On June 10, the inspection team successfully arrived in the Philippines, which was also the last stop of this global trip.
After running for more than two years, it is finally coming to an end.
Manila, official guest house.
After listening to Assistant Wei's work arrangements, Zhang Hao suddenly made an impromptu decision and added an extra trip, planning to visit Mindoro Island.
Mindoro Island is located directly south of Manila. The distance between the two places is only more than 100 kilometers. It is a desolate island with an area of tens of thousands of square kilometers, about half the size of Qiong Island.
The reason why he wanted to visit was very simple, because Mindoro had just changed its surname to "Zhang".
In fact, just a few days ago, Zhang Guoji, who had a huge amount of money in his hands, directly bought the island, spending a total of more than 80 billion including taxes and fees.
In fact, Zhang Guoji originally planned to buy a property in Australia at first, but after listening to the advice of professionals, he finally set his sights on the Philippine Islands.
As for the reason, it is not complicated.
Because the climate of the Australian continent is mainly hot and dry. To put it in plain English, once the atmosphere returns to normal in the future, the land here will not maintain its value.
In comparison, the Philippine Islands, which are closer to the equator, are undoubtedly more suitable. They have very high development value now and in the future.
More importantly, the Philippine Islands are very close to the capital, Zhucheng, and are more convenient to manage.
Wei Fuxiang noted down the itinerary and then asked: "Consul, how long do you plan to stay?"
"One day is enough."
Zhang Hao thought for a while and replied.
Although Mindoro covers tens of thousands of square kilometers, it was severely damaged. There are only two or three settlements on the entire island, and one day is enough to visit them.
"Do we need to inform Governor Wu and others?"
Governor Wu’s full name is Wu Fei, and he is the governor of the Philippines.
Zhang Hao waved his hand: "No, this is my private trip, so I don't need anyone else to follow me. Let's go and get back quickly. It's best not to disrupt the original plan."
"Okay, I'll notify Director Bai later."
Wei Fuxiang nodded solemnly.
When a consul travels, even if it is a private trip, it is not easy to just leave. Various preparations need to be made in advance, especially security issues, which are top priority.
"Tell Director Bai that this trip should be as low-key as possible and don't make it known to everyone."
Zhang Hao warned.
"Yes." Wei Fuxiang agreed.
…
Time flies and three days pass quickly.
Zhang Hao finally finished his entire trip in Manila, and then took a boat overnight to Mindoro Island.
Xie Shuwen has been waiting for him at Galera Pier for a long time. He is the general manager of Gome Investment Company. This company was established specifically to develop Mindoro Island and is 100% owned by Zhang Guoji personally.
"Consul, welcome to Mindoro."
Zhang Hao stretched out his hand and shook hands with the other party: "Mr.
"It's not hard, it's my greatest honor to meet you, the consul." Xie Shuwen was a little excited.
After some polite greetings, everyone got in the car and prepared to go to the nearest settlement.
During the journey, Xie Shuwen took the opportunity to introduce the specific situation on the island.
"Consul, there are a total of one hundred and fifty-three households on the island. Including company employees, the total population is just over a thousand people."
"There are not many people. How do you plan to arrange these people? Are you going to move them away? Or are they all going to stay?"
Zhang Hao asked casually.
"According to the island purchase contract, all residents will stay, and the company will hire them according to the average local salary in the Philippines." Xie Shuwen replied.
"What are you hiring them for? Is there any industry on the island?" Zhang Hao couldn't help but be curious.
"Yes." Xie Shuwen nodded repeatedly and then introduced: "The name of Mindoro Island is taken from the Spanish word mina de oro, which means gold mine. There are three gold mines and one copper mine on the island. According to Mr. Zhang's
Meaning, we plan to resume mining again."
"Really? Is the gold mine big?"
Zhang Hao became interested instantly.
"They are all small gold mines, and with a long history of mining, the output is expected to be very limited. The company has no intention of making a profit from this. The primary purpose is to solve the employment problem of the island residents."
"Besides these small mines, do you have any other development plans?"
Xie Shuwen shook his head: "Not yet. The central government is currently comprehensively promoting the development of Southeast Asia, and the Philippines is certainly among them. The company needs to invest according to the state's plan and cannot blindly launch projects."
"How much money are you, Mr. Zhang, planning to invest?"
