African Entrepreneurship Record

Steel production was an important reference data for a country's national strength from the 19th century to the early 20th century. As the food of industry, steel production can measure the scale of a country's industrial and infrastructure construction. This is also the main reason why East Africa puts the steel industry first when setting up its industrial development plan.

As a powerful country, it is undeniable that East Africa has achieved amazing results in many fields, but the steel production can reflect that the current East African industry still has a long way to go. Although East Africa's steel production ranks third or fourth, among the top countries, East Africa has the lowest per capita steel share.

This shows that there is still a lot of room for improvement in the scale of East Africa's steel industry, and it also indirectly reflects that there is a big gap between East Africa's current level of industrialization and advanced industrial countries. Therefore, during the Second Five-Year Plan, continuing to increase East Africa's steel production capacity is an unchanging goal.

Ernst concluded: "The steel industry provides the most basic raw materials for all walks of life, including railways, shipbuilding, automobile manufacturing, power equipment manufacturing, construction, engineering construction, etc., which all require a large amount of steel. Therefore, steel production is an important link that restricts the development of other industries. my country is accelerating its industrialization construction stage, and steel companies must provide more steel production for national construction."

"At the same time, with the progress of the times, East Africa also needs more special, high-quality, and diverse steel materials, which is particularly important for the development of emerging industries and the defense industry. Therefore, the upgrading of the steel industry should not only pursue quantity, but also quality, grasp the balance between quantity and quality, and promote the rational development of the national steel industry."

After talking about the development direction of the steel industry, as usual, railway construction still ranks second. The Ministry of Railways summarized the national railway construction plan during the First Five-Year Plan.

Minister of Railways Andre said: "In the past 30 years, my country has built a total of about 150,000 kilometers of railways, of which 50,000 kilometers were completed during the First Five-Year Plan. During the First Five-Year Plan, my country's railway construction speed has accelerated significantly, reaching an average of 10,000 kilometers per year."

"In the world, the railway construction is second only to the United States. According to the data we have collected, from 1880 to 1890 alone, the United States built more than 10,000 kilometers of railways each year."

"During the First Five-Year Plan, the United States' railway construction performance remained strong, so my country's railway construction task is still a long way to go."

Apart from the abnormality of the United States, East African railway construction is not inferior to any country at all. However, since the beginning of the 20th century, East African railways have no longer been satisfied with comparisons with countries, but regional comparisons.

Especially North America and Europe, the two largest railway networks in the world, through the acceleration of the First Five-Year Plan, the total mileage of East African railways is still ranked after North America and Europe, and is the world's third largest railway network.

Andre said: "my country's territory is much larger than that of the United States, and it does not have high-quality waterways like the Great Lakes or the Mississippi River, and it cannot compare with the dense inland waterway network in Europe, so theoretically, my country's demand for railways is much higher than that of European and American countries."

"In my country's railway construction, the central and southern parts are much higher than the northern parts. The central part, which includes the area between the west coast and the east coast, is the most economically and industrially developed and densely populated area in my country. The south has also built a large number of railway lines because of its rich mineral resources."

This is normal. Whether it is population, urban density, economic development level, or mineral resource distribution, the northern part of East Africa is obviously not as good as other regions in East Africa, so it is reasonable that the northern railways are relatively sparse.

"Currently, in the railway construction in the northern region, in addition to three trunk railways, there are only two important branch railways, one reaching the border between the Abyssinian Empire and our country, and the other reaching the Nile River Basin. In addition, there are only a few minor branch railways in the northwestern Somalia region."

"The north has the longest land border in our country, and there are many countries in the north, and the situation is complicated. The lack of railway construction in the north is a major security risk for the national defense security of East Africa."

Andre said this, which is a bit irritating for the northern countries or colonies of East Africa. As the only infrastructure maniac on the African continent, the transportation in the north where Andre said that the railway construction is missing is not comparable to any country or colony on the African continent, outside East Africa.

Among the countries bordering East Africa, Egypt has the most developed economy, but Egypt has very little demand for railways. After all, Egypt's core territory is basically distributed along the narrow Nile River. To put it bluntly, building a railway along the Nile River can basically meet most of Egypt's needs.

The area bordering Egypt and East Africa is mainly Sudan, and there is not even an inch of railroad tracks in Sudan. Even Egypt is like this. Among other countries bordering East Africa, only the Abyssinian Empire and the Kingdom of South Germany have pitifully few railway lines, and the railways of the two countries are the overseas extensions of the East African railway network.

According to the situation in the previous life, even if the East African railway is not developed now, by the next century, other regions of Africa, except for the Mediterranean region in North Africa, will probably not have many railways.

So what Andre said about the threat to national security should be understood in reverse. East Africa is the biggest threat to neighboring countries and colonies.

Of course, national defense and security must be cautious. No one can say whether East Africa’s neighbors may turn over in the future, although this possibility is lower than the probability of aliens invading the earth.

"In order to meet the needs of social and economic development in the north and national defense and security, the Ministry of Railways plans to improve railway construction in the northern region during the Second Five-Year Plan."

"During the Second Five-Year Plan, the overall goal of my country's railway construction is still to reach 50,000 kilometers, which means that when the Second Five-Year Plan is completed, the national railway will reach at least 200,000 kilometers."

"At the same time, we will optimize and upgrade some railway lines, continue to build the African Continental Bridge, connect the economic ties between the east and west coasts and the inland, promote the division of labor and cooperation in regional industries across the country, and promote the continuous progress of East Africa's industrialization process."

During the Second Five-Year Plan, East African railway construction still adopted a relatively conservative plan. After all, with the completion of the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa's industrial and infrastructure capabilities have been greatly improved, and it is fully capable of building more railways.

Of course, even if it is a conservative plan, it is only a little more conservative than American railway companies in the world. The 50,000-kilometer railway construction plan is almost equivalent to building another German railway.

Germany is already the most developed country in Europe in terms of railway construction. According to the railway construction in East Africa, excluding some difficult-to-develop areas in East Africa, such as the southwest and northeast deserts, the western tropical rainforests, some mountains and large lakes, when the Second Five-Year Plan is completed, the gap between East Africa and the entire European railway network can be basically ignored.

Moreover, the internal situation of the European railway network is complicated. For example, countries such as Tsarist Russia and Northern Europe adopt different railway gauges, which makes the European railway mileage longer than that of East Africa, but the utilization efficiency may not be higher than that of East Africa.

Of course, the total population and economy of East Africa at this stage are far from being comparable to Europe as a whole, and the economic development factors lead to higher economic benefits of European railways in terms of passenger flow and logistics volume than East Africa.

The population of Europe is more than four times that of East Africa, and the area of ​​East Africa is larger than that of Europe. In addition, many European countries have extremely developed industries, which means that East African railways cannot compete with Europe in terms of revenue in a short period of time.

In this era, only the United States can compete with Europe, but even the United States still has a considerable gap with Europe as a whole, so East Africa's industrial development still has a long way to go. Now East Africa can even only be compared with a single country in Europe in terms of industry and national strength.