African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1035: th Plan
Of course, it is unlikely that the two countries would be interested in East Africa simply because they are both monarchies. The two countries have many similarities in other aspects, such as centralization of power, state-owned enterprises, race, etc.

Looking around the world, East Africa's centralization is unparalleled in the world, and this type of country is almost impossible to find in Europe and the United States.

There are many similarities between the large number of state-owned enterprises established by the Far Eastern Empire during the Westernization Movement and the state-owned enterprises in East Africa, which can also be used as a reference for the Far Eastern Empire's official model of establishing its own enterprises.

Now the Westernization Movement has failed in a sense, but the supporters of the Westernization Movement can use East African enterprises as an example. Of course, the enterprises established by the Westernization Movement were definitely beneficial to the industry of the Far East Empire, and its failure was mainly in the political aspect.

In terms of race, East Africa is a mixed-race country with a large population of Chinese immigrants, which in a sense refutes the Western racial theory.

Of course, Western countries and the Far Eastern Empire have different positions and angles in thinking about issues. Western countries naturally attribute their achievements in East Africa's development to European immigrants. After all, even the highest rulers are European aristocrats. The Far Eastern Empire believes that Chinese immigrants have made important contributions to the development of East Africa and have played a huge role in East African society. For example, Siewert, who is currently in charge of economic work in East Africa, is of Chinese descent. This fully shows that the Chinese are in no way inferior to the Germans in the Far Eastern Empire.

If we ask Ernst this question, the answer is naturally that there is no difference between races. At least there is no fundamental evidence to prove the difference between races. Even for the African natives who work like slaves in East Africa, Ernst does not think that they have any problems with their IQ.

Under the management of East Africa, these natives can still work as diligently as cattle and horses, and make great contributions to the social construction of East Africa.

……

No matter what the outside world thinks of East Africa, the East African government still organizes national production and construction activities in an orderly manner. After the First Five-Year Plan ended, the goals of East Africa's Second Five-Year Plan were officially released in December 1905.

"The goal of my country's steel industry during the Second Five-Year Plan is to reach at least 10 million tons. During the First Five-Year Plan, my country's steel output exceeded 6 million tons, an increase of nearly 3 million tons compared with the period before the First Five-Year Plan. Therefore, the increase in my country's steel industry during the Second Five-Year Plan should not be less than this figure."

"According to the steel sector plan in the Second Five-Year Plan, large steel enterprises will be built in Cabinda and Kinshasa with the help of local and Belgian Congo iron ore resources. At the same time, a new round of steel enterprise expansion will be carried out in the provinces of Letania and Tete, further increasing the import-oriented steel production and construction activities in the coastal areas."

The Congo Province, where Cabinda and Kinshasa are located, includes parts of the former Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola, and the Republic of Congo has rich iron ore resources.

In the past, the territory of Congo-Brazzaville was divided between East Africa and Belgium, and Belgium's resource exploration work in the Belgian Congo was relatively complete in Africa.

This is an easy problem to solve. The Belgian Congo in the previous life had an area of ​​more than two million square kilometers, but in this time and space, the area of ​​the Belgian Congo has shrunk significantly. This has also allowed the Belgian government to maximize the use of the Belgian Congo.

Although France and Britain have a large number of colonies in Africa, their efficiency in developing and utilizing colonies may not be as strong as Belgium. After all, Britain and France have too many colonies, while Belgium can only concentrate its efforts on developing the Belgian Congo.

For an industrial power like Belgium, it would be easy to develop the Belgian Congo, which has an area of ​​only over 200,000 square kilometers.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Belgium's population had reached more than 6 million, its industry was extremely developed, and its steel production reached more than 1.5 million tons, making it the fifth largest exporter in Europe. The Port of Antwerp in Belgium was one of the top ten ports in the world.

So Belgium in the early 20th century was an extremely developed country. In terms of its population size alone, it was about one-sixth of France's, so Belgium was fully capable of developing a small colony.

At present, many important mineral resources in the Belgian Congo have been discovered by Belgium, among which tin, iron and potash are more important for East Africa. In 1902, Belgium discovered a large high-quality iron ore in the southwest of the Belgian Congo and carried out preliminary mining, exporting it to East Africa, followed by Belgium or France.

This is also the reason why the East African government intended to invest in large steel companies in Congo Province during the Second Five-Year Plan, taking advantage of the rich iron ore resources in the local area and Belgian Congo to further promote the development of the steel industry.

Similarly, with the rise of the chemical industry in East Africa, East Africa is also determined to obtain Congo's rich potash resources in the future.

Potassium salt is an important fertilizer raw material and has a huge promoting effect on agriculture, but the distribution of potassium salt resources in the world is extremely uneven.

The potash mines in the Belgian Congo are one of the largest potash deposits in the world, with huge reserves that could reach tens of billions of tons. They were an important source of supply for the global potash fertilizer market in the past.

This potash deposit is mainly distributed on the west coast of Africa, in Belgian colonies and in East Africa, and is likely to be one of the largest potash resources in East Africa.

Therefore, in addition to the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Agriculture also attaches great importance to Congo's potash resources. With the transformation of agricultural development in East Africa, the demand for fertilizers and pesticides in East Africa continues to grow.

"During the First Five-Year Plan, my country has initially transformed some of its original large steel production enterprises, but there are still a large number of local steel enterprises that have not yet completed the technology and equipment upgrade. During the Second Five-Year Plan, industrial upgrading of these backward steel enterprises is an important goal of the steel industry."

“At the same time, increasing the exploration of coal and iron ore resources in the west and north is also a major task during the Second Five-Year Plan.”

The main mineral resources in East Africa are distributed in the central and southern parts, and the western and eastern parts are not bad either. The north has always been a region with relatively scarce mineral resources in East Africa, especially in the steel industry. Therefore, the survey work on coal mines and iron ore resources in the north was a task that the steel sector paid more attention to during the Second Five-Year Plan.

The main reason is that the economy in the north is too weak. In the past few decades, other territories in East Africa have been in a stage of rapid development, while the economic and industrial development in the north has been relatively slow, which is due to severe resource constraints.

Therefore, during the Second Five-Year Plan, the East African government will provide some care to the northern region in order to narrow the industrial development gap between regions.

"During the Second Five-Year Plan, one of the important features of the development of the steel industry was to further increase the import volume of foreign steel raw materials, including importing some coal and iron ore from India, Belgium, South America and other regions."

Purchasing raw materials for steel production from abroad will undoubtedly increase production costs in the current stage of industrialization. The main reason why East Africa does this is to increase trade volume with other regions.

With the completion of the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa's industrial production has further increased. However, the stock of foreign markets is limited. If East Africa wants to promote the export of its industrial products, it must pay a certain price. After all, it is impossible for other countries to let East Africa make all the money. Therefore, out of considerations of "trade fairness", East Africa must also introduce some "equivalent" goods from relevant trading countries or regions.

The export of industrial products to backward regions and countries naturally corresponds to the import of raw materials, so this is reflected in the East African steel industry by increasing imports of foreign coal and iron ore.

(End of this chapter)