Kalistan

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Ontiveros discusses Economic Nationalism
"Crushing Petroleum Demand, Monetary Supremacy is National Priority" says Foreign Minister
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
February 15. 5721


FM Miguel Ontiveros describes sustainable energy as a Strategic Objective

Last week Her Imperial Majesty's Foreign Minister Miguel Ontiveros delivered the keynote speech to the annual Meeting of the Kalistani Foreign Policy Association in Kaliburg. He provided an update on Kalistan's foreign relations with the nations of Terra, and then dropped two major policy statements: Kalistan's informal policy of undermining the global price of oil by doing what it can to replace demand abroad is firming into a national strategic effort and Kalistan is focusing on monetary supremacy.

"Beginning with the failed bid to close the Rossfada Oil fields in New Englia to exploitation," said Foreign Minister Ontiveros, "it has been a growing priority of Her Imperial Majesty to undermine demand for global petroleum stocks with the aim of making oil exploitation, especially of the more expensive, dirtier and harder to acquire reserves not profitable. The ultimate goal is to reduce carbon emissions and environmental destruction perpetrated by the cynical nations of the world who put profits ahead of health and well being, but far too often the strategies for combatting global climate destruction are passive and rely on naming and shaming. But the Empress asks: If a nation has no qualms about pulling fossil fuels out of the ground to burn for profit, what makes anyone think those same nations will respond to moral arguments opposed to their reckless, shortsighted, and self-centered behavior? She feels a more appropriate, and effective tactic is to hit them in the pocket book, to make their existing operations less profitable by reducing demand internationally for Oil, making it hard for nations to continue to exploit oil. Hopefully they will stop."

The Foreign Minister outlined a number of tactical efforts Kalistan will begin engaging in in the coming years to make oil less attractive to consumers. "Besides support for the Green Terra Initiative, which aims to promote green, renewable and sustainable energy production across Terra, Her Imperial Majesty wants to make a serious investment into Kalistan's own technological industries that supply necessary components for Green Energy generations. This includes photovoltaics, wind turbines, and both hydroelectric and hydrothermal generation. Kalistan has the capacity to greatly scale our industrial output of these necessary components to allow others, both in small and large scale projects, to begin generating electricity on a large basis, perhaps a national basis, to ideally completely replace their fossil fuel and coal based power generation systems with sustainable, renewable and ecologically friendly infrastructure."

The Foreign Minister said new subsidies in the Kalistani markets would be paired with incentives for other nations to acquire the Kalistani technology. "For those who wish to make the shift, these would include purchasing the items from Kalistani companies at lower than market rate. These can conceivably also be paired with Kalistani backed trade credits which would make it easier still for interested nations to acquire this technology." The Foreign Minister responded to claims that this equates to dumping, which some liberals consider an act of economic warfare, answering, "Oil companies dump millions of tons of pollutants into our air each year. So perhaps we are already at war, and its time our side just joined the battle."

The goal, said the Foreign Minister, is to ultimately improve the ancillary renewable market as well. "We would also like to include subsidies for electric and hybrid vehicles, as well as infrastructure to support a new electric vehicle fleet. Kalistan currently leads the world in EV production, but the limiting factor is that in many countries there is only infrastructure to support a gas or diesel powered fleet. We will put through an initiative that for every EV shop that agrees to sell Kalistani EVs, the National Government will fund recharging stations enough to support annual sales. We don't have much else to spend our national surplus on, we may as well do some good with it." Much of that money will come back through vehicle sales, said the Foreign Minister.

Additionally, the Foreign Minister discussed monetary supremacy. "The Kalistani Imperial Peso is one of the most stable currencies in the world. It is based on hardline inflationary control policies, as well, as protections against capital flight. It has maintained its value within a small range of fluctuation for decades, and is largely immune to international financial and monetary shocks that plague currencies of other nations. It should have the confidence of gold when it comes to an investment item. The difficulty in expanding its convertibility lies in the Peso's capital immobility. So Her Imperial Majesty wishes to take steps to reduce this."

The Foreign Minister said that in June of this year, the Imperial Bank, who maintains Kalistan's currency, has authorized the ForIn Bank to will issue International Pesos which shall be made available to international investors. "The International Pesos will be pegged to the Imperial peso deposits in the ForIn, and will be essentially certificates of deposit which will appreciate over time based on investments of the bank in the Kalistani economy. These will be low risk, low reward options for investors who want to protect their wealth against inflation in their own nation. As opposed to gold, the value of which is based on the buying and selling of the market, the Imperial Peso is based on careful controls. Creating International Pesos to be pegged to the Imperial will allow the capital to exist outside of the Imperial System, available on demand through the ForIn Bank and a method for investors to hedge against other currencies. Ideally this should improve desirability of the Peso abroad, especially for institutional investors, and serve as a based for increasing convertibility without opening the Imperial up to speculative forces that allow manipulation of our currency by outside actors."

The focus on currency supremacy and the essential declaration of economic warfare on oil producers globally represent the first main efforts of the hardlined new Nationalist Government, and represent a major step forward for Kalistan in the International economic arena. Bills to promote these two policies will be forwarded through the National Assembly this spring and have Imperial support. "Ultimately, Kalistan would like to serve as an example for nationalist states who want to protect their country's economies from the corrosive forces of international neoliberalism. If Kalistan can accomplish this with a mixed economy, any nation can. So we're going to show that its possible."

@TheRepublic