"You don't say you bought it, lie to your mother first and say that it was rented, isn't it?" Stari played her little abacus and also helped persuade Song Yuqing, "When the time comes, leave me a room, I can occasionally sneak to live - it's really bad here!"

In the past two years, property prices in Xinhai have climbed to new highs, but rents are still at a relatively low level.

Those old houses in Tianzifang Lane that are not suitable for renting out and opening shops, do not pay attention to the interior decoration, and the whole building does not need to be rented for 4,000, which is something that Song Yuqing can fully afford to buy in the open.

"Then I'll pick a down payment!" Song Yuqing said, still insisting that Cao Mo didn't want to pay for her.

"......" Cao Mo didn't bother to pay attention to Song Yuqing, anyway, he transferred the money to her account tomorrow, and she dared to talk to him crookedly, so she taught her to scream, and said to Stari after a long time, that is, I was not used to reading local media and missed a lot of information - I think you should develop a habit in China in the future, that is, you must insist on reading the Xinmin Evening News from beginning to end every day, which will definitely help you understand the city more deeply." ”

"Don't you Chinese all say that the newspapers are all whitewashed, can it really help to understand the current situation of the city?" Stari asked suspiciously.

"The domestic media mainly reports positive content, and rarely touches on negative news, but the key is whether we believe that the mainstream of the country is positive and moving forward. This also determines whether the information published in the media is valuable or not, "Cao Mo has been in Kanem in the past few years, and after some comparison, he can see the advantages of China more clearly, and asked Stari, "Do you think that China is more peaceful than Kanem, or is the people poor?"

"I think China is really wonderful, but you Chinese are too harsh and critical of your country and government, you should really throw them to Kanem and feel what the so-called democracy is like," Stari said, "If I could, I really wanted to settle in China forever!"

"Isn't this the end?" Cao Mo asked.

"Can I accompany you back to Kanem this time?" asked Starry, curled up on the couch, pitiful.

I have to admit that Starry's appearance of pity is very tempting, even if Cao Mo can feel that Stari wants to return to Kanem this time, and the purpose is not pure, but it is still difficult to bear to refuse her directly.

However, the descendants of colonists like her in Draculamo are really dazzling, and the Brotherhood of Steel is too powerful to be discovered if you are not careful.

Stari is too risky to enter Draculamo or Longland under a pseudonym at this time.

Cao Mo shook her head, no matter what Stari wanted to do when she returned to Kanem this time, it didn't seem to be worth the risk.

"What if I don't go back to Kanem and go to Benin?" asked Stari.

Benin is located in the northwest of Kanem, and belongs to the Gulf of Guinea coastal countries in West Africa, and its land area is slightly larger than that of Jiangsu Province in China, but the population statistics at the end of 05 were only about one-tenth of that of Jiangsu Province, which is the same among the 15 countries in West Africa

When the land is vast and sparsely populated.

On the other hand, Benin's economic development as a whole is even more backward than that of Kanem, with agriculture as the main focus, and only a few small industries near the capital Podonov and the outer port of Cotonou.

The Jidam's influence in Draculamo is deep-rooted and complex, but its influence has not yet been able to penetrate into the nearby capital of Benin, Podonov, and the outer port of Cotonou.

If Stari were to travel to Benin instead of going back to Draculamo, there would be much less risk even if her whereabouts were detected by the Jidams.

The question is, what is Stari doing in Benin?

"You don't want to go to Benin because you're too tired of being in China, do you?" Cao Mo asked.

Stari didn't answer Cao Mo's question directly, but opened her beautiful eyes and diverted the topic and asked:

"There's an old Chinese saying that you can't put all your eggs in one basket at the same time. You can get so much cash in this equity deal – you also said that this money is nothing at all if you put it in China, but if you continue to invest in Lonta, the risk is too concentrated, and you don't think about putting some of your investment in Benin?"

Stari didn't say anything, but Cao Mo couldn't interrogate her with a whip, but her question was still worth considering.

The transaction of part of the equity of Conero Energy with Dongsheng's Hexi Fund was completely unexpected by Cao Mo, and Cao Mo did not consider how to use the cash obtained from this equity transaction.

Even with the acquisition of Xinxuan Food and the establishment of Tianyue Trading to lay sales channels for motorcycles and parts in West Africa, Cao Mo only used less than $10 million in cash reserves in his hands in the early stage.

