Kalistani Major History

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Trade Fair Aftermath: Foreign Products and Investment flood into Kalistan
Kalistan makes serious investment in Luthori, Mina while Vice Ministers travel Abroad
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
March 7, 5545


Kalistan to invest significantly in Mina Coffee operations

In the wake of the Kaliburg Trade fair, which wound up just a little over a year ago, there has been a tremendous increase in trade and investment activity in and around the Empire. While Kalistan has seen our markets virtually flooded with new products ranging from automobiles from Trigunia to jewelry and luxury items from Narikaton to fashion, to fashion, perfumes and consumer items from Lourenne, the rest of the world has seen a dramatic increase in investment going out of Kalistan. In the 15 months since the closing of the trade fair, Kalistan has made several multi-million Ruble investments overseas, including Luthori's MagLev infrastructure upgrade, Mina's coffee industry, and Gaduridos' nascent steel manufacturing sector. In all, the total value of trade has approached ₭14.56 billion in last fiscal year alone, with the majority of that in exports including FDI.

"We have had to take steps to allow increased purchases of the materials we are bringing into Kalistan," said His Imperial Majesty's Minister of Finance, Vincent Rodrigues. "While the outflows of FDI are counted against the inflationary rate, I've ordered the Central Bank to increase the money supply and bump up basic wages a point and a half in Kalistan simply to prevent the economy from straying too far into deflationary territory. We will realize a fairly noticeable deflationary period in the next two quarters due to the increase of goods and services, but a lot of that pressure will be relieved through increased purchase of consumer goods, and adjustment to the new normal of additional goods in the stores." In total, the economy will continue to grow despite what we expect to be about 4-5 months of single digit deflation, but the surge in supply will eventually level itself out as people adjust to the new normal. The Emperor has authorized interventions for domestic companies in the private sector whose margin is falling below their cost to ride out the adjustment."

Kalistani investors and technicians are also active in Luthori working with Luthorians on the expansion of their rail infrastructure. "We are bringing the Maglev techniques and best practices to Luthori," said RailSul Director Margaret Waters-Bennots. "RailSul's construction methods and infrastructure are world renowned, and so when Luthori decided that it wanted to improve its rail infrastructure to include high speed trains, naturally they looked to a country who uses the system for their national passenger rail lines. We are also putting some money into the program, because we want it to succeed. We'd like to look at Luthori and be proud of the assistance we give them." The investment and technical assistance is the result of the recent State visit by the Luthorian Emperor and Empress.

Finally, Kalistan is making heavy investments in the Mina Coffee Industry. "Kalistani's love coffee," said Minister of Trade Schmidt. "This is an excellent opportunity to put millions into a growing industry, and not only see it flourish and serve as an engine for economic growth abroad, but also provide Kalistan with a high quality product that consumers will definitely buy, due to both its quality and its novelty. Foreign products tend to enjoy great brand loyalty in Kalistan, simply because people switch when something new comes in and then they tend to stick with that product for a very long time. Investing in Mina's coffee is a no brainer."

In other news, Kalistan has given the go ahead for several Trigunian automakers to open showrooms and satellite offices in Kalistan. "Kalistan will be not only an excellent market for Trigunian EVs," said Minister Schmidt, "but it is our hope that Kalistani sales encourage both Trigunia and other nations to make a more concrete commitment to electrical and non-petroleum operated automobiles." Trigunian automakers are really the first to speak up and request permission to open satellite corporate headquarters in Kalistan, but it is expected that other nations will soon follow suit, as MoCo continues to branch out to other parts of the world. "Diversity in the market is not a bad thing," said Schmidt. "MoCo is heavily subsidized in Kalistan, and our infrastructure is more or less built around the MoCo EVs, so I think people will be interested in the foreign automobiles as perhaps a second car, or a car for a new driver. But there are a number of niches that Trigunian cars can fill pretty easily, so I think it will be a winning investment all around to have them in Kalistan."

Kalistan is awash in foreign products at the moment, and Consumer sentiment is at a recent high as more money makes its way into the pockets of working people and families to buy those items. "As long as our economy stays in that -.5% to .5% range of growth, we keep to our ZPG strategy," said Minister Rodrigues. "We couldn't have flung the doors open to imports like this had we not had our investment and export options in place. But it is nice when it balances out like this." Kalistani vice Ministers are currently en route to a half dozen additional nations to discuss further opportunities growing from the Trade Exposition.