African Entrepreneurship Record

City of Luanda.

In a teahouse in Luanda, several Germans were discussing the changes in East Africa in recent years. The most common foreigners in Luanda are Germans, French and Portuguese, but they each have their own circles.

“Through the First Five-Year Plan, the level of urban construction in East Africa has been significantly improved. When I first went to Luanda to invest, the south of the factory was still a wasteland. In just five years, a large number of factories and buildings of various types have been built. Rising from the ground.”

"East Africa is undergoing rapid changes now. I have also visited some cities on the west coast and east coast. These cities are as vibrant as Luanda."

"The population of these cities is expanding rapidly like cities in Europe, but it is not like the disorderly growth of cities in European society. The transfer of a large number of cheap workers from rural areas to cities will cause many social problems, which is very common in European cities. ”

"However, the quality of East Africa's urban population is obviously relatively high, which has benefited from the implementation of compulsory education. However, education cannot solve fundamental problems, especially employment and urban management."

"A commanding country like East Africa has avoided the problem of unemployment through administrative means. In Luanda, the largest city in western Africa, there is not a single unemployed person. The vast majority of people's jobs are allocated, and the East African government hopes that Eliminate discrimination caused by work differences through public opinion means.”

"Including improving the status of workers, raising the benefits of some professions, and praising some professions that are generally discriminated against in European society through newspapers and other media."

"However, I am not optimistic about this behavior of the East African government. It is not conducive to social competition and progress. However, the East African government does not need to consider these issues at the moment. As a backward country, the main job of the East African government at the moment is to catch up with other countries. So I won’t encounter this kind of trouble frequently.”

As a German businessman, Clovis witnessed the rapid development of Luanda during the First Five-Year Plan and also made a lot of money. Under such rapid development, opportunities are indispensable, especially for people like Clovis who are engaged in Business people.

There are many foreign-funded companies in East Africa, but in addition to investing in mid-to-high-end industries and obtaining East African government subsidies and policy preferences, only second-tier dealers like Clovis have made huge profits.

Of course, Clovis's national policy towards East Africa is mixed. East Africa is undoubtedly a big market, but this market is not as free as Europe, so East Africa limits the performance of businessmen like Clovis, but because East Africa and Germany's connections allowed businessmen like Clovis to have the opportunity to profit from East Africa.

However, this situation was about to change soon. On June 12, 1905, the East African government further expanded the issue of "opening up".

Business groups or individuals from European countries including the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain and other countries are welcome to conduct trade activities in East Africa. At the same time, East Africa will further open port cities as trading locations, relax tariff barriers on a number of commodities, and increase trade with countries around the world.

It seems that East Africa is actively embracing the international market. In fact, after the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa can produce many industrial products on its own and has high market competitiveness. Therefore, the East African government will allow some goods to enter East Africa and cooperate with relevant state-owned enterprises in East Africa. compete.

Therefore, the fundamental reason for this change is the improvement of industrialization in East Africa. The current urbanization level in East Africa is obviously much lower than that in Europe. However, through the industrial construction in the 1990s and the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa’s industrial volume is no less than that of the vast majority of the world. Industrial power.

Although the level of industrialization is still low, corresponding to the population size of East Africa, even the low level of industrialization means that the industrial volume of East Africa has achieved astonishing results.

In 1904, the urbanization rate in East Africa was about 20%. Before the First Five-Year Plan, it had reached 23%. After the First Five-Year Plan, this figure will obviously not be lower than 20%. three.

The East African government's estimate is about 25% or 27%. Although it has only increased by a few percentage points, according to the current population data of East Africa, it can increase the industrial population by at least one million.

The East African government's figures are approximately over three million, which represents the brilliant achievements of East Africa's First Five-Year Plan. Although not as exaggerated as the former Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan, it was unparalleled in the world at that time.

During the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan, at least more than 10 million people poured into cities. The current population of East Africa may be much smaller than that of the Soviet Union, but it should not be far different.

The main reason is that there is currently no relevant census of population data in East Africa. According to the census practice in East Africa, a national census is now conducted every ten years, so the population data of East Africa should not be updated until around 1910.

However, even without accurate data, it can be seen with the naked eye that the changes in East African society are huge. Businessmen like Clovis may have a deep feeling for the changes in the coastal cities of East Africa, but the changes in the vast inland areas of East Africa are only is even more amazing.

Under the politics of keeping a low profile in East Africa, East Africa's economy also likes to be secretive, including defense industry, automobile manufacturing, power industry and other important industries, most of which are located in inland areas.

Only diplomats from various countries could get a glimpse of the development of East Africa through the Central Railway, and the scope of business activities of businessmen like Clovis was limited to the coastal cities of East Africa.

There are nearly 600 cities in East Africa, and there are only more than 20 open coastal port cities. Therefore, it is impossible to analyze the real strength of East Africa through the coast.

Take the east as an example. Although cities such as Dar es Salaam and Mombasa are the leaders, the number of coastal cities in the east is only a dozen, and the economic development levels of these coastal cities vary greatly.

These cities are only about 20 points on the map of East Africa. Excluding these 20 points, they all belong to the inland area of ​​East Africa. This division of regions is not entirely based on the coastline, but on the degree of openness.

In this way, the proportion of inland economy in East Africa far exceeds that of coastal cities. Take the central region with the most developed industry in East Africa, where the proportion of heavy industry has reached more than 70% of the country (including western Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, southern and eastern Congo, and the vast areas of western Mozambique).

Although coastal areas have extraordinary advantages, they are not as exaggerated as many countries in the past. During the first and second industrial revolutions, industry was mainly developed around resource-rich areas, while East Africa's industrial development resources were mainly concentrated in the central and southern regions, which also made the proportion of industry in central East Africa far exceed that of coastal areas.

This situation is not unique to East Africa in this era. For example, Germany's industrial areas are also inland, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire's industry is concentrated in Bohemia (Czech Republic and Slovakia).

It is very difficult for other countries to peek into the development of inland East Africa. The first is the identity issue. After the capital of East Africa was moved, Rhine City was located deep inland, giving diplomats from other countries the opportunity to go deep into the hinterland of East Africa. When the first town was the capital, foreigners could only reach the first town at most, and the first town was only about 70 kilometers away from the coastline, which was basically not much different from coastal cities.

Even after East Africa moved its capital to Rhine City, the scope of activities of diplomats from various countries was limited to Rhine City. Preventing foreign forces from infiltrating East Africa has always been an important task for East Africa.

So in fact, East Africa is just like a certain peninsula country in East Asia in the previous life, which is a larger version of North Korea, but East Africa does not have the bad diplomatic environment of North Korea, nor does it have a blockade of East Africa by a powerful country like the United States.

Although Britain is the world hegemon at this time, its control over the world is far from the exaggerated effect of the United States in the previous life.