Abe Hashimoto, Foreign Minister of KalistanComrade Mayor,
Of course. We have no intention of going backwards. Our complete sovereignty and equal standing is very important to us, and a few unnecessarily irritating comments here and there should not put us into reverse. We have also had to restrain our President, who was eager to use his famously, ahem, flowery language, in our Newspaper. We will not let our progress be undone.
We are on the threshold of a major breakthrough.
The next speaker will be our Minister of finance, Comrade Julie Westin, who will present the overture with regard to investment.
Julie Westin, Finance Minister of KalistanThank you Comrade Hashimoto.
As the Foreign Minister says, we are interested in Lourenne's investment in Kalistan. Our law prevents foreign investors from obtaining majority shares in Kalistani firms. To accomplish this, I propose a conglomerate scheme, which will benefit both of our nations:
The proposal is this:
In any joint venture, we open a subsidiary in Kalistan and a subsidiary in Lourenne. We will match investment, Ruble for Ruble, in the subsidiary in our respective countries, which we may do under a reciprocal trade agreement. So let's say, we want to open a widget factory. Kalistan will open Ocean Widgets-Kalistan, and Lourenne will open Ocean Widgets-Lourenne. Lourenne will post 49% of the capital for the Kalistan subsidiary and 51% of the capital for the Lourenne Subsidiary, and Kalistan will do likewise, respectively. In this way, our investors will both own the full widget conglomerate 50/50, and will both benefit from the production of widgets. With the removal of trade barriers in the bilateral agreement we spoke of, we shall see price convergence and an overall production of widgets for domestic consumption and for foreign trade. And we shall conform to National Laws with respect to majority shares and so forth.
How does this strike you, Comrades Delegation?