"Well, that's our engineering budget. ”

Bella smiled and handed over a ledger that included not only the detailed construction expenditure records of Ithaca City, but also various budgets, even the budget from Calapagu's side.

Xiao Feng secretly laughed in his heart that this Bella was really shrewd, and he actually included the part of the Calapag Islands in the account book, which was clearly prepared to be shown to himself.

But that's fine, after all, the two sides are in a cooperative relationship, and a lot of accounts are clear, which is good for both parties.

He probably looked at the ledger of the construction of the Karapague Islands, with Meihua Island as the main island, plus the construction of the other five secondary islands, which would cost about five billion US dollars.

That's not a small amount of money in South America, especially in a region like Carapagu.

This money, the Chen family contributed half, Xiao Feng contributed half, considering that the Li family's old background was copied before, that part of the funds alone was enough to pay for the construction costs.

The construction cost on Ithaca's side may be higher, after all, it involves compensation for the renovation of the old city, as well as expansion and so on.

The total budget for this project is about $8 billion.

But Xiao Feng estimated that after the project is completed in the end, these budgets will definitely exceed the standard.

"Is 800 million enough?"

He asked Bella tentatively, and Bella smiled and said to Xiao Feng.

"In fact, in the construction team, many people's salaries are quite low. And we have calculated that even if we buy cement, steel bar, and even construction machinery from Huaguo, the cost is lower than that of local procurement. Therefore, the project budget is sufficient. ”

Xiao Feng nodded, as for the building materials, it is indeed cheaper to purchase from China than from the copper country.

This is mainly because of the foundation accumulated by large-scale infrastructure projects in China for many years, and consumables such as cement, steel bars and so on have been overcapacity.

For example, the Belt and Road Initiative, which is now promoted by the country, most of the building materials used in the project are purchased from China.

Even if the reinforced concrete is shipped to Africa, it is cheaper than purchasing it from Africa.

Naturally, it is not a problem in South America, don't look at the current economy of the copper country, but they are the 'developed countries' assessed by the United Nations, and the level of labor can be high.

So if they hire local workers and buy building materials locally for this project, the cost will at least quadruple.

And the construction period has to be more than doubled for you!

"By the way, why are the wages of workers so low? Those people are all from China, and they don't let people make money from all afar, aren't you okay?"

Xiao Feng suddenly thought of this again and asked Bella, who smiled slightly when she heard it.

"In fact, most of the workers have already signed a contract with us for skilled migration. They only need to work on this site for three years at the current wage rate to get our status in Ithaca. ”

Li Zhiyang couldn't help but suddenly realize, and then said to Bella with a smile: "You guys have a good plan to kill two birds with one stone?"

This operation can not only save a lot of costs for the project, but also obtain a lot of human resources by the way.

These workers may be dispensable ordinary workers in China, but they can definitely be called highly skilled workers in the copper country.

The most important thing is that even if Bella's salary is not high, this salary level is almost the same as that of their part-time work in China.

And the prices here are still extremely cheap, such as food, housing is cheaper than in China.

What's more, there is food and accommodation on the construction site, so they usually only have a little daily expenses, and they need their own size.

So even if the salary is similar to that in China, they can save money.

"Are the workers willing to emigrate to our Ithaca area?"

Some of them are difficult to leave their homeland, but most of them are willing, after all, they are all in the prime of their twenties and thirties, and the pressure to survive in China is still quite great.

Bella has also been to China many times, and she still knows a lot about the living environment of ordinary people in China.

Nowadays, it is really difficult for ordinary male Chinese, especially those who do not have a higher diploma and can only rely on skills and hard work, to survive in China.

Moreover, the cost of living in China is so high, buying a house and starting a family is simply not something that these ordinary workers can afford.

Because these workers have worked with the foreman in the past, they have also done a lot of projects in the China Railway system, and have done projects in Africa and the Middle East, so they also know the situation overseas.

The reason why I didn't stay in Africa is, on the one hand, that Africa is too poor, the country's political situation is too unstable, and secondly, because African women don't look very good at the aesthetics of the Chinese people.

That's why there aren't a lot of people left in Africa, but even so, there are still a lot of African wives who have married them.

And when it comes to the copper country, the attraction of immigrants is much greater than that of Africa.

First of all, Ithaca is a predominantly Chinese region, and although there are differences in language environment and living habits, they can all adapt to it.

