As the clacking of keyboards cries out from the campuses of dozens of colleges throughout the nation, the same concerns have been voiced by not only those in college, but most Keymonite who use the Internet. They have complained about the speed and reliability of the National Internet Network (NIN), which has been compared to undeveloped, impoverished nations such as Malivia or Medina. Due to these complaints, the government has recently begun to implement a new digital infrastructure construction plan.
The plan was announced during the annual ‘Economic Development and Progress Conference’ in Pacivila, where the best economists in Keymon, alongside the government own officials, meet to discuss “ideas that shall assist in developing the economic of the country”. During the conference, EDB Head Léone Bourbeau announced, following discussions concerning the internet’s role in economic development, that the Economic Development Bureau would begin a joint-plan with the Ministry of Infrastructure to develop the countries digital infrastructure. She stated that-
Discussions surrounding the development of the digital space in economic development has recently opened my eyes to the necessity of forming a strong and stable internet, which would directly benefit the economy by giving consumers access to any need by merely looking it up through a browser.
However we’ve also heard the concerns of the people, concerning the stability and speed of the digital infrastructure currently being operated. We have studied this issue thoroughly and have noted the far more common stability issues and slower speeds, when compared to nations such as Lourenne or Hutori. As such, we have set a goal of getting every home in Keymon access to internet speed of at least 23 mb/s by the year of our lord, 4800.
To accomplish this daring goal, we must first begin repairing old and building new infrastructure. As such, the infrastructure plan already being enacted by the Ministry of Infrastructure shall see the replacement and construction of nearly 350 miles of submarine cables, connecting us to the wider internet. Alongside this, we shall also begin replacing and building new networks of advanced fiber optic cables, which will give all residents access to some of the best internet in the world. To store all the data which will inevitably increase in size, following the implementation of faster internet, we shall work with private tech companies in Jamestown to build several large data centers, capable of strong trillions of gigabytes in data each, which will be connected to a single data hub, located in Pacivila. This data hub will operate as the “spoke” in the entire system, being the central point for all data transferring and storage in the nation.
It is quite evident to all at the Economic Development Bureau that the internet shall be where Keymon economy will continue to grow. And with an estimated cost of only 32 billion LOD, I believe this shall be a cheap project with a large payoff.
Whilst most economist agree that building up the nations digital infrastructure will inevitably benefit the economy, the main point of contention surrounds the ever mounting government debt, which has slowly ballooned to nearly 85% of GDP. The discussion surrounding debt has also entered the government, with members of the National Council requesting that the Queen cut massive swathes off of the military and the polices funding. Whilst this is unlikely, the discussion surrounding debt shall possibly shake up the nations political scene.
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As citizens across the globe watched the political unrest in Lourenne continue to unfold, and as they watched the countries economy totally collapse, many asked what nation could potentially be the next one to collapse into disorder. The citizens of Terra have since received their answer, and that answer was: Keymon’s economy would collapse next. But will the nation itself collapse into sectarian violence?
This dramatic turn of events first began earlier this morning when, mere minutes after trading on the newly opened Pacivila stock exchange began, massive sell offs began to tank the value of several companies, including Andria Aeronautica. As these companies values began to drop by 10% in less than two hours, panic soon spread amongst investors and even more mass sell offs began. Whilst in the Turtle Bay stock exchange, which was closed down a few months ago, an automatic “deadman’s” switch would stop all trading for the rest of the day, should the exchange lose any more than 5% of its value. However, the Pacivila stock exchange was not outfitted with this automatic switch, meaning that it took hours of technical work to shut down the stock exchange for the day, during which time, the exchange lost thirteen percent of it’s value. In less than 8 hours, over 1/10 of the exchanges precious value disappeared.
Whilst the cause of the crash is obvious, the potential impacts of it are widely disagreed upon by analysts. Some have stated this drop is merely a “heart attack”, which means that the exchange will regain its value within the next few weeks. However, others have claimed that this is the beginning of yet another recession, merely 8 years following the end of the last recession. If this is truly the beginning of yet another recession, we may see political unrest comparable to that currently being seen in Lourenne.
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As the economy continues to free fall, and as nearly 13% of Keymonites become unemployed, the social consequences where inevitably going to be faced. However, as the engines of the economy grinded to a near halt, the true scale of the effects where barley noticeable. But as more and more workers where laid off and more and more companies went bankrupt, the social impact became even more imminent. As anger about the economic situation grew more and more obvious, the protest begin to spring up scores the country, some of which descended into violent riots that required a direct police response. However, as protests became larger and larger and larger riots followed, several local leaders requested that the Queen enact martial law, which she did a few hours ago.
The Queen announced the commencement of martial law during a televised address discussing the economic situation facing the country. During this speech, she addressed concerns regarding the security of citizens assets stored within banks, promising the citizens of Keymon that “all cash stored in the banks will be covered by the government if the banks go bankrupt, which is extremely unlikely”. She also addressed concerns about some of the countries largest corporations, such as Andria Firearms, Andria Aeronautica (which holds no affiliation with Andria Firearms), and Francesco Shipbuilding. She stated that “under no circumstance will these corporations go bankrupt. We are certainly living in difficult times, but we are not living in times that would cause these corporations to fall”.
After addressing the economic questions, she then moved onto social issues, specially the large protests in nearly every city. The Queen condemned the protestors as “foreign paid actors” and stated that the rioters will be “brought to justice and charged with treason”. She then announced that, as soon as her speech ended, martial law would effect across Keymon and that “military and civilian security personnel will actively cooperate in policing Keymon, to prevent these terrorists from attacking innocent civilians”.
Military analysts have begun to debate the effectiveness of declaring martial law nationwide, expanding the number of theaters that the military and civil authorities have to suppress. However, the Ministry of Defense has promised to “bring all of those who attack our great nation to justice, and combat terrorism in all of it’s forms”.
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