"Mr. Zhang is very cautious. He has only prepared one billion in funds in the early stage. We will have to look at the specific investment results before making a decision."
"One billion? That's a lot."
Zhang Hao said angrily.
Xie Shuwen quickly agreed: "One billion is indeed a lot, but compared to the huge Mindoro Island, it is almost a drop in the bucket."
"That's right. What is your positioning of Mindoro? A tourist resort? Or an industrial area?"
"In the industrial area, Mindoro's infrastructure is too backward. It is too risky to develop tourism from scratch. After all, it is difficult for ordinary people to survive these days and they don't have much spare money for travel."
Zhang Hao nodded with satisfaction: "The idea of developing industry is right. If conditions permit, we can first build a power plant and seawater desalination plant on the island. These two are indispensable no matter what."
"Consul, we have submitted the project report to the state, and we are now waiting to see if it can be approved." Xie Shuwen hinted carefully.
"For my sake, it shouldn't be difficult."
Zhang Hao said without hesitation.
Xie Shuwen was immediately overjoyed: "Consul, with your words, we feel relieved."
Seriously speaking, the Archon is the biggest obstacle to the project. He himself may deliberately prevent the project from passing approval in order to avoid suspicion.
Zhang Hao smiled and waved his hand: "Don't worry, I'm not the kind of person who seeks fame and reputation. As long as the project procedures are legal and compliant, I will not interfere."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Consul, you are wise!" Xie Shuwen complimented.
The two chatted and soon arrived at the settlement.
Xie Shuwen did a good job of keeping secret. The village was quiet. The villagers had no idea that the consul was coming, otherwise they would definitely come out to watch the fun.
After getting off the car, Xie Shuwen pointed to the large ruins in front of him and introduced: "Consul, this is Calapan Village, which is also the largest village on the island. Our company's headquarters is also temporarily located in the village."
"Why is this place so dilapidated?"
Zhang Hao frowned.
"We have only arrived not long ago and haven't had time to repair the village, so we can only make do with it."
Xie Shuwen said with a helpless face.
Zhang Hao sighed, and then asked with concern: "Before you came, what did the villagers here generally do for a living?"
"Scavenging means picking up rags."
Xie Shuwen answered truthfully.
Before the eruption of the Yellowstone volcano, Mindoro once had a population of nearly two million people, enough to collect rags for decades.
"No wonder it can't develop. Picking up rags can only help. If we want to truly develop, we have to develop industry."
Zhang Hao sighed sincerely.
Along the way, he has visited hundreds of cities of different sizes. Generally, cities with good development have a certain industrial base.
Among them, European cities are the most representative.
Xie Shuwen suddenly said with admiration: "Consul, as long as we persist, I believe that Mindoro Island will become the most dazzling pearl of the Philippines in the future."
"Haha, I hope so!"
Zhang Hao also has confidence in this.
If everything goes well, the tens of billions of funds left by the boss will be enough to build an industrial park and lay a solid foundation for future development.
Xie Shuwen glanced at his watch and saw that it was already past two in the morning, so he quickly advised:
"Consul, it's very late, shall I take you to rest? Let's visit the village early tomorrow morning?"
Zhang Hao nodded and did not refuse.
Soon, everyone came to a row of prefabricated houses. It could be seen that the houses must have been built urgently in the past two days, and there were no signs of use.
Gome Company probably doesn't have this ability. If there are no accidents, it should be the work of the Secretariat.
…
The next morning, we had breakfast.
Zhang Hao put on a mask and then followed Xie Shuwen and wandered around the village.
The villagers thought that the big boss of the company was coming, so they rushed over and greeted him in broken Daxia dialect.
Zhang Hao welcomed everyone who came, shook hands with every villager, chatted with everyone about their daily life with great interest, and asked about some basic conditions on the island.
Generally speaking, the situation on the island is not optimistic and can be described as poor and in vain.
In the afternoon, everyone arrived at the southernmost tip of the island.
There is also a small settlement here, with a population of less than a hundred, and they also make a living by picking up rags.
Zhang Hao and others only stayed for an hour, then turned around and headed north to the west coast of the island.
There are two major settlements on the west coast.
One is St. Jones and the other is Mamblau.
These two settlements are also very small, each with only two to three hundred people. They expressed the warmest welcome to the arrival of the "company executives".
In recent years, the income from rag picking has become less and less, and it is very unstable. If you can have a stable job, no one can refuse it.
