African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 931 Hans Layton's Reform

XNUM X Year X NUM X Month.

Mayor Hans Layton convened a meeting of several state-owned factory leaders and dozens of workshop managers with considerable strength in the city.

Although many workshops are small in scale, they are also part of state-owned capital in countries like East Africa. Except for a few large state-owned factories, these small workshops are enterprises directly led by the city of Maputo. In other words, large state-owned factories are state-owned enterprises, and these handicraft workshops are municipal enterprises, but they are essentially the same, except that state-owned enterprises do not necessarily have to look at the face of the city of Maputo, they are also involved in the relationship with the province and even the central departments.

"Mayor Hans Layton, I wonder why you called us, the main factory directors and management of Maputo City, here?" The director of the Maputo power plant asked first.

“Ahem, the main reason why I called everyone to this meeting is that I hope everyone can cooperate sincerely and make their own contributions to the development of Maputo. After all, everyone knows that Maputo is poor! If we don’t unite, Maputo will be at a disadvantage in the competition with other cities in the future, which is not good news for all of us.”

"Of course we are aware of this, but if the country does not provide resources and indicators, we will not be able to expand our scale. After all, Maputo is a very small city with only so many citizens. It is impossible to produce more electricity and waste it!" said the director of the Maputo power plant.

"That's right. The reason we were able to build the factory was because of the national policy. There are quotas for electricity, tap water, and timber."

Maputo had no electricity under Portuguese rule. Things like tap water were only newly established under East African rule. After all, the development of the power industry in East Africa and the promotion of urban quality of life, industries related to people's livelihood are standard in every city.

Hans Layton knocked on the table and said, "Of course I understand your difficulties, but opportunities cannot be waited for, but should be sought and seized by yourself. This is also an important part of our meeting, that is, to change the concept of economic development in this city."

"As we all know, although there are many rules and regulations for economic development in East Africa, there is still room for maneuver. Why are the economies of coastal cities like Dar es Salaam and Mombasa so prosperous? In addition to geographical and policy advantages, subjective initiative is equally important. Therefore, Maputo must also learn to find opportunities on its own, so as to break through economic barriers and catch up with other cities."

Someone retorted: "Mr. Mayor, what you said makes sense, but we don't have enough connections and resources to make it happen! If we insist on increasing production capacity, that's easy, but how do we solve the problem of product sales?"

Hans Layton: "Well said. This is indeed a problem for inland areas, but our city of Maputo is on the coast after all, so the situation is different from that of inland cities. As a window to the East African economy, coastal cities have opportunities to communicate with the outside world, so this time the municipal government has specially invited a group of professionals to help you get out of trouble."

Then, at Hans Layton's signal, the secretary invited a group of people in suits and ties into the conference room.

"This is Mr. Wilco, the director of the Maputo branch of the Hexingen Foreign Economic and Trade Company. He is mainly responsible for coordinating the export work of the Hexingen Foreign Economic and Trade Company in this city." Hans Layton introduced to everyone.

"This is Mr. Grievel from Portugal. He used to do import business in Mozambique for many years."

"..."

After Hans Layton's introduction, everyone in the conference room knew that these were the "reinforcements" brought in by Hans Layton and the Maputo government. "Why did I invite these business elites here? The purpose is very simple, that is, the Maputo City Government is willing to cooperate with you, and our government will be the matchmaker to help you find sales channels and markets. Similarly, it can also solve the problem of raw materials, and our Maputo companies are responsible for production and completing orders."

Most of the businessmen invited by Hans Layton were Portuguese. After all, as a former Portuguese colony, the city of Maputo had the most in-depth cooperation with the Portuguese.

This is very different from Beira. With the help of the central government, cities like Beira have attracted a large number of investments from German businessmen, but Maputo did not catch this train.

So Hans Laton turned his attention to the Portuguese. Although Portugal's local economy was in a mess, it was mainly caused by the government's recklessness, but the strength of Portuguese businessmen was not weak. After all, during the period of the former Portuguese colonial empire, Portugal's commercial activities spread all over the world.

Today, Portugal's private business groups are like a lean camel that is bigger than a horse. Moreover, the independence of a colony does not necessarily mean that it can get rid of the influence of the former colonial power.

Among them, the most typical one is Brazil. The relationship between Brazilian business groups and Portugal is deeply bound, and Brazil is undoubtedly a large market, so if the Brazilian market can be opened with the help of the Portuguese, it will definitely be a huge help to the city of Maputo.

Hans Layton said: "I plan to set up a special economic office in the city to promote the economic development of Maputo. The office will be responsible for negotiating with domestic and foreign businessmen and then carrying out unplanned production activities through Maputo's enterprises."

"Of course, the premise is to give priority to completing the planned production tasks, on this basis join the international market competition and promote the industrial and commercial development of Maputo."

Hans Layton creatively proposed the concepts of "within the plan" and "outside the plan". Of course, the management of many large state-owned factories had doubts about this. After all, in their view, completing the tasks assigned by superiors was enough and there was no need to cause trouble.

Of course, Hanslaton never counted on this group of "big factory leaders" and could not command you. Other municipal enterprises are always under the overall management of Hanslaton.

He said to the leaders of the municipal enterprises: "Municipal enterprises are small in scale and have low production efficiency, so I decided to integrate the resources of municipal enterprises across the city. For example, we have four timber factories in Maputo, which will become one after the integration. At the same time, with the guarantee of the municipal government, we will take out a loan from the Hexingen Bank to purchase a batch of advanced equipment to increase production and expand the production line. Finally, Mr. Grieville and others will contact buyers for sales..."

In Hans Layton's view, these small workshops have a group of skilled workers, but lack support in terms of funds and equipment. They will never be able to grow and develop on their own, so the municipal government should first integrate them into a large factory, and then upgrade their tools and equipment. In this way, a municipal enterprise of a decent scale can be formed, which is not inferior to the general state-owned enterprises.

Moreover, the management rights of such enterprises are mainly in the hands of the municipal government, which makes it more convenient for them to manage the economy and optimize resources of Maputo. Only by making money can they further carry out all-round transformation of Maputo.

After all, it is impossible for Hans Layton to be satisfied with standing still in "Maputo City", a city "abandoned" by East Africa. After all, according to the original status of Maputo in Mozambique and the development history of Maputo after its incorporation into East Africa, it was actually not taken seriously.

Cities like Tete, Beira, Quelimane in the north and even Xinxiang enjoy more policies than Maputo, while Maputo’s new round of development opportunities is still the result of provincial allocation.

(End of this chapter)