African Entrepreneurship Record

However, this does not overlap with Kewell's business. After all, he is just the business manager of a small bank and wants to intervene in Maputo City's economy and needs a media.

So he asked Rogge: "Mr. Rogge, I wonder what the main content of your investment promotion this time is?"

Rogge said: "There are two directions. One is to hope that people will invest and build factories in our city of Maputo, and the other is to introduce funds for enterprise development."

The second point Rogge said made Kewell's eyes light up. He said: "Look at our Rooney Bank. Although it is not a big bank, it still has strength."

"Hmm!" Rogge did not expect that Kwell would make suggestions at this time. Kwell was just a receptionist arranged by the Berlin city government. Originally, Rogge planned to conduct business at the reception.

However, no matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat. Kweil, who was arranged by the Berlin city government, is probably not a small person.

Rogge thought carefully for a while and then said: "If you can participate in investment in our city, as long as it meets the regulations, we will definitely welcome it. However, I am afraid that there is no content in our delegation that is consistent with your bank investment."

The main reason is that Rooney Bank is not strong enough. The people who can come to participate in investment promotion on behalf of Maputo City this time are basically large-scale enterprises in East Africa.

Rogge's words made Kewell feel dark, but then he heard Rogge say: "However, you are not without opportunities. Our business delegation coming to Berlin is actually just the beginning."

"Now, under the guidance of policies, Maputo City definitely hopes to attract more foreign-invested enterprises. As for the banking industry in East Africa, it is also beginning to be liberalized. You may be able to carry out related business in Maputo City."

"As far as I know, there are many entrepreneurs in China today. Many of them are ordinary people who lack funds. If you go to East Africa to do business, you will still have a bright future."

"Of course, there are risks in this, but now is a trend. High risks also mean big opportunities. In other respects, you can also directly buy our East African national bonds, but there are too many people who want to eat this cake. The development of our municipal government You can also consider debts.”

Starting from the Third Five-Year Plan, the threshold for the introduction of foreign investment in East Africa has been significantly lowered. Today, East Africa is like a wild animal that can eat as much as it wants.

Before 1911, the total foreign debt of East Africa was less than 1.2 billion rhine guilders, almost more than 40 million pounds, and much of it was mainly accumulated from foreign trade.

This debt level can be said to be very low in the world. Among the world's major powers, the debt owed by the East African government is almost negligible compared with other countries.

In one year, 1911, East Africa's debt increased by 720 million rhine guilders, and this figure was still growing rapidly.

In addition to the large-scale debt borrowing by the East African government for development, local governments have also liberalized external borrowing conditions. Although there are many restrictions, the scale is considerable. After all, there are more than 40 provinces and hundreds of cities in East Africa.

It is impossible for the East African government to take care of so many provinces and cities alone. Therefore, if they want to develop, borrowing money from abroad is one of the easier ways.

Maputo City is one of them. This year, the Maputo City Government alone sent five teams to Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the United States and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Kwell was also very tempted after hearing the two plans provided by Rogge. He said to Rogge: "Director Rogge, if our bank opens business in Maputo City, will there be any trouble?"

Rogge said with relief: "You can rest assured about this. Nowadays, domestic economic policies are relatively loose and there are many opportunities. As long as you don't break the law, it is basically a business that will make a profit without losing any money."

"We in East Africa are a huge market with a population of more than 100 million. Compared with Europe, economic activity is still relatively low, and many industries are blank."

In the final analysis, the East African government hopes to develop its own light industry with the help of funds from other countries. East Africa does not lack talents, markets and technology, but what it lacks most is start-up capital.

Most of the East African government's industrial investments are concentrated in infrastructure, heavy industry, and agriculture, and it is difficult to take into account light industry as well.

Rogge suggested to Kwell: "If possible, you can send someone to our city to investigate. There are many Germans and Portuguese people living in Maputo itself. This is my business card. If you go there in the future, Maputo City, you can contact me.”

Rogge handed Kewell a piece of paper with Rogge's office address and phone number on it. Nowadays, East African government agencies have basically universally used telephones, so contact is relatively convenient.

Kwill carefully accepted the business card. As the director of the Investment Promotion Office of Maputo City, Rogge's identity was worthy of Kwill's attention.

…

There are many cities in East Africa like Maputo that directly send "diplomatic" teams. In 1912, there were more than 1,200 government-organized business delegations in East Africa alone, covering almost all developed regions such as Europe and the United States.

The central government of East Africa has been borrowing heavily from foreign countries. National-level borrowings have always been high, often reaching hundreds of millions of rhine guilders. Although the currency value of the rhine guilder is relatively low among major countries in the world, at the beginning of the 20th century, most The national currency has a much higher gold content than the currencies of previous generations.

Rhine city.

Swiat reported to Ernst: "Now our country's debt is as high as 2.2 billion Rhine guilders, and this does not include local debts. The country's external debt is as high as more than 3 billion Rhine guilders."

"Such a high debt amount is too much for us, much more than in the past, but this has also activated the development of our local economy. Many cities are expanding industries, light industry is developing particularly rapidly, and the total freight volume of our transportation industry has increased significantly."

More than 3 billion Rhine guilders, in fact, is more than 300 million pounds, which is definitely an astronomical figure. At the same time, the United States owed Britain about the same amount of money. Of course, in addition to owing money to Britain, the United States also owed a lot of debts to France, Germany and other countries, which probably added up to more than 10 billion pounds.

So the national debt of East Africa looks amazing, but East Africa can still control it, and even borrow more, and East Africa has the ability to take it on.

In response, Ernst said: "Although these debts are large, they are still within our acceptable range. The most important thing now is to convert these funds into real industries."

"Moreover, in my opinion, we can still borrow at least 3 billion in debt, and the government will focus its borrowing targets on loans from Britain, France and Germany."

Ernst's words made other people in the East African government feel terrified. Now the debt of the East African government is already an astronomical figure in the eyes of everyone. If it doubles according to Ernst's words, I don't know how to pay it back in the future.

In fact, Ernst's words are already quite conservative. In Ernst's view, no matter how much is borrowed now, as long as the European war breaks out, East Africa will be able to pay off the debts, and maybe it will make a lot of money after the war.

However, for the sake of safety, Ernst did not dare to gamble too much. In case the European war did not break out, or the scale of the war was not as large as in the previous life, and the time was not so long, it is very likely to backfire on the East African economy.

Therefore, the "big loan" plan formulated by Ernst is actually very conservative. Now Ernst only prays that the European war can develop as it did in history. For East Africa, this is an important opportunity for East Africa to surpass Europe in the economic field.

Just like the United States in the past, it owed a lot of debt to Europe before the war, and after the First World War, Europe owed a lot of debt to the United States.

Therefore, this round of East African big loans is actually Ernst's advance layout for the war. Now East Africa has only one purpose, which is to expand its own industrial capacity and then compete with the United States for the market during World War I.