At nine o'clock in the evening, Zhang Hao and others left Mindoro Island and began to return to Manila.
On the boat, he called his eldest son.
As soon as the call was connected, Zhang Guoji couldn't wait to ask: "Dad, how is the situation on the island?"
"You guys are so brave. You don't even come here to inspect it personally, so you dare to spend huge sums of money and you are not afraid of being cheated?" Zhang Hao said angrily.
"Dad, am I that stupid? With you as a consul here, who dares to defraud our family of money? Don't want to live anymore?"
Zhang Guoji joked.
"Opportunistic." Zhang Hao snorted coldly, and then changed the subject: "What was your discussion with Governor Wu? Did you take advantage of my relationship?"
Regarding his son's business, due to his status, he did not want to interfere too much, so he deliberately avoided it.
Therefore, I am not very clear about the transaction process.
Zhang Guoji pretended to be aggrieved: "No, not only did I not take advantage, but I also suffered a lot."
"what happened?"
"Uncle Wu's original price was only 30 billion. When I heard it, I knew the price was too low, so I found another appraisal company to re-evaluate. In the end, he took the initiative to increase the price to 81.2 billion, which was much higher than the market price."
Zhang Hao tried to warn: "If you buy a large island with an area of tens of thousands of square kilometers for 80 billion, you will definitely not suffer a loss."
"I know. If I wasn't afraid of being too conspicuous, I originally wanted to buy Mindanao. Uncle Wu directly offered a price of 100 billion, which I could just afford."
"Mindanao? Do you really dare to think about it?"
Zhang Hao couldn't help but widen his eyes.
Mindanao is not an unknown island like Mindoro. Its area is almost ten times that of the former, and it is also well-known in the mainland.
"Hey, what's not to think about? The most indispensable thing in Southeast Asia is various islands. In order to collect development funds, the islands of New Guinea have been put on the shelf."
Zhang Hao took advantage of the situation and asked: "How much is the price of New Guinea Island?"
"Although the island of New Guinea is less developed, because it is on the equator, the unit price is slightly higher than that of Mindoro. It would cost a full trillion to package and sell it as a whole."
"One trillion? Who can afford this?"
Zhang Hao said with a sigh.
The key is that it is useless to buy a piece of wasteland. The investment in the subsequent construction will be at least ten times more.
Zhang Guoji said mysteriously: "Dad, I heard a rumor that several consortiums in the United States have asked about the price. They want to lower the price to 500 billion, and are currently negotiating with the Ministry of Land and Resources."
"Real or false? Where did you find out?"
Zhang Hao immediately paid attention to it.
The central government is short of money, so this kind of thing is not impossible.
"Uncle Wu secretly told me. According to Uncle Wu's guess, the American consortiums are not willing to sink. They want to give it a try and build New Guinea into a new base camp."
Zhang Hao touched his chin, lowered his head and pondered.
As the former largest district in the Federation, there is no doubt that the major financial groups in the United States have both foundation and capabilities.
If they were allowed to capture the island of Guinea, it might be possible for them to make a comeback.
However, this does no harm to the central government. On the contrary, it has many benefits. On the one hand, it can obtain a large amount of funds, and on the other hand, it can also weaken the strength of the Europeans.
Come to think of it, Fan Zhenxiang will most likely agree.
Seeing that his father was silent, Zhang Guoji thought something had happened and quickly expressed concern:
"Dad, what's wrong with you?"
Zhang Hao came back to his senses and said casually: "It's okay, I was just thinking about something. Let's go back to Mindoro Island. Since you bought this island, you should pay more attention to it and don't take it seriously."
"Dad, you don't need to tell me, I will be careful, after all, I spent so much money."
Zhang Hao nodded: "Don't you want to go into politics? Let's do this. After you graduate from college, I will help you go to the island to be an intern mayor.
As long as Mindoro is well built, it will definitely be upgraded to a county or city. You can just take a ride here and be promoted along with it. If you have outstanding political achievements, the governor will have a chance."
"Dad, can you still do this?"
Zhang Guoji said in disbelief.
"Since there is a shortcut, why not take it? I am right about this, but that investment company of yours can no longer hold shares. There is no other way but to avoid suspicion.
In my opinion, you should just set up a charitable foundation. Many rich people do this, otherwise the inheritance tax alone will kill you."