African Entrepreneurship Record

"In order to meet the needs of East Africa's economic development, the East African Planned Economic Commission was established to coordinate the construction of industry, agriculture, energy, technology, engineering and other areas across the country."

“The main reason for establishing this agency is to formulate the country’s medium- and long-term development plans, maintain the stability of development policies, and at the same time design a more scientific independent economic development path for East Africa, coordinate the work of state-owned enterprises, various institutions, and government departments at all levels, and formulate production plan to improve industrial and agricultural production capacity.”

In a country like East Africa, where the state-owned economy and the collective economy (mainly agriculture) are dominant, it is obviously not feasible to rely on Western traditions or the capitalist economic development model.

Therefore, in October 1895, Ernst officially promoted the establishment of the East African National Planned Economic Commission, drawing elite soldiers and generals from various government agencies in East Africa to form this economic policy agency that was completely different from the Western world.

The establishment of the East African National Planned Economic Commission does not mean East Africa's denial of the market economy, but is intended to guide the development of East Africa's state-owned and collective economies more scientifically.

Of course, the main private economy in East Africa is the royal family enterprise, so it will actually comply with the government's requirements to formulate the company's development strategy in East Africa.

However, for this agency, the nickname of the East African Internal Government is the "Economic Cabinet". After all, it is not like the Ministry of Finance at all. Most of the work is done within the department, but it can directly intervene in the work of all departments related to the national economic field. The top position was naturally held by Ernst.

“In the composition of our country’s economy, the state-owned economy and the collective economy occupy a dominant position. Therefore, in order to facilitate the management of state-owned enterprises and the collective economy, the Planning Commission is a necessary institution. In the past, our country’s economy was in a state of barbaric development for a long time, and communication and collaboration between various departments and enterprises The lack of connectivity is not conducive to the formulation of national economic policies. Therefore, the task of the East African Planning Commission is to implement the general policy of 'a national economic chess game', formulate the development direction of government economic work tasks, and provide guidance for the development of enterprises and economic groups."

As for what Ernst said, many officials in East Africa just feel confused. After all, this has no precedent in other countries in the world.

However, it did not cause too much trouble. After all, East Africa used to be a "planned" economy, and the country's development policy was entirely decided by Ernst alone.

Of course, Ernst alone does not have this ability. He mainly relies on the think tank team to complete the specific work, and Ernst finally signs and agrees.

So now the East African Planning Commission is actually equivalent to Ernst upgrading the think tank team into a formal government agency. Naturally, everyone is indifferent to the situation of "changing the soup without changing the medicine".

After the establishment of the East African Planning Commission, the power of the Ministry of Finance has been greatly reduced, but it is still an important economic department of the government. After all, in theory, the Planning Commission has no real power, and it costs money to do things, and in the end it has to be reviewed and signed by the Ministry of Finance.

After the establishment of the department, Ernst said: "In the blink of an eye, it will be the turn of the century. In four years, it will be the 20th century, which also means the advent of a new era. Therefore, in these four years, the Planning Economic Commission will fully take over the country." In the formulation of economic development strategies, we must also be familiar with relevant work and formulate the overall goals of my country’s economic development before 1900. We do not need to set too high a tone and work pragmatically to improve the current national economic system.”

After all, the Planned Economic Commission had just been established, so whether it could fulfill Ernst's requirements remains to be seen. Therefore, the four years from 1895 to 1900 were its running-in stage.

It is impossible to ask them to formulate detailed plans. They should formulate rough development plans first, and then observe the effects by 1900 before making major adjustments and changes.

In Ernst's view, the planned economy in East Africa, in particular, should not be rushed. Although it is easy to achieve results, it is also easy to ignore potential disadvantages.

It is always necessary for the subordinates to be familiar with various affairs, understand the national conditions of the country's economic development, and the world's economic development trends, and then they can formulate a relatively scientific development plan based on the specific conditions of the East African countries.

This resulted in the first national development plan produced by the East African Economic Planning Commission being quite conservative:

At least fifty new state-owned enterprises of various types have been established, the steel output has exceeded three million tons (of course, East Africa has more than two million tons), the cultivated land area has exceeded 1.5 billion acres, and the grain output has exceeded at least 200 billion (currently 1.77 billion tons). (more than 100 million kilograms), the railway exceeded 70,000 kilometers (30,000 kilometers less than the original plan of the Ministry of Railways)...

Moreover, in some economic fields, the goal setting is quite implicit. After all, in a short period of time, the Planning and Economic Commission did not have a thorough understanding of the national conditions of East Africa and could not master detailed data.

So we can only talk about encouraging the development of various industries, promoting industrial upgrading and transformation, vigorously developing the national defense and military industry... and other uncertain topics.

Ernst can understand this. After all, he has no experience, so Ernst's requirements are not high. It is estimated that after four years, the Planning Economic Commission will be familiar with the relevant work, and then it will not be as "at a loss" as it is now. "Yes.

This also made other government departments in East Africa look at it as a "joke". After all, their unskilled work made the East African Planning Economic Commission look nondescript, and the economic development goals it formulated were not even as good as the plans formulated by the original government departments at all levels.

Among them is the Ministry of Railways. The original plan designed by the Ministry of Railways was that before 1900, the total mileage of East African railways exceeded 100,000 kilometers. However, it was cut by the Planning Economic Commission, which directly eliminated one French national railway mileage.

Of course, the initial task of the Planning and Economic Commission is mainly to adjust and learn, and its formulation of economic policies only has guiding significance. It would be great if the Ministry of Railways could overfulfill its tasks.

However, the data of 70,000 kilometers given by the Planning and Economic Commission is not completely unreasonable. The data is based on the East African railway construction data in previous years. After all, East African railway construction has peaks and lows. According to their estimates, in the next four years, It is difficult for East African railway construction to reach the scale of the 1970s and 1980s. The outbreak of railway construction in the 1980s was caused by the economic crisis.

Regarding the debate between the two, only time can prove that before that, the Ministry of Railways naturally still planned the national railway construction plan according to the original plan.

Therefore, after the establishment of the East African Planning Economic Commission, between 1895 and 1900, it would hardly have much impact on the economic development of East African countries.

In fact, even without this sector, the current East African economy would not be able to develop too slowly in the big cycle of world economic recovery.

At the end of the 19th century, it was the outbreak of the second industrial revolution. As long as the overall stability of the country could be maintained, even the current government of the Far Eastern Empire could achieve good political results.

In fact, the economies of Far Eastern countries are very similar to those of East Africa. That is, a large number of enterprises established by the government during the Westernization Movement were actually state-owned enterprises. This period was the period of rapid development in the military industry and other fields of the Far Eastern Empire.

Of course, the Far Eastern Empire government is obviously still a little timid in investing in industry, unlike East Africa where all large investments are made. This has a lot to do with the national conditions of the two countries.

Especially after the Far Eastern War, this can be seen as one of the turning points in the Far Eastern Empire's national destiny. After more than ten years of peaceful development, the Far Eastern War also meant the restart of regional turmoil.

As for East Africa, because of the South African War, it will be in a state of peace and stability for the next ten years. Under such circumstances, East Africa is likely to rapidly narrow the gap in economic size with the Far Eastern Empire.