed it, Yulia would never have been able to imagine, no matter how hard she racked her brains, that these people had become so utterly depraved.
"I'm fine, I'm perfectly fine, aren't I?" Chen Dong smiled and squeezed her fair hand, clearly feeling the slight tremor in her palm.
"Give me some time, at most a month, no, at most half a month, and I will be able to purchase 2 million tons of wheat."
"But Chen, are these really okay? Should I...?"
Before Yulia could finish speaking, Chen Dong shook his head and said confidently.
"This is enough; it probably won't even take a million tons of wheat."
Chen Dong's plan was far more complex than that.
Judging by the timeline, Ma Guoliang and Wangcai should have already started their operation in Thailand, right?
According to the original history, after attacking the currencies of Brazil and Mexico, international capital launched a new currency war against Southeast Asia in 1996.
The Thai baht is the most prominent currency in Thailand.
However, considering that the Mexican authorities announced the peso's devaluation several months earlier than usual.
Chen Dong has no choice but to begin making moves in Thailand now. Furthermore, this is a crucial step in resolving the food crisis.
In the 1980s, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea implemented an export-oriented and export-driven economic strategy.
The goal is to focus on developing labor-intensive processing industries and achieve rapid economic growth in a short period of time.
As a result, these four places became the richest regions in Asia and were thus known as the "Four Asian Tigers".
In the 1990s, taking advantage of the transfer of labor-intensive industries from Western countries to developing countries, the country seized the opportunity to attract foreign capital and technology, and utilized its local cheap labor advantage to adjust its economic development strategy, thus rapidly embarking on the path of industrialization.
Subsequently, four more countries in Southeast Asia experienced rapid economic growth: Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
These four countries experienced rapid economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s, and their economic strength was second only to the Four Asian Tigers, hence the name "Four Asian Tigers".
Among the so-called "Four Asian Tigers," Thailand is the strongest, considered the leader of the four countries, with a GDP of over US$200 billion in 1994.
Unfortunately, during the subsequent Asian financial crisis, these four "tigers" failed to solidify their economic foundations like the four "dragons," and their economic development slowed rapidly, falling into the middle-income trap.
Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines owe a large amount of debt to the International Monetary Fund, while Malaysia has implemented several strict currency controls to protect its national financial system and has unequal policies on racial issues, leading to its stagnation.
In Indonesia, the Asian financial crisis also indirectly triggered local riots.
...
Bangkok, Thailand.
"That's great, my whole body feels relaxed." Wangcai grinned, looking thoroughly satisfied.
Upon hearing this, Ma Guoliang chuckled and joked, "You'd better be careful not to fall into their trap. If Chen Sheng finds out, he'll skin you alive."
It would have been better if he hadn't said it; as soon as he did, Wangcai's face turned green.
"Manager Ma, we're brothers who've fought side by side, you can't tell the boss about me."
Ma Guoliang suddenly widened his eyes and made a clicking sound. This fake foreigner's Chinese is getting more and more fluent.
Wangcai ignored this and asked with a bitter face, "Manager Ma, is there any progress on the matter the boss asked you to handle?"
Ma Guoliang nodded, then shook his head.
"What do you mean by nodding and shaking your head? Did you get it done or not?"
In fact, both of them came with a mission, as instructed by Chen Dong.
Ma Guoliang was in charge of buying Thai rice at low prices, while Wangcai was responsible for scrambling to get some when the Thai baht depreciated.
However, it seems that there has been little progress so far.
"The prices are all too high, not in line with my expectations, so it's difficult for me to sell them."
Too.
The Thai baht has not depreciated, and domestic prices are stable.
If you don't care about the cost, then there's no problem with the acquisition.
But that's precisely where the problem lies; it's different from buying wheat regardless of cost.
Domestic rice prices have risen slightly, but the momentum is weak, and compared to the daily price fluctuations of wheat, the increase is rather disappointing.
All of this can be attributed to one person; it was his appearance that changed the situation where people couldn't afford rice.
That being said, even if hybrid rice yields a high amount per acre, due to issues such as coverage, it is far from achieving the level of abundance that we would have in later generations.
In addition, Chen Dong explicitly required that the purchase price of rice must be controlled below the market price, which put Ma Guoliang in a difficult position.
Based on the current exchange rate, 1 US dollar can be exchanged for 27 Thai baht, which is equivalent to 1 RMB being able to exchange for 3.something Thai baht.
If the purchase is made at this exchange rate, it will fall far short of Chen Dong's expectations.
According to Chen Dong's prediction, the Thai baht will experience huge fluctuations in the near future, meaning it will depreciate.
With the same $1, if it could buy 5 kilograms of Thai rice before the devaluation, it can buy 7 kilograms, or even more than 10 kilograms, after the devaluation of the Thai baht.
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