Chapter 401: Land Reclamation?
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Caron_
A middle-aged woman in a blue suit stood at the door of the mansion. Her sharp business outfit looked professional. From the label on her briefcase, Jiang Chen could tell she was from Netherland’s BMA Construction. They were currently responsible for the infrastructure development and tourist resource development projects on Pannu Island.
The purpose of her trip, Jiang Chen could guess, was to ask for money.
This situation was rather embarra.s.sing. Based on the contract, at the completion of every phase, the tender should be transferred to the construction company. But since Jiang Chen hadn’t been in the modern world for a while, the payments couldn’t be signed off, hence payment was delayed until now.
When they finally found out Jiang Chen had returned, BMA sent someone out in hopes of resolving the matter of the delayed payment. Since Future Technology was the guarantor, they weren’t afraid that Jiang Chen would scam them, but late payments seriously challenged their cash flow.
Jiang Chen didn’t make her wait long as he opened the switch to the metal gate and greeted her outside personally.
When she saw Jiang Chen, the lady did a light bow and introduced herself.
“h.e.l.lo, Mr. Jiang Chen. I’m Hanna Cavillian, manager of BMA’s European division.”
“Please come in.” Jiang Chen smiled and welcomed her inside.
Hanna nodded and came inside.
Following Jiang Chen to the mansion’s door, she occasionally checked her surroundings. Dense subtropical plants bloomed neatly along the sides of the lawn while wide-leaved trees were like mini huts making the entire mansion resemble a castle guarded by trees.
This was a beautiful mansion, but she felt something was odd.
“What are you looking for?” Jiang Chen smiled.
“Mhmm…” Hanna gave it a thought and suddenly realized the problem. “Why are there no gardeners working at your mansion?”
Due to business reasons, she visited the Middle East multiple times. She saw many similar castles there and all had gardeners who tended to the plants throughout the day. Judging by the well-kept lawn, this place certainly looked like it was well-taken care of, but she didn’t see any gardeners here.
Jiang Chen smiled. “Meticulous observation, but my mansion doesn’t need gardeners.”
As he said this, he waved his hand towards a bush on the side.
A disc-shaped drone flew out of the bush and hovered beside his hand. From a single glance, the drone itself wasn’t a shocking piece of technology, so Jiang Chen didn’t bother hiding anything.
But Hanna widened her eyes in disbelief. Words only came out after a long pause as she exclaimed, “Drone gardening? What a stunning piece of technology. Although we have been following the progress in this field, it’s the first time I’ve seen an actual product… Could I ask which company it’s from?”
Jiang Chen waved his hand to send the drone back as he joked, “Bill Gates loves to modify his own mansion. Why are you certain a company made this?”
Hanna laughed.
“You are a funny person.”
After inviting her inside the mansion, they sat on the sofa as Ayesha poured a cold beverage for both of them.
In this kind of weather, cold orange juice was the most wonderful refreshment.
Shelving the small talk, Hanna took out some doc.u.ments from her briefcase and placed them in front of Jiang Chen.
“I am here about the Pannu Island tourism area and basic infrastructure development projects. The projects are 50% completed and are expected to be completed by December of this year. Here are the details of the work. Based on our contract, we have already completed two phases – could your party please process the payment for these two phases?”
Jiang Chen only scanned the doc.u.ment briefly before he said nonchalantly:
“Of course, please give me the doc.u.ments.”
Hanna nodded and took out two other doc.u.ments from her briefcase.
The two phases totaled 4 billion USD. After he confirmed that the number wasn’t amiss or had an extra zero, Jiang Chen signed the paperwork.
When she saw Jiang Chen’s signature, Hanna’s anxious heart finally settled down as she felt relieved.
To be honest, she was afraid that Future International would delay payment even further. Although under their agreement they agreed to pay by phase, an auditing process still existed. If the tendering side didn’t recognize that they completed the projects or dragged out the auditing phase for some time, that could complicate things. It was a gamble to do business internationally. Hanna prepared over one hundred ways of convincing him to pay before she arrived.
But this scene surprised her as Jiang Chen agreed on the payment without any mishaps as if he didn’t just sign over 4 billion USD but merely the cost of a restaurant bill.
Both parties each retained one copy of the paperwork. Hanna put away her copy into the briefcase in front of her, feeling rea.s.sured.
“I have to admit: before I came, we thought you were avoiding us because you didn’t want to pay. I apologize for our rude a.s.sumptions.”
Hanna then stood up and bowed to Jiang Chen.
“No problem.” Jiang Chen laughed it off and made a funny comment, “If someone owed me 4 billion, you bet I would be afraid that he would disappear.”
Perhaps it was the joke that made her laugh or perhaps it was Jiang Chen’s broken English, but Hanna chuckled.
“Also, can I ask something?”
Since she successfully secured payment for the company, Hanna’s mood was obviously pleasant. “Of course.”
“Does BMA have expertise in building artificial islands?”
A famous quote goes: “G.o.d created sea, the Dutch created land.” From the 13th century, this country began its ma.s.sive journey in land reclamation. Over 20% of the Netherland’s land was created artificially by filling in the sea. The hills were all dug out and the entire Fribland province was created through reclamation.
Although Pannu Islands had an expansive sea territory, its land area had always been limited. While it looked like it had a low population density, this was because the total population was twenty thousand. Once immigration policies opened up without affecting tourism resources, Jiang Chen estimated that a maximum of one hundred thousand people could fit in the country. Yet in Hua, any town alone had more than half a million people – one hundred thousand people was clearly not enough.
Jiang Chen always thought that the Netherlands had highly advanced land reclamation technology. Since BMA was a renowned Dutch company, Jiang Chen thought it would be good to ask.