African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 914 An old friend from a foreign land
For the French who invest or engage in trade activities in East Africa, they believe that the economic activity in East Africa is not bad, and there are great opportunities to meet fellow countrymen here.

"Hi, Burley, you returned home last month. I thought I wouldn't see you for a long time!" Cross said in surprise when he saw a familiar figure.

"So it's you, Mr. Cross. Of course I can't be away for too long. After all, we are doing long-term business with East Africa. I just returned to the country last month to report some situations to the company."

Berle is the East African commercial manager of a French machinery company. With the recent policy of eliminating backward industries in the central and eastern regions of East Africa, many equipment technologies have been updated, so the import of related foreign products is also increasing. It was under this premise that Berle negotiated a large order with an East African manufacturer, which attracted the attention of the company headquarters.

"I really envy those of you who work with mechanical equipment. Recently, many factories in East Africa are replacing their equipment. Many old machines in Dar es Salaam have been dismantled and transported away by rail. Then, they are purchased with equipment of higher international standards. Your company must have made a lot of money this time!"

Cross asked enviously. Dar es Salaam is one of the key cities for industrial upgrading in East Africa. It mainly eliminates a batch of old equipment introduced from East Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of these equipment can even be traced back to the 1940s and 1950s.

When the Middle East and Africa introduced European and American industries to build domestic industrial systems during the economic crisis in the 1970s, the requirements for equipment were not high.

After all, East Africa was a completely agricultural country at the time. Starting an industry from scratch did not require very high standards for technology and equipment, but instead focused more on price.

Moreover, at that time, education and industry in East Africa had not yet taken shape, and there was a lack of relevant talent. This led to many of the introduced machines having major "problems". Simply put, many people were fooled or "cheated".

This time, East Africa will eliminate backward industries and carry out industrial upgrading in the central and eastern regions, and naturally it will not repeat the same old path.

On the one hand, East Africa’s domestic industrial level has improved and many things can be manufactured independently. On the other hand, due to compulsory education, East Africa has cultivated a large number of qualified industrial workers and technicians, so it is no longer a novices in terms of technology.

Of course, there is another reason that cannot be ignored, that is, East Africa is not as wealthy this time as it was in the 1970s. Due to the economic crisis in the 1970s, European and American industrial products were unsalable and therefore cheap. In addition, Ernst was well prepared, so he was more generous when introducing industry.

But today, more than a decade later, there are no such good opportunities. In addition, the East African government has recently been spending a lot on various construction projects, so it is relatively stingy in spending on introducing equipment and technology.

With high demands and unwillingness to spend more money, East Africa naturally will not be able to enjoy such a good thing. However, the difference from more than a decade ago is that East Africa's economic scale is now much larger than before, and the government's fiscal revenue is naturally rising sharply. Agricultural development alone has nearly tripled East Africa's fiscal revenue.

In addition, this industrial upgrade is limited to the central and eastern regions, so the East African government is still capable of doing it.

Although it is only the industrial upgrading in the central and eastern regions, the profit from it is already a huge figure for European and American businessmen. As for how to get orders from East Africa, naturally each country will show its own unique skills, and Boli's company is the winner in this round of competition.

"No, actually, I was almost worn out by talking during the three months of negotiations with the East African manufacturer. The other party was too difficult to deal with. Not only did they not offer a high price, but they also nitpicked about our company's products. If you understand how hard it is, you probably won't envy me."

Although Boli was complaining, it could be seen from his expression that this kid made a lot of money this time, and the corners of his mouth were almost raised to the sky.

In fact, Burley was not lying about this. He was talking about objective conditions. Even if he made less money, it was only relative. East Africa is not a third world country after all. As one of the world's top ten industrial countries, it also has bargaining power. Therefore, as a buyer, East Africa's bargaining power is still good. Burley continued, "And you businessmen who buy East African agricultural products are the most enviable in my opinion. The prices of East African agricultural products have been falling in recent years! You can make more money than before just by going back and forth. It's really frustrating to compare yourself with others."

As an agricultural country, the main source of income for the East African government is still agriculture. In recent years, the scale of cultivation of various agricultural products in East Africa has been expanding. In addition, East Africa urgently needs to obtain funds from agriculture to develop industry, so the East African government has given preferential treatment to various countries in the sale of agricultural products.

Of course, East Africa will not lose money to gain publicity. With the transformation of agricultural planting, tropical cash crops are now the main products of East Africa's agricultural exports, such as tea, rubber, cotton and so on.

In addition, East Africa also has strategic considerations. Lowering the export prices of agricultural products can further suppress East Africa's competitors such as Brazil, Southeast Asia, and India. Therefore, when the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, East Africa will naturally do so.

Cross did not deny what Burley said. The price of agricultural products in East Africa has fallen in recent years, which is naturally a good thing for traders like him.

He and Berle are both French. As an industrially developed country, France has a relatively high demand for agricultural products, especially cash crops.

Although France is an agricultural powerhouse in Europe and its farmers even have high incomes, this is limited to the cultivation of grain crops and a small amount of cash crops, and other agricultural products still rely mainly on imports.

East Africa, a major producer of cash crops, can naturally form a certain complementarity with France. As for the colonies opened up by France, although they are large in scale, it will take time to develop and they cannot replace East Africa, the world's number one tropical cash crop power.

Take France's West African colonies for example. Although they are not small in size, many of them have only been included in the colonial scope in recent years. Moreover, the black population in West Africa is actually not that large, and it has been divided up by several foreign countries.

After all, West Africa had long been the main location of the slave trade, and at least 70 million of the 100 million people lost in Africa in the slave trade came from West Africa.

It’s just that West Africa’s foundation is better than East Africa, so the impact is not that great. However, due to the backward civilization, the overall natural growth rate of blacks is actually not high.

In the past, the population explosion in African countries basically occurred after the mid-to-late 20th century. The improvement in productivity levels can indeed bring about population growth, but now Western colonists have not had time to improve the productivity level in West Africa. The specific effects will not be reflected for at least 20 years.

Moreover, because they were crowded together, the colonies of various countries in West Africa were actually in a fragmented state, making it impossible to effectively integrate them.

For example, Portugal's Ouidah colony was firmly located between the British and German colonies. According to original history, it should have been occupied by the French as early as the year before (1894).

In fact, after losing Angola and Portugal, Portugal attached unprecedented importance to the colony of Ouidah. Not only did it not lose this colony, but it expanded its area several times and eventually annexed the Kingdom of Dahomey (now southern Benin).

Of course, Portugal’s success is inseparable from the support of the British. After all, during the South African War, Portugal lost badly along with Britain, so there may be the intention of compensating Portugal. In any case, after the South African War, Portugal had become Britain’s most loyal brother.

(End of this chapter)