African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1112 Attracting Investment
East Africa has become increasingly domineering in the international arena in recent years, and the struggle for interests will not tolerate any leniency, especially at the moment when East Africa wants to enter more international markets. As the third largest market in East Africa, the Far East Empire will inevitably be the focus of East Africa's attention. As for the first place, it is still the Central and Eastern European market, followed by the Western European market.

This is determined by the industrial structure of East Africa. What East Africa can be proud of is heavy industry and agriculture. If many heavy industrial products want to be sold, the other party must have consumption capacity. The same is true for agriculture.

East Africa's foreign agricultural trade is mainly tropical cash crops, and the region with the largest consumption of cash crops in the world is Europe.

Europe itself does not have a rich climate, especially lacking tropical climate types, and the climatic conditions in Central and Eastern Europe are worse than those in Western Europe. Coupled with the distance advantage between East Africa and Central and Eastern European markets, Central and Eastern Europe has become the largest agricultural product consumption market in East Africa.

As for Western Europe, after the development of the west coast of East Africa, it has developed rapidly in recent years relying on its geographical convenience, but it also has the most competitors. The Caribbean countries, South America, and West Africa can all compete with East Africa, while on the east coast, the only country that can compete with East African agriculture is India under British control.

……

Berlin.

A business delegation organized by the Maputo Municipal Government traveled thousands of miles to Berlin to raise development funds.

Since the launch of the Third Five-Year Plan, East African policies have been further liberalized, which has also allowed the city of Maputo to see opportunities. For the city of Maputo, the most lacking thing for development now is money.

As an important city on the east coast of East Africa, Maputo has not enjoyed many policy dividends so far, and most of its early development funds were supported by the province.

However, the strength of the Hansa Province is limited after all, so if Maputo City wants to go further, it can only look abroad.

At this time, the city of Maputo also tried to attract investment from Portugal by relying on its status as the "former political center of the Portuguese colony of Mozambique."

However, Portugal is a small country with a poor economic level, and it is difficult to meet the needs of Maputo.

In the past, Portugal, including its colonies, had a population of more than 10 million. But now, Portugal’s overseas colonies are pitifully small, and its economy has plummeted. It is definitely a third-rate country in Europe.

"Berlin is indeed a world-class metropolis. Just its prosperity alone is something that Dar es Salaam may not be able to catch up with even in 20 years."

"Berlin's population should be close to three million, more than twice that of Dar es Salaam. But we don't have to underestimate ourselves. One million is not the limit for Dar es Salaam. It's just that the policies are not in place yet. Otherwise, doubling the population would be no problem."

“Although Berlin is big, its level of development is not necessarily higher than Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam basically has everything that Berlin has, and Dar es Salaam is not a political center. It is not easy for Dar es Salaam to develop to its current size.”

Berlin is the political center of Germany, while Dar es Salaam is not even a provincial capital, let alone a capital. Today, the capital of the Maritime Province is still the First Town City. After the capital of East Africa was moved, the provincial government did not move. This is also the main reason why the First Town City can continue to maintain the operation of the city.

"Well, forget about big cities like Berlin and Dar es Salaam. For Maputo, let's take Beira as our goal first!"

The conversation among the members of the Maputo business delegation attracted the attention of Kerwill, a receptionist for the Berlin city government and business manager for Rooney Bank in Berlin.

Kewell was not unfamiliar with East Africa, but he did not know much about it either, because the policies of East Africa in the past made it impossible for small banks like Rooney Bank to participate in investment in East Africa. Kewell asked the person who had just spoken without leaving a trace: "Director Roger, your city of Maputo should be considered a big city in East Africa, right? After all, Maputo is the former capital of the Mozambique colony. East Africa should attach great importance to it, right?"

The man named Roger said, "Mr. Kwell, you are mistaken. Maputo is indeed in the upper-middle level among East African cities, but its economy ranks only around 30th or 40th in the country. The Portuguese did pay attention to Maputo in the past, but Maputo is just an ordinary city in the empire."

Kwill: "Why is this so? Since Maputo is valued by the Portuguese, then the conditions in Maputo must not be bad, right?"

Rogge explained: "Of course, Maputo is one of the better port cities in East Africa, but Maputo is located too far south and does not have much resource advantage. In addition, the East African economy is managed by the central government, so the development of cities in East Africa is closely related to policies. The policies that Maputo can get are not outstanding nationwide, so Maputo's development will eventually have a limit."

Kwell had also heard about this, because East Africa is the most typical non-free market country in the world. If such a country were placed in Europe, it would probably easily arouse the resentment of other countries. However, East Africa is far overseas and has strong military strength, so no country has the time to bring up this topic in East Africa.

According to European public opinion, the freer the economy, the better. Businessmen generally dislike government regulation, so Kwill asked curiously, "Can you tell me about your domestic economic situation? I'm quite curious about how the economy of countries like East Africa develops."

Roger did not refuse this request, and as Roger spoke, Kwell began to slowly understand the basic logic of East Africa's economic development. It can be said that most of East Africa's economy is completely under the control of the East African government.

Kwill asked curiously, "Don't you feel disgusted by this economic system?"

Hearing this, Rogge's eyes became sharp. Actually, Rogge was not a businessman, but the director of the Maputo Municipal Government Investment Promotion Office. Most of the members of the delegation that came to attract investment this time were also like this. They were either Maputo Municipal Government staff or some corporate personnel. Most of the companies in Maputo were state-owned enterprises, mainly local enterprises.

Rogge organized his words and said, "Our East African economy has been operating in this way since the beginning, and East Africa's development in recent years has been above the world average, so we naturally live in this country, which is a matter of course in East Africa."

"Of course, now that policies have been relaxed, we are also actively connecting with the international market, so domestic economic reforms are ongoing, which is also the premise for us to come to Berlin to attract investment."

There is actually not much worth saying about East Africa’s economic system. East Africa has been operating in this way for more than 50 years, so the new generation of East Africans does not have any special feelings about this economic system that is very different from the rest of the world.

Moreover, East Africa has been in rapid development, its international status has become increasingly prominent, and the overall environment is improving. Naturally, domestic conflicts will not be particularly prominent. Although there are certainly people who blindly believe in the free market, they are not a big deal in East Africa.

Kwell was just curious. Although he didn't quite understand the mentality of East Africans, he was a German after all, so it was not easy for him to make comments.

So Kwell turned to seek opportunities from the policy changes in East Africa. As an important city on the west coast of the Indian Ocean, Maputo must have many opportunities. Whether Kwell can seize them depends on his ability.

So he began to ask Rogge about the basic conditions of the city of Maputo, focusing on population, income, minerals, and business conditions.

As Rogge spoke, Kwell also realized that Maputo City definitely had great potential, but the prerequisite was to make good use of Maputo City's resources. In terms of population, Maputo City alone had a population of nearly 300,000, which was considered a large city in Germany. In addition, the consumption level of East Africans was not low, so a lot could be done with Maputo City's consumption capacity alone.

(End of this chapter)