African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 972: Emerging Industrial Power
The most prominent part of this national industrial summary is still the internal combustion engine vehicle sector, which is also one of the key areas of focus for Ernst and the East African government.

"As of last year, the total number of diesel locomotives in my country has reached 700,000, covering three major types of cars, trucks and tractors. The number of cars in China ranks first in the world, with more than 170,000, 200,000 trucks and more than 300,000 tractors. We have built more than 1 million kilometers of new roads, repaired and newly built 3 million kilometers of mechanized farming roads."

In this regard, East Africa is truly far ahead. In the automobile category alone, East Africa's car ownership exceeds the total of other countries in the world. The United States, which ranks second in the world, has just exceeded 10,000 cars in its national car count, while East Africa's automobile production is more than ten times that of the United States.

Moreover, in the next decade, the East African automobile industry will usher in a new round of explosion. In this industrial upgrade, East Africa has integrated and upgraded its local automobile industry. Seven large automobile manufacturing companies have been formed in the country, covering 59 automobile brands, more than 30 cities and more than 400 factories across the country.

In East Africa today, automobile, truck and tractor manufacturing have become emerging industries that can compete with traditional industries.

Corresponding to the rapid development of internal combustion engine vehicles in East Africa, from colonization to nation-building and then to the present, Ernst feels that his main task is to engage in infrastructure construction. In addition to new construction, East Africa's current infrastructure construction can be divided into three major parts.

The goal across the country is to rebuild the highway system and harden the road surface to provide a foundation for the development of the automobile industry. The eastern river network and water conservancy facilities are being renovated, and new water conservancy facilities are being built in other areas. After all, the output of industrial products such as cement in East Africa was limited in the past, so the original water conservancy facilities were relatively primitive and mainly civil structures. Now that the output of cement and steel has increased, it is natural to rebuild them, and many water conservancy projects that could not be realized will also need to be newly built.

The popularization of tractors required East Africa to upgrade roads in rural areas, farmlands, plantations, pastures and other agricultural areas. Therefore, after entering the 1990s, the amount of engineering projects in East Africa was even greater than before.

Compared with cars, trucks and tractors are more popular. It can be seen from the output that the number of trucks and tractors exceeds that of cars. After all, East Africa itself attaches more importance to practicality and efficiency.

The production of cars was entirely out of the need to win people's hearts and minds, and was mainly equipped for officials and scientific researchers in East Africa.

This is already considered pretty good. After all, only rich people in Europe and the United States can afford cars now, and the automobile industry has not yet penetrated into the civilian market.

Judging from the automobile production in East Africa, East Africa will realize the penetration of automobiles into the civilian market earlier than European and American countries.

Of course, under Ernst's instructions, East Africa also attaches importance to the research and development of public transportation. After all, East Africa's local oil resources are relatively scarce.

Similarly, East African automobile research and development is also moving towards the two major ideas of "speeding up" and "fuel saving", which requires East African automobile companies to treat the domestic and foreign markets differently, and the domestic market is divided into the civilian market and the military market.

Ernst has an awareness of "energy security and crisis", but foreign markets have no relevant concepts. Therefore, foreign markets value the experience when pursuing cars, and "fuel saving" will inevitably sacrifice part of the experience value. Fortunately, East Africa is a closed market country, so it is easy to take a differentiated route.

Otherwise, East Africa's huge automobile production capacity will completely overwhelm automobile manufacturers in other countries. In fact, international competitors are already suffering from East African competitors, and this is only the case when East African coastal automobile companies are making efforts.

East Africa's automobile industry is mainly located in inland areas, and it mainly supplies the domestic market. Exports mainly rely on automobile manufacturers in the two coastal cities of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.

After all, East Africa has a planned economy and does not need to overemphasize market economy content. The current content of the planned economy is to improve the level of industrialization in East Africa.

East Africa doesn't care much about profits in the manufacture of internal combustion engine vehicles. Otherwise, according to the current income level of East African residents, it would be very difficult to promote the development of the East African automobile industry. Even East African officials can't afford it easily. Therefore, the market of the East African automobile industry, excluding the high-profit market abroad, has some routes in the country, just like the railway department of the Far East Empire in the past, with losses in passenger transport and recovery through freight transport. This is why the output of trucks and tractors in East Africa is higher than that of cars. Trucks and tractors can create more industrial and agricultural benefits, while cars are much worse.

Of course, even so, this is beneficial to the expansion of the East African automobile industry. After all, under the government's administrative measures, a domestic market has been forcibly created, and this market is the largest in the world, although the profits are far less than those of foreign markets.

The next goal for East African automakers is to further reduce production costs and expand production capacity, so as to truly realize the goal of East Africa being a “country on wheels”.

"Internal combustion engine vehicles have begun to play a huge role in my country's transportation, engineering construction, and agricultural production. At the same time, industrial production equipment related to internal combustion engines, such as engines and generators, are widely used in factories. Pump stations used in a large number of public facilities such as water conservancy also require internal combustion engines or motors as power."

"The internal combustion engine industry and the power industry have undoubtedly become the most important engines for East Africa's development, enabling East Africa to take the lead in achieving the goal of becoming an industrial power in the field of emerging industries."

"Without the continued development and huge potential of these emerging industries, East Africa will always be just a follower of European and American countries. The leading position in emerging industries means that my country's industrial development has grasped the future. As time goes by, my country's industrial advantages will inevitably become more prominent worldwide."

In the field of traditional industries, East Africa, Germany and the United States could not easily surpass Britain, especially in the fields of steam engines and textiles. The solution was to eliminate traditional industries through emerging industries and thus seize market share.

Of course, compared with East Africa, the traditional industries of the United States and Germany are also very strong, and this is the main reason for the huge economic gap between East Africa and the two countries.

Another point is that there is still a gap between East Africa's current industrial scale and those of the two countries, but the gap is not too big. The main reason is that East Africa's population is growing too fast. In this case, even if East Africa's industrialization rate and urbanization rate no longer increase, the industrial scale will passively increase due to population growth.

In fact, this is the route that allowed the United States' industry to surpass Britain in 1890. Population is an important resource. In the age of industrialization, every industrializing country will experience a population boom.

However, it is very difficult for East Africa to ensure that its industrialization level does not decline and achieve growth. After all, a large population is also a burden.

However, the international environment in which East Africa was in its industrialization stage was much better than that of the Far East Empire in the previous life. In this era, the blockade of backward countries by developed countries was much less severe. After all, the world was not dominated by one country, but was truly multipolar. Although there were strong and weak countries, it undoubtedly created more opportunities for backward regions and countries.

In the 19th century, the currency was tied to gold and silver. As a major gold mining country, East Africa could buy almost any industrial equipment it wanted during its industrialization stage. This is one of the important reasons why East Africa was able to easily complete industrial upgrading.

Of course, the emerging industries in East Africa are not weak, but after industrial upgrading, industries such as coal, steel, railways, chemicals, and textiles have also been updated and iterated, greatly saving time and efficiency.

This has laid a good foundation for the next step of industrialization in East Africa. In the next decade, even in the face of pressure from population growth, East African governments are confident that they can ensure further growth in their country's industrial levels.

(End of this chapter)