African Entrepreneurship Record

Mayor Lorraine continued: "Based on the above situation, the first external force that we can rely on for Mombasa's economic development is central policy inclination, the second is provincial support, the third is other provinces in East Africa, and The next thing I want to talk about is the fourth force that can be borrowed, which is foreign capital.”

“At present, among the economic development of various cities in East Africa, there is one city that is a typical case of development with the help of foreign capital, and that is Maputo City in Hanseatic Province.”

“I think everyone is familiar with the city of Maputo, which was the capital of the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique. After the South African War, Maputo’s status in the economy and politics of East Africa actually declined. This made Maputo The municipality does not have an advantage in terms of resources and policies, and its conditions are much worse than those in Mombasa.”

“With the support of the Hanseatic Province and the Maputo Municipal Government, Maputo City has introduced a large amount of foreign capital such as Portugal. In the past few years, the economic development has achieved good results, and with the Maputo First Five-Year Plan The completion of the steel plant is undoubtedly a sign of its return to the ranks of important cities.”

"This also gives us a direction of thinking, that is, how to fully utilize foreign capital in the development of Mombasa. Through in-depth analysis and understanding, I discovered an area that is often overlooked, and that is our country's lack of colonial awareness. Or the attention of capital in backward countries.”

Mayor Lorraine's words undoubtedly aroused everyone's interest, because colored glasses, colonial or backward countries always give people an impression of poverty and backwardness, and naturally they do not get too much attention.

Lorraine continued: "But people often overlook an important point, that is, the people in these colonies or backward countries are indeed poor, but their upper class is very rich."

"I would like to highlight India among them. India is a British colony. There is no doubt that in the propaganda and impression of East Africa, Indians are enslaved and brutally exploited by the British. Many Indians do not have enough to eat. There is a famine problem.”

"However, because of this, we often forget that Indians are not all people from the bottom. Indian society has the most complete racial system. In India, many Brahmins, Kshatriyas or other high-level sects, or princes and nobles, are arrogant and extravagant. They controlled a large amount of wealth in India, and through cooperation with the British, they had the autonomy to control their own wealth. "

"The British are like the Mongols in history. Although the Mongols exploited other regions, they achieved mutual benefit by colluding with local interest groups."

After all, the bad things were all done by the colonists, so that the local interest groups could get the benefits without having to bear the infamy. This was how the Indian princes and nobles cooperated with the British.

And when the contradictions at the lower levels of Indian society were completely aroused and unable to be suppressed, they jumped out, "complied" with the people's sentiments, pretended to be heroes who drove away the British colonists, and took over the country's power.

Of course, for these princes, nobles and high-caste Indians, no matter how dark they are, they will not hinder Mayor Lorraine's ideas.

He said clearly: "The key point is that these high-level people in India control a large amount of social wealth, and most of the wealth of Indian princes and nobles is completed through rent collection and taxation. This leaves a large amount of unconsumed money stored in the hands of Indian princes and nobles. of wealth.”

"Although Indian princes and nobles may have investments and industries in the UK, the proportion of their wealth is definitely not high. This can be seen from our commercial trade with India."

"In the past five years, India has been the second largest consumer of automobiles in Mombasa. A large part of the orders came from Indian princes, nobles and wealthy people, and Indians are not bad at doing business. During the South African War, there were A large number of Indian merchants served the British and Portuguese armies, and these Indian merchants also accumulated a lot of wealth through the British colonial system.”

"So if we want to obtain industrial development funds, we can start from the upper-class people in these countries and regions that are backward but have a lot of funds, and attract them to invest in Mombasa."

"And we happen to have advantages in this regard. First of all, we are very close to India, the Middle East and other countries, and Mombasa itself has many Arab and Indian businessmen groups."

"We can use this as a breakthrough to jointly build a group of industrial enterprises with their behind-the-scenes bosses. Don't be stingy with some policy concessions, which are nothing more than support in terms of land rent. As long as we let them invest money in our factories first Once the construction is completed, they will not be able to get away easily, and they will have to stand by our side to help with product sales.”

Lorraine's idea is to seize these external capital through joint ventures. As long as they fall into the trap set by Lorraine, it will not be easy for these external funds to withdraw their investment. Before the factory is built and put into production, they will not be able to recover the cost, and after it is put into production We also need to help solve the sales problem, and companies that are capable of cooperating with the Mombasa Municipal Government are definitely not ordinary people. They have strength and connections in the region. This will make it easier for Mombasa's industrial products to open up new sales.

“Of course, we can’t fish all out, and we must give the sweetness that is due. People cannot stand without trust, and we cannot sacrifice Mombasa’s future for short-term interests. What we need is industry to solve the employment problem, rather than putting profits first. Target."

“After the industry is established and developed, we can then consider other issues and take a long-term view to catch big fish.”

"If the reputation of Mombasa in the Indian Ocean is tarnished due to credibility issues, let alone surpassing Dar es Salaam, we may even lose future development opportunities."

Mombasa cannot ignore the city's business environment just because of its geographical advantage. Many cities cannot develop because of the laziness and neglect of local governments, or even help others to do evil.

If there is no supervision, the business environment anywhere will be quite poor. After all, more than 99.9% of businessmen are only interested in profit. This is inevitable in various countries today.

This also puts forward higher requirements for the Mombasa Municipal Government. As an important commercial center in East Africa, Mombasa City must provide comfortable services to passing businessmen, so that more businessmen can come to Mombasa to look for opportunities and drive the local economy. develop.

Just imagine, the officials of the Mombasa Municipal Government are all putting on bad faces, which will definitely leave a bad impression on foreign businessmen. This will inevitably have a bad impact on the image of the Mombasa Municipal Government and bring negative consequences to local commercial and trade activities. Negative impact.

Therefore, Lorraine emphasized to various departments of the city government: "Keep in mind that service-oriented government is an important development goal of our city of Mombasa. In this increasingly competitive era, a smiling face may give a good impression to foreign businessmen. If he is in a good mood, he may directly invest in an industry.”

"Therefore, I will include the government's service attitude in the assessment of Mombasa city officials, further strengthen supervision and supervision, and organize a personnel training next month. If anyone fails to do so, I will make you lose your hat, and so will you. Don’t feel aggrieved, these are necessary measures for the success of the Greater Mombasa City Plan, even I will lead by example.”