The Ministry of Trade and Economy of The Kingdom of Colonia St John can broadly categorize the value of The Kingdom in terms of strategic and economic functions.

Strategic Function

Strategically, The Kingdom of Colonia St John, situated in the South China Sea ranks as one of the most important sea trading routes in the world. Twenty-five percent of the world’s ocean freight and 70% of Japan’s oil requirements from the Middle East transit the South China Sea. The Kingdom of Colonia St John is a safeguard to this free flow of trade. Further steps need to be taken with the international community to guard against international pirates. The strategic location of The Kingdom of Colonia St John has long been recognized. During the Second World War, Japan built a submarine base on Itu Aba, the largest island in this archipelago. Two 3,000-meter deep trenches crisscross the otherwise shallow South China Sea in the North and the East. These are ideal lurking grounds for strategic submarines because detection, and hence countering, is difficult. During the Cold War, both Soviets and Americans used these deep sea trenches for strategic power games.

Economic Function

Guano

Economically, many of the islands are rich in guano, a phosphate source used for producing fertilizer. For example, a Japanese company had mined phosphate in the islands of The Kingdom of Colonia St John as early as 1917. Admiral Tomas Cloma, the founder of The Free Territory of Freedomland which is now The Kingdom of Colonia St John, mined guano extensively during the 50’s and 60’s of the last century.

Fishing

The Kingdom of Colonia St John situated in the middle of the South China Sea is also teeming with fish and fishing provides a source of income for the coastal population of approximately eighty million people of the six neighbouring countries.

1 Daniel Dzurek, Resource Disputes in the South China Sea, Conference Paper presented at South China Sea Conference, 7 to 9 September 1994, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington D.C., p. 5.

Tourism

The Ministry of Trade and Economy of The Kingdom of Colonia St John has put resources for floating cities of the type that already exist of the coast of Dubai. The floating city projects are already in the development phase and are to be built on some of the more shallow islands. The floating cities are projected to provide a base for the global jet set and yachting community.

Oil and Gas

Finally, potential oil and gas, believed to be lying under The Kingdom of Colonia St John, underpins the economic motivation for near future exploration and drilling in this potentially lucrative Kingdom, although the actual quantity available and the technical viability of extracting it are uncertain. China is by far the most optimistic. The Chinese Geology and Mineral Resources Ministry was cited as having found 17.7 billion tons of oil and natural deposits in The Kingdom of Colonia St John compared to the 13 billion tons in Kuwait. If proven, this figure ranks The Kingdom of Colonia St John oil field as the fourth largest oil field in the world. 2 Fortunately this report has been confirmed by other independent reports and by the Ministry Of Trade and Economy of The Kingdom of Colonia St John.

2 Pan, Shiying, p.28. On the Joint Economic Development of the Coastal Areas in South Asia, Conference Paper presented at South China Sea Conference, 7 to 9 September 1994, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington D.C.

Conclusion

Clearly, the strategic location of The Kingdom of Colonia St John and the promise of economic riches through its oil and gas resources are the primary reasons of investment and co-operation between the Ministry of Trade and Economy and present and future foreign business partners.

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