"And integrating the local tin ore resources would also include supporting facilities such as smelters, tinplate factories, and power plants."
To save costs, East Africa would focus on integrating and optimizing the tin ore resources of the Isthmus of Kra, ultimately supplying refined materials and semi-finished products to industry on the East African mainland, reducing intermediate steps and transportation costs.
Fingel continued, "As for cultivating local cash crops, we will prioritize developing the local rubber plantation industry, thereby replacing part of the rubber planting area in our homeland."
"In other respects, we will focus on developing other tropical forestry resources, such as fruits, timber, and other cash crops suited to tropical rainforest regions."
It was clear that East Africa's development plans for the Isthmus of Kra bore the typical features of a colony. Whether mineral resource extraction or plantation economy construction, there was only one purpose: turning the area into a supplier of raw materials for East Africa.
As for colonial markets, that too was one of the things East Africa lacked most. The markets of East Africa's colonies were all small; after all, the defining feature of East Africa's many colonies was their sparse populations, and with few people came naturally low demand.
Moreover, East Africa intended to clear out more than half of the "unassimilable" people in the Kra Isthmus Territory. Once East Africa completed its "surgical" partitioning of the region, its market would become even smaller. Still, where there was gain, there was loss. The East African government did not lack such a tiny market, and once immigrants arrived, the area would recover within only a few years.
Fingel said, "In addition, we plan to build an oil pipeline and two petroleum refining plants there. Beyond economic considerations, there are also energy and national defense strategic considerations."