African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1050 Industrial Exploration of Iringa City
Iringa City.

As an ordinary city with little presence in East Africa, it was difficult for the Iringa Municipal Government to explore industrial development during the Second Five-Year Plan.

The city of Iringa has almost no special resources. Although there are some small mineral deposits in the territory, they are not worth developing at present.

Therefore, the Iringa City Government had no idea how to develop industry. For this reason, Mayor Randall convened a special meeting to find a path for industrial development in the city.

Randall first set the tone and said, "Industrial construction is in full swing across the country now. During the First Five-Year Plan, our city made remarkable achievements and established basic industries such as flour processing, cotton spinning, and oil pressing. However, during the Second Five-Year Plan, it is impossible for us to continue to make achievements in this field because almost all cities and towns across the country focus on these most basic industries."

"This also led to the rapid development of our industry during the First Five-Year Plan, because the gaps in many areas were filled during the First Five-Year Plan. Doing so again during the Second Five-Year Plan would obviously be detrimental to the city's industry and competition with other cities."

"The city government has limited funds. Most of the country's industrial construction funds are invested in central or provincial state-owned enterprises and concentrated in large cities. Without strong support from the central government, we in Iringa can only give priority to developing some industrial categories with low barriers to entry that we are good at."

"The main crops in our city are wheat and tobacco, and other crops are almost negligible. However, these two crops are too common in East Africa. Iringa is not a major industrial and mining city, which means that the development of our city's industry is difficult, especially heavy industry. Our city's foundation is quite weak, so everyone is thinking about how to continue to increase the scale of our city's industry on the basis of the First Five-Year Plan."

Officials of the Iringa Municipal Government also felt troubled by the mayor's words. Industrial development was relatively easy during the First Five-Year Plan. As long as they followed suit, most towns could achieve good industrial development results.

However, the Second Five-Year Plan is obviously different from the First Five-Year Plan. One thing that needs to be made clear is that before the First Five-Year Plan, most cities in East Africa also had industrial accumulation. During the First Five-Year Plan, led by the central government, various towns realized the integration of their own industrial resources.

Some towns lack important resources for industrial development, but no matter how poor the conditions are, there is no problem in developing primary food processing and agricultural product processing.

During the First Five-Year Plan, the resources of these industries had been integrated to a certain extent, greatly increasing the scale of East Africa's national industry. However, this also required that industrial development must find new ways out during the Second Five-Year Plan.

As Randall spoke, Iringa municipal government officials were lost in thought, and this obviously had a certain effect.

The director of the Iringa Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce, Hermes, said: “Mayor, I have a humble opinion on industrial development. We may have fallen into the misunderstanding of industrial development resources.”

Hearing what Hermes said, of course, aroused Randall's interest. He said, "Speak freely. As long as it can help improve the industrial level of our city, no matter what the idea is, it can be used as a reference."

After getting Randall's approval, Hemers sorted out her thoughts and then said, "In the past, when we thought about industrial development, we paid too much attention to the support of the higher-level government, or too much attention to the favorable resources of the city. But the problem is that Iringa is not necessarily ranked at the top among East African cities, even in the province, so the development of our city cannot rely too much on policies and support. At the same time, Iringa lacks mineral resources for industrial development, which means that we cannot rely on mineral resources for development like other cities."

Among the more than 600 cities in East Africa, Iringa City's industrial level can only be ranked in the upper middle level, about 200th place, so Iringa City is difficult to attract the attention of the East African government. The reason why Iringa can be ranked relatively high is because of its early development history and the fact that it is along the Central Railway. Hemers continued: "So the development experience of other cities in East Africa, especially those with strong industries, may not be suitable for us."

“Take transportation conditions for example. Although our city has a railway, and it is a trunk line, our city is just an ordinary city on the Central Railway, not a transportation hub. Therefore, the development path of New Frankfurt and our provincial capital Dodoma is obviously not suitable for Iringa. At the same time, our city is not a coastal city, so it is destined to be subject to more restrictions in economic development.”

"Not to mention mineral resources. Our city has no coal mines or iron mines, and lacks other important minerals. Therefore, industrial and mining cities such as Mbeya have developed based on mining resources and have become the earliest heavy industrial base in my country."

“So if our city wants to develop, we can’t take the conventional path. We can’t compete with those cities.”

Randall nodded and said, "We understand what you said, but the question is how to develop in an unconventional way?"

Hemers said calmly, "In the past, our country attached great importance to the development of heavy industry and national defense industry, and light industry has not been given much attention. Although the development of light industry has made great progress during the Second Five-Year Plan, in my opinion, it has great potential and still has a lot of room for improvement."

"Hemus, you mean to develop light industry, but that's also what the central government did during the Second Five-Year Plan. Isn't it the same? Our city has already made a layout for light industry during the Second Five-Year Plan, and upgraded state-owned flour mills, cotton textile mills, cigarette factories, etc." someone asked in return.

In response to other people's doubts, Hemers shook her head and said, "This level of industry is totally insufficient. Light industry cannot be solved by just a few factories related to food, clothing, housing and transportation."

"Take flour mills for example. I have learned about the flour processing enterprises in this city. They can only produce the most basic flour products, but there are many industries related to flour. This is most typical in Europe. For example, large and small bakeries in Europe, as well as other industries such as biscuits and snacks, all rely on flour. Some factories have already achieved large-scale production, so we can completely rely on flour mills to expand into other light industrial categories. Bread may not work, but biscuits and some snacks that are easy to store can be produced by setting up related factories."

Bread is the most important staple food for Europeans, but it has undergone major changes in East Africa. Daily pasta in East Africa has become diversified, with bread, steamed buns, sesame cakes, pancakes, flatbreads, etc. coexisting. Therefore, Hermes is not very interested in bread production, at least it is not as easy to sell in the East African market as in Europe and the United States.

"This will increase the industrial chain, and naturally increase the industry. Take biscuits as an example. The market prospect is quite good. They are durable in storage, easy to transport, and taste good. Our city can definitely establish related food companies, and the investment does not need to be too large."

Randall nodded and said, "That makes sense. We also have biscuit manufacturers in East Africa, but generally there are few varieties of biscuits on the market, and the quantity is not large. There is indeed a certain room for development, so the biscuit industry is indeed a relatively safe industry."

Hemers said: "That's right. At present, our country is concentrated in the primary stage in the field of industrialized food processing. Many agricultural products are directly sold abroad after primary processing, while the field of terminal consumer products is still a blue ocean. If our city can focus on this, it will be very beneficial to the industrial development of our city."

"People's needs are diverse, and everyone has different preferences. However, the food industry in our country is highly homogenized. If our city can develop products that meet the needs of our people based on the needs of the domestic market, then sales will naturally not be a problem. By improving food ingredients and taste, our products will be more popular, and we can occupy more markets and promote the development of our city's industry."

(End of this chapter)