Join the new world

Hello, citizens of Belgium. From today on I will be your new Minister of Finances & Economy. Especially in such tumultuous times, I am going to post articles detailing the state of our economy, and measurements that are being considered or taken.
Remember that I will also post these articles for discussion on the Belgian forum ; if you haven't registered there yet, it's about time!

V2 has come, and along with it a state of utter chaos and a mountain of issues that require immediate solutions. I believe one of the most urgent problem to be the supply of

Raw Materials

Every product now requires ludicrous amounts of raw materials to produce. Raw materials which can no longer be bought in sets of 2-5, meaning that the times of acquiring them abroad and donating them back to one's company are over, unless company owners are truly willing to sacrifice the many hours it would require to transfer single Q1 raws. Which, seeing how for example a single Q1 Moving Ticket already requires 40 units of Oil now, I doubt anyone could bear.

It is therefore necessary that Belgium's market is enriched by every raw material there is, preferably as cheap as possible. For this purpose I will revive my earlier idea of cooperating with other countries by offering trustworthy companies interest-free loans for export licenses to Belgium, maybe sharing the cost equally between the two respective nations.
Of course these could not be given out blindly, but either to familiar Belgian-owned companies operating abroad, state companies owned by the other country involved, or, as a last measure, foreign companies guaranteed to be trustworthy and reliable by our partner countries.
At first only one or two companies for every resource should be offered this deal. These ought to further be instructed to sell at a price equal to or just barely below that of the country they're situated in, to ensure that production costs in Belgium stay as low as possible and that future investors will be forced to compete with these prices, keeping them low.

Alas with V2 having been just this recently introduced it's hard to say how the prices on the world market will develop once everyone becomes adjusted to the new circumstances, but let me nevertheless analyse the currently cheapest markets, according to ereptools.net.

Grain

Ukraine dominates the lower section of the price range. It possesses a lot of skilled harvesters and are thus not unlikely to remain competitive, but they are further suited owing to their long stance of neutrality which makes them unlikely to be involved in disastrous wars. In addition, both of our countries are members of the Entente, which already gives us a solid base for cooperation and allows us to deepen our bonds within the alliance.

Seeing the urgency of this issue and how the Ukraine would truly be the optimal partner for us, I have already gone and sent their Minister of Economy an in-game message explaining to him my ideas; he is currently discussing the matter with his superiors and will respond in a few days.


Iron & Titanium

Sadly, Iron is a bit more problematic. Ukrainian Iron is quite expensive at the moment and the cheapest producers are... Peru, which as far as I know is under a permanent PTO by Poland, and Spain. Bonding with them could be an effort to patch up the wounds between them and the Entente that their invasion of France left, but it would probably be more offensive to our French friends than anything else.
Seeing how the war module isn't implemented yet I guess we can ignore this matter for now and first take care of more pressing issues. Same for Titanium.

EDIT: Oh, I did not see that Ukraine's High Iron region is currently occupied; this explains the hefty prices. So I guess they should be out #1 cooperation partner in this aspect as well, depending on how things develop.


Oil

Moving Tickets might not seem that important, but as I explained earlier there is a worldwide lack of Project Managers which are vital for this industry, so this could become a vital export good of our country. Furthermore, Moving Tickets might come to replace gifts thanks to them restoring a little health and happiness when moving.

Indonesia, Norway, and Poland seem to lead this market, at the moment at least. I presume this requires a more persistent observation over a longer period of time, though seeing how it is rather urgent, maybe as a quick solution we should offer loans to Belgian company owners who already run oil companies elsewhere but do not have a, export license for Belgium yet.
If these three nations continue to be the cheapest ones however, it might be the wisest to open talks with Norway. They are a part of EDEN, and it could be useful for the Entente to have some ties to the alliance to lessen the threat of for example a repeated attack by Spain, but a smaller member like Norway would also be more approachable than a giant like Poland (whose High Oil regions further belong to other states and are thus vulnerable to resistance wars). Indonesia might be an option too though.


Stone

With Houses being much less durable now and Hospitals being required in every region for them to be able to heal the soldiers fighting there, the Construction sector might gain importance in the future. Hungary, France, and Malaysia are the cheapest providers. Trading with Hungary is not an option though as their High Stone region rightfully belongs to France, who I assume would be our safest bet for obvious reasons like them being one of our closest allies and in the Entente as well, though their goods are slightly more expensive than those of the other two.
Malaysia should also be considered however, as having ties to a Sol member could again prove useful for the Entente's diplomatic standing. Also as a small country, they might be more grateful to be offered a chance to open up new markets which would help their economy as well.