African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1032 The World's Largest Closed Country

City of Luanda.

In a teahouse in Luanda, several Germans were discussing the changes in East Africa in recent years. The most common foreigners in Luanda are Germans, French and Portuguese, but they each have their own circles.

"Through the First Five-Year Plan, the level of urban construction in East Africa has been significantly improved. When I first invested in Luanda, the south of the factory was still wasteland. In just five years, a large number of factories and buildings of various types have sprung up."

"East Africa is undergoing rapid changes. I have visited some cities on the west and east coasts. These cities, like Luanda, are full of vitality."

"The population of these cities is expanding rapidly, just like that of European cities, but unlike the disorderly growth of cities in European society, a large number of cheap workers are transferred from rural areas to cities, which will cause many social problems. This is very common in European cities."

"However, the quality of the population moving to cities in East Africa is obviously relatively high, thanks to the implementation of compulsory education. However, education cannot solve fundamental problems, especially employment and urban management."

"Directive countries like East Africa have avoided the problem of unemployment through administrative means. In Luanda, the largest city in West Africa, there is no unemployed person. The vast majority of people have their jobs assigned, and the East African government hopes to eliminate discrimination caused by job differences through public opinion."

"This includes improving the status of workers, raising the salaries of some occupations, and praising some occupations that are generally discriminated against in European society through newspapers and other media."

"However, I am not optimistic about the East African government's behavior. It is not conducive to social competition and progress. However, the East African government does not need to consider these issues at the moment. As a backward country, the East African government's main task is to catch up with other countries, so it will not encounter such troubles frequently."

As a German businessman, Clovis witnessed the rapid development of Luanda during the First Five-Year Plan and also made a lot of money. Under such rapid development, opportunities are indispensable, especially for people like Clovis who are engaged in business and trade.

There are many foreign-funded enterprises in East Africa, but apart from investing in mid- to high-end industries and thus obtaining East African government subsidies and policy preferences, only middlemen like Clovis make considerable profits.

Of course, Clovis' national policy towards East Africa was mixed. East Africa was undoubtedly a large market, but this market was not as free as that in Europe, so East Africa restricted the performance of merchants like Clovis. However, because of the relationship between East Africa and Germany, merchants like Clovis had the opportunity to profit from East Africa.

However, this situation would soon change, and on June 1905, 6, the East African government further expanded on the issue of "opening up".

Business groups or individuals from European countries including the United Kingdom, Portugal and Spain are welcome to conduct trade activities in East Africa. At the same time, East Africa will further open up port cities as trading locations, remove tariff barriers for a number of commodities, and increase trade exchanges with countries around the world.

It seems that East Africa is actively embracing the international market. In fact, it is after the First Five-Year Plan that East Africa can produce many industrial products on its own and have high market competitiveness. Therefore, the East African government will allow some commodities to enter East Africa and compete with relevant state-owned enterprises in East Africa.

Therefore, the fundamental reason for this change is the improvement of industrialization in East Africa. At present, the urbanization level in East Africa is obviously much lower than that in Europe, but through industrial construction in the 1990s and the First Five-Year Plan, the scale of East Africa's industry is no less than that of most industrial powers in the world.

Although the level of industrialization is still relatively low, considering the population size of East Africa, even a relatively low level of industrialization means that the scale of East Africa's industry has achieved astonishing results.

In 1904, the urbanization rate in East Africa was over percent. Before the First Five-Year Plan, it had reached percent. After the First Five-Year Plan, this figure would obviously not be lower than percent.

The East African government's estimate is about 25% or 27%. Although it has only increased by a few percentage points, according to the current East African population data, at least millions of industrial population can be added. The East African government's data is about 3 million or more, which represents the brilliant achievements of East Africa's First Five-Year Plan. Although it is not as exaggerated as the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan in the past, it is unparalleled in the world at that time.

During the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan, at least 10 million people flocked to cities. East Africa's current population may be much smaller than that of the Soviet Union, but it should not be far behind.

The main reason is that East Africa has not yet carried out relevant population census work. According to the East African census practice, a national census is now conducted every ten years, so the East African population data should be updated around 1910.

However, even without accurate data, it is visible to the naked eye that the changes in East African society are enormous. Merchants like Clovis may have deep feelings about the changes in East African coastal cities, but the changes in the vast inland areas of East Africa are even more astonishing.

Under the political policy of keeping a low profile in East Africa, the East African economy also likes to be secretive, including important industries such as defense industry, automobile manufacturing, electric power industry, etc., most of which are located in inland areas.

Only diplomats from various countries might be able to get a glimpse of the development of East Africa through the Central Railway, and the activities of merchants like Clovis were limited to the coastal cities of East Africa.

There are currently nearly 600 cities in East Africa, and the number of open port cities along the coast is only about 20. Therefore, it is obviously impossible to analyze the true strength of East Africa through the coast.

Take the east for example. Although cities such as Dar es Salaam and Mombasa dominate the market, the total number of cities along the eastern coast is only a dozen or so, and there is a huge gap in the economic development levels of these coastal cities.

These cities are only about twenty points on the map of East Africa. Excluding these twenty points, they all belong to the inland area of ​​East Africa. The division of this area is not entirely based on the coastline, but on the degree of openness.

As a result, the proportion of East Africa's inland economy far exceeds that of coastal cities. Take the most industrially developed central region of East Africa, for example, where heavy industry accounts for more than 70% of the country's total (including western Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, southern and eastern Congo, and large areas of western Mozambique).

Although coastal areas have extraordinary advantages, they are not as exaggerated as in many countries in the past. During the first and second industrial revolutions, industry was mainly developed around resource-rich areas, and East Africa's industrial development resources are mainly concentrated in the central and southern regions, which also makes the proportion of industry in central East Africa far exceed that of the coastal areas.

This situation was not unique to East Africa at that time. For example, Germany's industrial areas were also inland, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire's industry was concentrated in Bohemia (Czech Republic and Slovakia).

It is very difficult for other countries to get a glimpse of the development of the interior of East Africa. The first is the identity issue. After the capital of East Africa was moved, Rhine City was located deep inland, giving diplomats from other countries the opportunity to penetrate deep into the hinterland of East Africa. When the First Town City was the capital, foreigners could only reach the First Town City at most, and the First Town City was only about 70 kilometers away from the coastline, which was basically not much different from a coastal city.

Even after East Africa moved its capital to Rhine City, the activities of diplomats from various countries were restricted to Rhine City. Preventing foreign forces from infiltrating East Africa has always been an important task for East Africa.

So in fact, East Africa is like a certain peninsula country in East Asia in the previous life. It is a large-sized North Korea, but East Africa does not have the bad diplomatic environment like North Korea, nor does it have a powerful country like the United States to blockade East Africa.

Although Britain was the world hegemon at that time, its control over the world was far from the exaggerated effect of the United States in its previous life.

(End of this chapter)