African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1014 Light Industry

As time went on, the contradiction between Japan and Russia became increasingly acute, and along with it, many industrial projects in East Africa were completed and put into production under the East Africa First Five-Year Plan.

The First Five-Year Plan was an important national policy that promoted the rapid growth of industrialization in East Africa in a short period of time. This also enabled East Africa's industrial product output to enter a stage of further rapid increase starting in 1903.

"From 1901 to now, East Africa's industrialization process has been accelerating, and a large number of industrial products have been domestically produced. As long as these products are produced, they will inevitably face an unavoidable problem, that is, who will sell these products to?"

"Since the 1990s, the country has begun to create a large national market. However, although it is feasible to rely solely on the domestic market to ensure industrial production in East Africa, it also has a great negative effect, thus generating distribution contradictions. This contradiction is impossible to eliminate in a short period of time."

"Therefore, my country must rely on foreign markets to alleviate the instability of the domestic supply and demand relationship. Even in the early stages of industrialization, the rapid production of a large number of industrial products will lead to oversupply. By exporting goods to foreign countries, the inconsistency in domestic distribution issues can be alleviated to a certain extent."

The reason why the Soviet Union's first two five-year plans flourished, in addition to the excellent situation of the economic crisis in various countries in the world at that time, the most important thing was that through redistribution, a huge consumer market was created, which enabled the Soviet Union's industrial development to achieve a positive cycle after the establishment of the industrial system.

East Africa is similar to the United States in that it has created a huge domestic market demand through colonial means. The original immigrant groups were truly proletarians who had no material property, no jobs, and no income. However, after immigration, they acquired the land of the indigenous people through plunder and created value on this basis.

Therefore, the large domestic market mentioned by Siwei is also the basic guarantee for the current industrial construction in East Africa. East Africa is in the transition stage from an agricultural country to an industrial country. Agriculture is still the main body of the East African economy, and the consumption capacity of East African farmers is above the world average.

The most typical example is East Africa's light industry, led by the textile industry. In the past, most light industrial products were consumed by the country's agricultural population, and only a small amount was exported as basic industrial products to developed countries such as Germany and used as new industrial production raw materials for further processing.

Siweite mentioned: "With the construction of the textile industry in the west, the expansion of the textile industry in various regions, as well as technological progress, improved mechanical efficiency and other factors, my country's textile production has ushered in great progress."

"East Africa is not short of basic materials such as cotton, linen, silk, and wool needed for textile production. In the past, the cotton planting area in East Africa has been expanding. From the north to the south, from the east to the west, a large number of cotton fields have been built and put into production, with a variety of varieties. Among them, the output of long-staple cotton is second only to Egypt."

"At the same time, East Africa is one of the few countries in the world that grows hemp. Ramie, jute, sisal and other hemp are widely grown in East Africa and have formed a considerable scale. Among them, sisal production ranks first in the world."

"The scale of raw silk production is relatively small, but due to the climate and environment in East Africa and the support and guidance of national policies in the past, my country's raw silk production is currently second only to Asian countries."

"The wool textile industry, whose main raw material is wool, is rapidly growing in size in southern my country and will basically be able to meet domestic market demand in the future."

"In terms of population, our country's fertility rate has remained at a high level over the years, and the labor force required by various industries is relatively sufficient."

"During the First Five-Year Plan, my country's textile industry has developed rapidly with the support and construction of light industry. However, this has also put forward higher demands on the market, and East Africa's advantages in the domestic textile market are not as good as those of other major countries."

This is very easy to understand. Other major countries in the world are mainly located in the temperate zone, which is characterized by four distinct seasons. Naturally, the demand for clothing is greater than that in East Africa. There are corresponding clothing for almost every season, and in order to keep warm in winter, more textile raw materials are needed for clothing.

This can also be seen from the construction of palaces of European royal families. The palaces of many countries are divided into winter palaces and summer palaces. This was the case in Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the original French Empire. However, it is impossible for the East African palace to be built in two parts according to the rainy season and the dry season.

As a tropical country, East Africa has small seasonal changes, and the changes are mainly concentrated in precipitation rather than temperature differences. In this case, East Africans only need simple clothing to meet their daily needs.

This is obviously bad news for the textile industry in East Africa. On the one hand, East Africa has sufficient raw materials, but on the other hand, demand is low. Therefore, the expansion of the textile industry in East Africa must solve the market problem. Siwei Te said: "Therefore, my country's textile industry has passed the stage of only satisfying the domestic market in the past. In the future, the textile industry will further develop and will inevitably move more towards the international market."

"But the international market competitiveness is not strong, which has always been the weakness of East Africa's light industry, represented by the textile industry. my country's light industry has been vigorously developed in recent years and finally formed a system, but it has also lost precious time to enter the international market."

The development of light industry in East Africa can be said to be the weak link in the field of industrial development in East Africa. It was not until the First Five-Year Plan that many light industrial products in East Africa were able to achieve industrialized production.

Light industry can be simply summarized as food, textiles, furniture, papermaking, printing, daily chemicals, stationery, cultural supplies, sporting goods and other industries that are closely related to people's lives.

It is no exaggeration to say that even the most basic products such as pots, pans, and bowls have gone through a long process from scratch in East Africa.

In the early days, East Africa's light industrial products were basically produced through imports and handicrafts. For example, the most common product, bricks, was basically started by inheriting the brick kilns of the Zanzibar Sultanate.

Even now, East Africa still has a large gap in light industrial products. On the one hand, productivity still exists in the form of traditional handicrafts, with weak technology and low output. On the other hand, East Africa's rapidly growing population has caused the demand for light industrial products in East Africa to continue to rise.

Moreover, this traditional handicraft still has some tenacious vitality in East Africa, which is one of the important reasons why East Africa is still not considered an industrial country.

Therefore, the light industry in East Africa in the first thirty years was quite weak. Except for important areas such as the textile industry, many light industries basically did not exist. Instead, the country's demand for light industrial products was met through imports and traditional handicrafts.

It was only after the heavy industrial system was established in East Africa that it began to drive the development of light industry and achieve large-scale production of most light industrial products.

However, it still faced serious problems such as small scale, decentralized production, and poor technology. Therefore, during the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa focused on the problem of weak development of light industry and invested in the construction of a number of modern light industrial factories.

Among them, the cotton textile industry accounts for the largest share, especially in the western Angola region, which has formed a new cotton textile production base.

The food industry in East Africa is a dominant industry in the light industry. Relying on East Africa's abundant resources and huge market demand, it developed relatively early. Especially the northeast and north are relatively developed and can compete with European and American countries.

However, given the overall national conditions in East Africa where heavy industry is the main focus of investment, there is a serious imbalance or lack of light industry, which cannot be quickly eliminated in a short period of time.

Moreover, East Africa's light industry as a whole is insufficient, but some areas are facing the problem of lack of market. This contradictory phenomenon is becoming increasingly prominent in East Africa.

Therefore, while looking for markets for East Africa's light industry, it is necessary to continue upgrading and transforming the light industry sector in East Africa.

The task of the East African government is to guide and integrate the domestic handicraft industry into light industry, while seeking more international markets to inject development momentum into some of the light industries that have already developed in East Africa.

(End of this chapter)