And when the news came back to Bucharest, Eder sighed. The problem of lack of coal and iron ore in Romania has finally been preliminarily resolved.

In fact, the exploration of the new territory was overjoyed by the Government's new discoveries of coal, iron, lead, manganese, gold, copper, salt and sulphur, mainly lignite, with an estimated output of about 2.4 million tons, mainly in small and scattered coal mines. The iron ore in the area is also dominated by small iron ore with low reserves.

However, there are good discoveries in gold, mineral salts and sulphur, and the Kempany gold mine in Albayunia County is the largest discovery in the region. With 179 tonnes of gold reserves, it is the second largest gold mine in Romania.

In Transcarpathia, Eder is also delighted by the new oil discoveries in the region. Although it has the same sulphur situation as the current Proiesti field, its reserves of up to 150 million tons will make Romania an important oil producer in Europe for the next two or three decades.

At present, the area with the most resources has been detected is Eastern Galicia. The Sokal coal mine was discovered in Lviv; A sizable stock of manganese ore was discovered in adjacent Ternopil; And in Felankovsk, near Transcarpathia, iron, manganese, nickel, aluminum and other minerals are found here, of which iron ore has several medium stocks of rich ores.

It is a lot of peace of mind for Romania, which has always lacked coal and iron, at least the steel industry can be said to be finally uncontrolled.

So as soon as these resources were discovered, the government was ready to start developing them. Eastern Galicia, the most abundant of them, was the first in Romania to be built into the first heavy industry base in Romania. Although it is not as large as the industrial base of Donetsk-Kharkiv, nor is it as good as the Czech Republic, which has just acquired the heavy industrial base of Austria-Hungary and Bohemia independently, and it is not worthy of carrying shoes for the world-famous Ruhr heavy industrial area, but this is at least the first heavy industrial base built in Romania.

At the Prime Minister's Office, a meeting is being held on the development of heavy industrial zones, where high-ranking government officials discuss investment in heavy industrial zones.

"The resources we have discovered so far in our newly recovered territory are very abundant. At present, the reserves of coal, iron, manganese and other minerals found in the eastern Galicia region are not small, and they can be built into our heavy industrial area. As you all know, coal and iron resources were scarce in China before, resulting in the steel produced in China mainly from Constanta, and the raw materials of Constanta Iron and Steel Plant were shipped from abroad. In the previous war, steel mills have been in a stage of raw material shortage, which has also led to a shortage of steel production, which has a great impact on our economic development.

Moreover, steel production represents the development of heavy industry and national strength. Needless to say, the United States and Germany have no possibility of comparing 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 has millions of tons of steel production. We only have 400,000 tonnes of production, which is completely incommensurate with who we are, and we do not fully exploit the role of the steel industry in driving the economy. At present, many of our factories and enterprises need to import steel from abroad, which not only increases their costs, but also reduces their competitiveness, and in the long run, it is also more harmful to the Romanian economy. Therefore, we must have our own heavy industry base, so that economic development can be better promoted. ”

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

After he had spoken, the Minister of Education, Florica, asked: "Is it wrong that Your Excellency Karaturi said that we really need such a base of heavy industry. So what are the plans of the industrial sector to build this heavy industry base? ”

Questioned by the Minister of Education, Karaturi spoke about the plan made by the Ministry of Industry. "We intend to build a large coal-iron complex in Lviv, which requires a scale of 500,000 steel production in three years. It will reach 800,000 steel production in five years and 1.8 million tons in ten years. Relying on this iron and steel enterprise, we will also build machinery, energy, chemical, material and other enterprises in Ternopil and Felankovsk, which will be able to meet domestic demand in the short term, sell to all countries on a weekly basis in the medium term, and have our products all over the world in the long term. ”

Karaturi spoke of the ambitious plans of their department. The other ministers here broke out in a cold sweat when they heard this. It's not that it's a bad plan, it's too good. This involves the big issue of Romania's fiscal allocation, after all, the government only has so much revenue, and if you give more to it, you will have less elsewhere.

Sure enough, after Karaturi finished talking about the plan of the Ministry of Industry, Florica, the Minister of Education, who currently occupies the most funds in the government department, could not sit still.

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

"We calculated that it would take 2.5 billion to 3 billion lei ($500 million to $600 million) to build in 10 years. It will only cost 250 million to 300 million lei per year, and it will not take up too much money. ”

It seems that Karaturi also knew that the funds required for this project would be too expensive. However, he set up an ambush here, saying only the average annual cost, not that most of it requires the first three years of investment. 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.

"It's a good plan, but it takes too much money, and it doesn't take into account private capital. I think it is possible to raise funds from the private sector to make this plan, and the government only needs to be responsible for the main steel enterprises and road construction, and then give some policy support to private enterprises, which is a good thing for the government and the private sector. ”

Sure enough, as soon as Karaturi said what he needed, there was an immediate opposition. This is not an overt opposition, but a solution that is currently mainstream. To push this heavy industry plan to the private sector, the government only needs to invest in key enterprises.

Karaturi saw that it was the Minister of Education who had asked the question, Florica.

He muttered in his heart, will those who engage in education still do industry? Then he unceremoniously refuted the other party's remarks. "Your Excellency Florika, the plan you mentioned is not suitable for the domestic situation at the moment. This plan requires a strong private capital, which Romania currently does not have the capacity to do so. ”

Florica continued to mention without giving up: "Then it is completely possible for them to join forces to invest, and if one person is not strong enough, it is completely possible to find several people." And we can give it some policy and financial support, and I think someone will do that. ”

"There's something here that I need to explain in advance. This heavy industrial zone is what gives the Romanian economy a boost, so it won't be too profitable. ”

In the face of Florica's repeated statements and objections, Karaturi directly stated the biggest disadvantage of this plan for private individuals. In the absence of a highly profitable heavy industry with huge upfront investment, Bunsen is not very attractive to private capital unless its pricing power is ceded to the market.

Here it needs to be said that there are two main types of heavy industry construction at present, one is to completely push to the market like the United States, and even the pricing power is pushed to the market; The other is the case in Germany, where the government builds first and then sells to private individuals, but the pricing power rests with the government. Of the two options, the first is completely unused in Romania, while the second is Karaturi's idea.