African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1215 Regional Coordinated Development
In short, the shortcomings and weaknesses of these regions are too obvious, and their overall conditions are far inferior to those of the Great Lakes region.

Therefore, the Great Lakes region will be one of the key areas for development during East Africa's Fourth Five-Year Plan. This has always been a pattern of economic development in East Africa, from the initial eastern coast, to the development of the central region by the westward movement, and finally to the development of the new west.

Now it is finally the turn of the Great Lakes region, which is considered a veteran region in East Africa. After all, the Great Lakes region was incorporated into the territory of East Africa relatively early.

After talking about the Great Lakes Region, Ernst began to turn the topic to the South. The South can actually be understood as South Africa, but because of the existence of the British South African colony, it is more accurate to describe it as the southern region.

"Over the past two decades, my country's development of the southern region has tended to be conservative. After all, the south has a relatively short history of integration into my country and faced significant national defense pressure in the early days," said Ernst.

The southern region, especially the northeastern part of the South African plateau, has only been fully incorporated into East Africa for more than 20 years. After East Africa took over the South African plateau, the British government, which had just been defeated, was not a target to be trifled with.

Therefore, East Africa has never made any effort to develop the south. Britain, which had already lost the South African War, was feeling unbalanced. If East Africa were to develop the mineral resources of former South Africa on a large scale, Britain might really get angry.

After all, the gold resources in the South African plateau alone are enough to make any country of this era jealous, and South Africa’s other mineral resources are equally not inferior to any country in the world.

At that time, the East African government could not guarantee that the British government would not make a comeback. The south was close to the border, and there was only the Orange River separating the two countries. If war really broke out again, it would definitely not be good news for East Africa at that time.

The actual situation is similar. The development of the New Hamburg Port City and Maputo in recent years is enough to make the British jealous.

Although this is mainly the result of East Africa's own efforts, the British do not think so. East Africa's development of Africa can be said to have given great stimulation and inspiration to European countries.

This also intensified the competition among European and American countries for West Africa in the early 20th century, but this fierce process was eventually interrupted by World War I.

Ernst said: "Now that Britain is no longer a threat to us, the defense pressure in the southern region has been greatly reduced, so the development of industrial and agricultural resources in the southern region must be put back on the agenda, especially the construction of the three inland provinces of Hechingen, Orange and Baden. "

It's not that East Africa has not developed its southern region, but in the past industrial investment was concentrated in coastal areas, and it also developed the New Hamburgo Port City, Maputo City, and Beira City, three of the largest cities in East Africa.

Although the economy of Plains Province, which also belongs to the southern coastal area, does not look very good, it is much stronger than that of the southern inland area. The positioning of Plains Province in East Africa is an agricultural province.

Even the economy of Xinxiang, the capital of Plains Province, far exceeds that of the three inland capitals. You should know that at the end of the South African War, Shaokui, the predecessor of Xinxiang City, was just a colonial town. At that time, the capital of Hechingen Province was indeed the capital of the former Transvaal Republic, and it developed for several years under the rule of East Africa. The capital of Orange Province was the capital of the former Orange Free State.

These two regions, which were once the capitals of the Boers, had much better basic conditions than Xinxiang City. However, in just over 20 years, they have been left behind by Xinxiang City. It can be said that they have had a rough fate.

So Ernst said: "Build a number of emerging industrial cities such as Otto (Pretoria), Bloemfontein, Gaborone, Kimberley, Upington, etc. to revitalize the southern inland economy."

"Build a number of thermal power and hydropower energy bases, modern agricultural production bases, vigorously develop mineral resources, and build a number of energy, mining and technology-based enterprises."

There is no doubt that the basic conditions in the northeastern part of the South African plateau are excellent, especially the local energy minerals, that is, coal resources are very rich.

Therefore, developing local thermal power resources is an important goal. After all, thermal power occupies an important position in East Africa’s current energy. The hydropower resources in the south are also relatively abundant, but they are concentrated in the Drakensberg Mountains, that is, the coastal area.

East Africa's energy construction in the South places equal emphasis on thermal power and hydropower, which is completely different from the Great Lakes region, which has huge hydropower potential and is very short of coal resources. The South is different, with abundant coal resources, and although the hydropower potential is also considerable, it cannot completely replace thermal power generation due to climate factors.

Especially in inland areas, the climate is very dry and the river water volume is small and unstable, which leads to completely different energy development paths in the two regions.

In fact, East Africa is not sincere about the development of the southern region, especially the southern inland. Although Ernst said a lot, not much benefit can be brought to the local people.

This is significantly different from the development of the Great Lakes region. In the description of the Great Lakes region, there is the concept of the Great Lakes Economic Belt, while Ernst only mentioned a few cities in the southern region.

This shows that East Africa's economic and industrial investment in the southern inland areas will be concentrated in a few points rather than in the whole area.

Of course, this is also related to the climatic conditions of the South African plateau. As mentioned before, the southern inland area is short of water, and industrial development is obviously inseparable from an adequate supply of water resources.

Therefore, even if Ernst devoted all his efforts to developing the southern interior, the southern industries and cities would eventually be constrained by the important factor of insufficient water resources.

What's more, Ernst also attached great importance to agriculture in the southern region, and in his plan he emphasized the need to build the area into an important modern agricultural production base in East Africa.

Although it is relatively water-scarce, it is undeniable that South Africa's agricultural conditions in the past were very good among many African countries. In the past, the Republic of South Africa relied on local natural conditions to build some of the best farms and ranches in Africa.

Agricultural development will naturally occupy a large amount of water resources, and mining is also quite water-intensive, which means that the development of inland cities in the south will put greater pressure on water resources. Therefore, it is better not to expand the scale of industry too much, which is a good thing for local cities and the ecology.

Of course, in this way, East Africa's planning for the southern interior is somewhat similar to the aggregation of the northeast and northwest of the Far East Empire in the previous 21st century.

There are two tasks, one is farming, and the other is to provide minerals and energy. Of course, farming in East Africa is obviously very different. Ernst has mentioned before that it is to build a modern agricultural production base, so the local agricultural development is likely to be in line with South Africa in the past, that is, full mechanization, intensive production, farming, etc.

However, the population in the southern interior of East Africa is smaller than in other parts of the country, the mineral resources are richer, and the population distribution is more concentrated.

This means that the living standards and income levels of people in the southern interior of East Africa will not be too bad in the future, at least they will be much more promising than the Great Lakes region as a whole.

What's more, the southern part of East Africa also includes the eastern coastal areas. The economic and industrial strength of Beira, Maputo, New Hamburg Port and other regions is already at the upper level in East Africa, and the starting stage is much stronger than the Great Lakes region that has stagnated in recent years.

In contrast, in the Great Lakes region, there are only two major cities in the east, Mombasa and Nairobi, and only one outlet to the sea, Mombasa. It is relatively far from the coastline and its resources are not as abundant as those in the south.

So although the policy is more favorable to the Great Lakes region, Ernst is more optimistic about the economic and industrial development of the southern region.

Ernst and the East African government did this naturally out of consideration for the overall economic development of East Africa. While the economy of East Africa is developing strongly now, they should pay more attention to the economically backward areas in East Africa with poor basic conditions.

The North is undoubtedly the worst economic region in East Africa, and it can be said to be backward in all aspects, whether it is population, cities, industry, or resources. It is far behind other regions in East Africa.

(End of this chapter)