Romanian Eagle

And when the news came back to Bucharest, Eder sighed. Romania's shortage of coal and iron ore has finally been initially resolved.

In fact, the exploration of the new territory made the government overjoyed, and a lot of coal, iron, lead, manganese, gold, copper, mineral salt and sulfur minerals were newly discovered in Transylvania. The coal is mainly lignite. The estimated output is around 2.4 million tons, mainly from scattered small coal mines. The iron ore in this area is also dominated by small iron ore with low reserves.

But there are good finds in gold, mineral salt and sulphur, with the Kempene Gold Mine in Alba Yunia County being the largest in the region. 179 tons of gold reserves make it the second largest gold mine in Romania.

And in the Transcarpathians, Eder is delighted by the newly discovered oil resources in the region. Although it has the same sulfur content as the current Ploiesti oilfield, its reserves of up to 150 million tons allow Romania to become an important oil producer in Europe in the next two or three decades.

The area with the most resources detected so far is Eastern Galicia. The Sokal coal mine was discovered in Lviv; a considerable amount of manganese was found in Ternopol adjacent to it; and in Ferrankovsk, near the Transcarpathian Mountains, iron, manganese, Minerals such as nickel and aluminum, among which iron ore has several moderate reserves of rich ore.

It makes Romania, which has always lacked coal and iron, a lot of peace of mind. At least the steel industry can be said to be finally free from others.

So after these resources were discovered, the government immediately prepared to start development. Among them, Eastern Galicia, which has the most abundant resources, the government intends to make it the first heavy industry base in Romania. Although it is not comparable to the industrial base of Donetsk-Kharkov, which has not yet shown a large scale, it is not comparable to the Czech Republic, which has just independently obtained the heavy industrial base of Austria-Hungary and Bohemia. Shoes are not worthy, but this is at least the first heavy industry base built in Romania.

In the Prime Minister's Office, a meeting on the construction of a heavy industrial zone is being held here, and various high-level government officials are here to discuss the investment in the heavy industrial zone.

The resources we have discovered in our newly recovered land are very rich. The coal, iron, manganese and other mineral reserves found in Eastern Galicia are not small, and they can be built into our heavy industrial area. Due to the scarcity of iron resources, the steel produced in my country mainly comes from Constanta, and the raw materials of the Constanta steel plant are all shipped from abroad. In the previous war, the steel plant was always in the stage of shortage of raw materials, which also led to the output of steel. Insufficient, has a great impact on our economic development.

Moreover, the output of steel represents the development of heavy industry and national strength. Needless to say, the United States and Germany have no possibility to compare the annual output of tens of millions of tons. Britain, France, Russia, and Austria-Hungary all produce thousands or millions of tons. Even Italy, which is lagging behind, also produces millions of tons of steel.

We only have 400,000 tons of production, which doesn't match our identity at all, and it doesn't give full play to the role that the steel industry plays in the economy. At present, many of our factories and enterprises need to import the steel from abroad, which not only increases their costs, but also reduces their competitiveness. In the long run, the damage to the Romanian economy is also increasing. Therefore, we must have our own heavy industry base, which can better promote economic development.

The Minister of Industry, Caraturi, talked about the benefits of establishing a heavy industrial zone in Eastern Galicia at the meeting. The attendees were listening carefully to his speech and taking notes from time to time.

After he spoke, the Minister of Education, Florica, opened his mouth and asked, Your Excellency Caraturi is wrong, we do need such a heavy industry base. So what plans does the industrial sector have for building this heavy industry base?

When asked by the Minister of Education, Calaturi spoke about the plans made by the industrial sector. We plan to build a large coal-iron complex in Lviv, and we require a steel production scale of 500,000 within three years. A steel output of 800,000 within five years and 1.8 million tons within ten years. Relying on this steel enterprise , we will also build machinery, energy, chemical, materials and other enterprises in Ternopol and Ferankovsk, which can meet domestic needs in the short term, sell to other countries in the medium term, and sell in the world in the long term. We have our products everywhere.”

Caraturi speaks out of the ambitious plans his department has come up with. The other ministers present here broke into a cold sweat. It's not that the plan is bad, it's just too good. This involves the big issue of Romania's financial distribution. After all, the government's fiscal revenue is only so much, and if it is given here, it will be less in other places.

Sure enough, after Caraturi finished talking about the Ministry of Industry's plan, Florica, the education minister who currently occupies the most money in government departments, couldn't sit still.

Your Excellency Karaturi, how much money do you need for this plan?

We calculated that it will take 2.5-3 billion lei ($5-600 million) to build it in ten years. It will only require 250-300 million lei per year, which will not take up too much. a lot of money.”

It appears that Caraturi also knew that the plan would require too much money. However, he put an ambush here, only talking about the average annual cost, not saying that most of the cost needs to be invested in the first three years. Because the initial investment in heavy industry is very large, the procurement of major facilities and equipment, road paving, and personnel recruitment need to be carried out from the beginning.

This plan is good, but it needs to spend too much money, which has not considered private capital. I think it is completely possible to raise funds from the private sector for this plan, and the government only needs to be responsible for major steel companies and road construction, and then give private funds to the private sector. Some policy support for enterprises is a good thing for the government and the private sector.

Sure enough, after Karatuli stated the required fee, there was an immediate opposition. This is not an explicit objection, but the current mainstream solution. To promote this heavy industry plan to the private sector, the government only needs to invest in key enterprises.

Caraturi saw that the speaker was the Minister of Education, Florica, who asked the question earlier.

He murmured in his heart, do those who engage in education still do industry? Then he bluntly refuted the other party's remarks. Mr. Florica, the plan you mentioned is currently not suitable for the domestic situation. This plan requires strong private capital, and Romania's current private capital is completely insufficient to do this.

Florica reluctantly continued to mention: Then it is completely possible to let them invest together. If one person is not strong enough, he can find several people. And we can give them certain support in policy and finance, I think Someone did this.

There is a point here that I need to state in advance. This heavy industrial zone is to provide a boost to the Romanian economy, so it will not be too profitable.

In the face of Florica's repeated speeches and objections, Caraturi directly stated the biggest disadvantage of this plan to private individuals. Without heavy industry with high profits and huge up-front investment, Bunsen is not very attractive to private capital unless it cedes its pricing power to the market.

It needs to be mentioned here that there are mainly two types of heavy industry construction. One is like the United States, which is completely pushed to the market, and even the pricing power is pushed to the market; The power rests with the government. Of these two schemes, the first one is completely useless in Romania, and the second one is Caraturi's idea.