African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1062: Transformation of Emerging Industries
Rhine City.

With the Second Five-Year Plan also drawing to a close and the first decade of this century drawing to a close, the workload in East Africa in 1909 was much higher than at the end of the First Five-Year Plan.

"After the Second Five-Year Plan, my country's industrial performance will definitely reach a new height, especially in the emerging industries. Through early planning, many of them have now developed very impressively and have become the most outstanding performance in my country's export industry."

"Industries such as electricity, automobiles, tractors, shipbuilding, railways, petroleum, and chemicals have significantly enhanced their role in driving my country's industrial system. These emerging industries are now or have become the world's main types of industries, replacing some industries during the First Industrial Revolution, allowing my country to surpass other countries in many major industrial categories."

After two or three decades of development, some emerging industries have already taken shape in East Africa, accelerating the development of East Africa's industry towards becoming an industrial power.

Take railways for example. They were born during the First Industrial Revolution, so they should also be considered a traditional type of industry, especially in other countries, where they have not undergone much change and are still in the steam age.

However, the situation in East Africa is different. After the industrial upgrading in East Africa, the railway has transitioned from the steam era to the internal combustion engine era. Internal combustion engine power has become the mainstream of East African railways. This change has made East African railways an emerging industry rather than a general traditional industry. In addition, electrified railways have appeared in East Africa, and the railway industry is still undergoing transformation.

The qualitative change in the railway industry has enabled East Africa, which was originally a weak country in the railway industry, to become a world power in the railway manufacturing industry.

In terms of steam locomotives, it is difficult for East Africa to surpass the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the United States and other countries. Due to historical reasons, they have developed steam locomotives to the extreme, especially the United Kingdom, which was the first to industrialize. Its technology in the field of steam locomotives is unique in the world, and it continues to make progress while being far ahead.

Just like in the past when the Far Eastern Empire was developing oil vehicles, it was difficult for it to surpass Germany and Japan. Although the Far Eastern Empire's automobile industry developed at an astonishing speed, this did not mean that the automobile industries of Germany and Japan were dead. They firmly grasped the all-round advantages of the automobile industry and suppressed the automobile industries of other countries through various means.

However, when new energy vehicles emerged and the Far Eastern Empire and the United States switched to a different development track at the same time, Germany and Japan were completely at a loss.

East Africa is now in the stage of changing its development track in the railway industry. The internal combustion engine is equivalent to new energy, at least compared with the steam engine.

In the steam age, it was difficult for East Africa to surpass traditional industrial powers such as Britain, but the situation was completely different when the track was changed. Although other countries in the world also had diesel locomotives on the railways at the same time, they were mainly experimental models, while East Africa had already achieved large-scale production and equipment of diesel locomotives.

Therefore, the current world railways can be divided into two systems, one dominated by traditional steam locomotives, or one dominated by new diesel locomotives. There is no doubt that diesel locomotives are more advanced than steam locomotives, and will replace steam locomotives on a large scale in the future. This also means that as time goes by, the East African Railway is actually ahead of other countries in the world.

This leadership is mainly reflected in changes in the technological system. It is a fact that diesel locomotives are more efficient than steam locomotives, and East Africa has become the only country in the world to enter the era of railway diesel engines.

If this advantage is maintained, the East African railway industry can reap the benefits for at least several decades. After all, before the era of high-speed rail in the past, diesel locomotives had the main advantage.

Of course, there are still some differences between steam locomotives and diesel locomotives. East Africa is definitely a diesel locomotive manufacturing powerhouse, and can only be ranked at the forefront in the field of steam locomotives. Steam locomotives still occupy a certain market in East Africa and have not been completely replaced. Therefore, the new and old forces in East African railways have not yet completed a complete transition.

Diesel locomotives and steam locomotives cannot be simply compared together. In a sense, the two locomotives are actually two different things. Only when other countries' railways begin to turn to the era of internal combustion engines can East Africa truly and more clearly establish its position as a railway manufacturing power. The same is true for industries such as electricity. The power industry involves a relatively broad range of fields. Before the advent of the electricity era, there was no corresponding reference. For example, the original main function of electricity was only to be used for lighting, which corresponded to the role of gas lamps or candles at the time. However, with the development of electricity, it also played the role of coal as an energy source for industrial production. With the advancement of electrification in East Africa, electricity is widely used in household appliances.

In general, electricity is a type of energy, but it is obviously different from coal, natural gas and oil. However, with the development of the electric power industry, its tremendous power is no less than that of coal, the most important basic energy source during the First Industrial Revolution.

In East Africa, with the development of the automobile industry, the oil industry has begun to mature and its scale is rapidly increasing.

This has led to the parallel development of coal, oil and electricity in the East African energy sector. Due to the promotion of the East African government, the natural gas industry is also being promoted at an accelerated pace, becoming the fourth largest energy source after the first three.

"In the past two five-year plans, emerging industries have transformed and become the main force in my country's industry and economy. We should no longer look at these industries with the old perspective. These emerging industries have developed towards maturity and are fully capable of playing the role of the main force in the country's industrial development."

"The maturity of emerging industries has enabled many of my country's industrial sectors to overtake others. Driven by these emerging industries, my country's industrial export value increased significantly during the Second Five-Year Plan, achieving differentiated competition with industrial products from other countries and becoming the flagship product of East African industrial exports."

"This is something that traditional industries cannot do, because in many traditional industries, we have only achieved from scratch, but have not achieved from weak to strong. Moreover, if we want to catch up with and surpass other countries in traditional industries, we need solid accumulation, not only resource investment, but also time cost, and time cost is obviously our disadvantage in East Africa. As an emerging country, we have developed hundreds of years later than European and American countries, so in many traditional industrial fields, it is impossible for us to surpass those old powers in just a few decades."

"However, with the emergence of new industries in East Africa during the Second Five-Year Plan, we seem to have found a way to break the monopoly of traditional industrial markets in Europe and the United States, which is clearly reflected in the railway and shipbuilding industries."

The railway and shipbuilding industries were already quite prominent during the First Industrial Revolution, so with the development of East Africa’s own railway and shipbuilding industries, it is easier to see the transformation of the industry as part of East Africa’s overall industrial upgrading.

At least the transformation of the railway industry has been mentioned, and the situation in the shipbuilding industry is actually similar, but in the field of shipbuilding, East Africa is not particularly prominent.

In the first half of the last century, with the birth of ironclad ships, the shipbuilding industry underwent tremendous changes. The shipbuilding industry began to transform from the sail age to the steam age and the steel age.

Of course, the transformation of the shipbuilding industry was first seen in European and American countries, but East Africa has also caught the trend. Under this changing situation, if traditional shipbuilding powers do not actively transform, they may be replaced. However, most of the traditional powers in the sailing era have achieved transformation.

Even so, changes in the shipbuilding industry have given many countries the opportunity to catch up, including East Africa, Germany and Japan.

Among them, Germany performed the best. Relying on its strong industrial base, it quickly became the world's emerging shipbuilding center and promoted the rapid development of its navy.

Due to their inherent deficiencies, East Africa and Japan cannot achieve the same brilliant achievements as Germany, but they are also relatively prominent among the countries in the world, especially East Africa, which has achieved a qualitative change in the shipbuilding industry by relying on its national size.

(End of this chapter)