The political environment here is relatively stable, the Chinese are relatively friendly, and the women here are more in line with the aesthetics of the Chinese people, so naturally there are a large number of workers willing to immigrate to Ithaca.

After all, the natural environment here is much stronger than in many places in China, and the most important thing is that the pressure to survive here is not so great.

Because of this, after many construction teams came to negotiate the contract, Bella arranged for people to talk to the workers about immigration options.

Not to mention the results, many people readily agreed.

Although the level of education of these workers may not be high, they all know very well that if one day they are old and unable to work, if they return to China at that time, they will be quickly eliminated by the high-intensity living environment in China.

But if you stay in the copper country, it will be much easier, after all, the living environment here is much less stressful.

Because of this, the project greatly saves some personnel to start and saves construction costs.

"What about the immigration office?"

Although the Chen family now has a big card in the political circles of the copper country, Xiao Feng is still worried that such a large-scale hidden Chinese immigration will cause some people to be suspicious.

"Ha, don't bother over there, first of all, we are an autonomous region in Ithaca, and we have autonomy in immigration options. In addition, there are also our people on the immigration department. And on the political side, they still wish that we would immigrate to more talents. Now a large number of young people leave the country every year, and the government is eager for more people to immigrate in and create GDP. As long as we pay our taxes on time and on time every year, those people can't say much. ”

Seeing that Bella was so confident, Xiao Feng didn't say anything more.

Fortunately, this also solved the problem of the composition of the local population that he was worried about.

"Well, that's good, since we have already started to immigrate, we can't just immigrate these skilled workers, but also bring in some high-level intellectual talents. ”

Xiao Feng said to Bella again, and Bella smiled and nodded.

"Hehe, yes, now we have contacted a lot of immigration agents in the mainland and asked them to help connect more skilled immigrants. Engineers in electronics, teachers in schools, and even universities, we want to reinvent our education system in Ithaca. And doctors, we also have to bring in a group of ......"

Xiao Feng nodded: "These people, we have to bring in a lot, and what our Ithaca region can develop into in the future depends mainly on them." Our goal in the future is to benchmark against a high-end Chinese area like a certain Jiapo. ”

Bella's eyes lit up, she really didn't expect Xiao Feng to set the tone of the Calapag region so high.

It seems that he is not the kind of person who plans to come and leave with a vote!

But what Xiao Feng pondered was that so many black technologies he had obtained from the other world would be incubated here.

If you don't have the talent to support you, you will rise to the sky, and you will definitely be suspected.

Only by introducing more Chinese college students and scientists, and more black technology will be revealed on his side in the future, it will become more reasonable.

After talking about the introduction of talents, Xiao Feng shifted the topic to funding.

"Is there enough money?"

"In the current phase, two loans from Citigroup and Southern Cross Bank have totaled $2 billion. We mortgaged a few good farms near Ithaca, as well as the only remaining salt lake mine......"

"Wait, we still have a salt lake mine here?"

Xiao Feng was a little confused, in the past, this Ithaca area was indeed a famous mining area, but the main production was saltpeter.

That is, the raw materials for the manufacture of fertilizers and explosives, and the war between the copper country and Peru and Bolivia was to seize this mining area.

Later, after the victory of the Copper Kingdom, this mining area was given to the Chinese who had made meritorious contributions in the war to live, but in fact, it was not good.

Because at that time, this mining area was on the verge of exhaustion, and if the Chinese were placed here, they could also be given the gate, and once there was movement in Peru and Bolivia, this would be a war zone.

Later, the mining area dried up and the area was converted to agriculture.

Xiao Feng really hadn't studied the mineral resources reserves in this area very well, and he really didn't know that there was a salt lake nearby.

"Ha, our Ithaca area further east, at the foot of Tbilisi, used to be a large undeveloped algae field. But in recent decades, as rainfall has gradually decreased, a salt lake has formed there. Later, someone discovered lithium over there, but no one has been able to develop it......"

I'm going to make a big deal, it turns out that there are really lithium reserves?

"Why hasn't it been developed before?"

"Mr. Xiao, you must know that in the past, when our Ithaca was controlled by the four major families, it was better to do other things than to make money from mining. Besides, even if you don't do those jobs, it's easier to buy some fish every year than to open a mine......"

Grass, it's really a tyrannical thing, and Xiao Feng is also speechless.

However, when I think about other people's old business, it is indeed easy to sell flour, and the money comes quickly, so who is willing to go to the mine with bitterness?