However, even if there is no relationship with the Jidam family, the gold resources of Longta are not extremely rich after all, and the mining area has been almost divided, so it is difficult to increase any investment; the Kanem cement market also needs to wait and see for a while, and whether the Conero cement plant should go to the third phase of the project also needs to be considered holistically; and the exploitation and production increase of natural gas can only be carried out by supporting the upgrading and transformation of power plants, and whether the gas field has enough deep reserves to exploit and produce liquefied natural gas for export not only needs to strengthen geological survey, but also the final investment scale is also huge, which is not what he needs to consider now。

It is also true that he does not need to make a large-scale additional investment in Longta in the short term.

In addition to Longta, the layout in Draculamo and other areas of Kanem, the next stage is to establish a sales channel for motorcycles and parts in Tianyue.

Perhaps now is the time to look beyond Kanem to other West African countries?

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has a total of 16 member states, and although Benin is the closest geographical location to Lunta, its sparse population (only one-twentieth the size of Kanem) and its economic development lag mean that the country has a very limited market to explore.

However, there are many tributaries in the upper reaches of the Lujiao River, which originate deep in the dense mountains and forests southeast of Podonov, the capital of Benin, and Cao Mo is still very concerned about the situation in Benin.

The capital of Benin, Podonov, is very small, with a population of less than 200,000, while the seaport city of Cotonou, with a population of nearly 600,000, is only 30 or 40 kilometers away from Podonov.

There are two small cement factories in Cotonou, with an annual output of 140,000 tons, mainly for Benin

The Beninese authorities not only impose strict price caps on the domestic cement market, but also impose extremely high tariffs on cement exports.

The two cement factories in Cotonou are in poor production technology, limited by power supply, high operating costs, restricted market prices, and blocked access to Kanem, resulting in a difficult business situation for the two cement plants.

However, a careful analysis of Benin's market demand shows that there is still potential to be tapped.

It's just that the two local cement manufacturers can't see any profit to be made under the current price limit policy in Benin, and they have no intention or ability to expand production, while the big foreign cement manufacturers can't look down on Benin's small market.

Yes, the demand for finished cement in Benin is smaller than that in the canton of Oyo, and the market price is still strictly limited, with only 60% of the finished cement of the same label being in Kanem, and foreign cement dealers have to deal with a whole system of government to enter, and there are really few big factories willing to do such a thankless job.

Taking normal thinking as an example, Cao Mo took 10 million US dollars to increase the annual cement production capacity of 500,000 tons in Longta, which has relatively complete supporting facilities such as electricity, and could harvest nearly 2 million US dollars more than 2 million US dollars in excess profits every month.

With the same scale of investment, the construction of a cement plant with an annual production capacity of 500,000 tons in Benin may only make a profit of two or three hundred thousand US dollars per month, and even the interest money is not enough.

Even if you want to develop it, you have to wait until the market of Kanem is fully competitive, and then you will gnaw on that meatless bone.

Of course, due to various factors, his next investment in Lonta was restricted, and he was forced to turn his attention to Benin, and he can also find that Benin is not without advantages.

Benin's sparse population and lack of ethnic contradictions have also made its internal politics relatively stable and peaceful.

And the influence that can be gained in Benin and Kanem is completely different from that of investment of the same size.

If the ruling party in Benin can be influenced to cut cement export tariffs, they only need to wait until Kanem's cement import ban is lifted, and then they will only need to travel 145 kilometers by sea from the port of Cotonou to Draculamo for sale.

In that case, the new plant in Benin would complement the Conero cement plant and be much less threatened by the Jidam family in the future.

Thinking of this, Cao Mo said to Stari: "This time I go back, it is really necessary to take a trip to Benin. ”

"Miss Song is going to stay in China to take care of her mother, you will definitely be lonely when you go to Benin alone, how about I accompany you?" Stari asked with a little flattering eyes staring at Cao Mo.

"......" Although Stari was pretending to be pitiful at this time and had no other purpose, Cao Mo couldn't bear to refuse her, and said, "If you can't wait for me to finish the domestic affairs, you can go to Benin first, but everything must be careful and careful......"

He holds a work visa for Kanem, and it is very convenient to go to Benin, which is also part of the Economic Community of West African States, and he does not need to apply for a visa separately, but he cannot leave Xinhai on the same flight as Stari, at most he will meet in a transit city that can go to Benin, so Stari will go for a few days first, and it is convenient for the two to stagger their itineraries......