African Entrepreneurship Record

November 1897.

Mayor Hans Layton convened several state-owned factory leaders and dozens of workshop managers with decent strength in the city for a meeting.

Although many workshops are small in scale, they are also part of state-owned capital in countries like East Africa. In addition to several state-owned large factories, these small workshops are directly led by the city of Maputo. In other words, state-owned large factories are state-owned enterprises, and these handicraft workshops are municipal enterprises, but they are essentially the same, except that state-owned enterprises do not necessarily have to look at the face of Maputo City. They are also involved in the relationship with the province and even the central departments.

"Mayor Hans Layton, I wonder why you called us, the main factory directors and management of Maputo City, here?" The director of the Maputo Power Plant asked first.

"Ahem, the main reason why we called everyone to this meeting is to hope that everyone will cooperate sincerely and make their own contributions to the development of Maputo. After all, everyone knows that Maputo is poor! If we don't unite, Maputo will be at a disadvantage in the future competition with other cities, which is not good news for all of us."

"We are of course aware of this, but if the country does not provide resources and indicators, we can't expand the scale. After all, Maputo is so big and there are so many citizens. It's impossible to produce more electricity and waste it!" said the director of the Maputo Power Plant.

"That's right. The reason why we can build a factory is that it is driven by the country's major policies. For example, electricity, tap water, and wood are all quotas."

Under Portuguese rule, Maputo had no electricity at all. Tap water and other things were newly established under the rule of East Africa. After all, East Africa develops the power industry and promotes the quality of urban life. Industries related to people's livelihood are standard for every city.

Hans Layton knocked on the table and said, "Of course I understand your difficulties, but opportunities cannot be waited for, but should be found and grasped by yourself. This is also an important content of our meeting, that is, to change the concept of economic development in this city."

"As we all know, although there are many rules and regulations in East African economic development, there is still room for maneuver. Why are the economies of coastal cities like Dar es Salaam and Mombasa so prosperous? In addition to geographical and policy advantages, subjective initiative is equally important, so our Maputo city must also learn to find opportunities on its own, so as to break through economic barriers and catch up with other cities."

Someone retorted: "Mr. Mayor, what you said makes sense, but we don't have enough connections and resources to realize it! If we insist on achieving an increase in production capacity, it's simple, but how to solve the problem of product sales?"

Hansleton: "Well said, this is indeed a problem for inland areas, but our Maputo City is on the coast after all, so the situation is different from that of inland cities. Coastal cities are windows to the East African economy, so there are opportunities for external exchanges, so this time the municipal government has specially invited a group of professionals to help you get out of trouble."

Then at Hansleton's signal, the secretary invited a group of people in suits and leather shoes into the conference room.

"This is Mr. Wilco, director of the Maputo branch of the Hexingen Foreign Economic and Trade Company. He is mainly responsible for the export work of the Hexingen Foreign Economic and Trade Company in the city." Hansleton introduced to everyone.

"This is Mr. Grievel from Portugal. He used to do import business in Mozambique all year round."

"..."

After Hansleton's introduction, everyone in the conference room knew that these were the "reinforcements" brought in by Hansleton and the Maputo government.

"Why did I invite these business elites here? The purpose is very simple. That is, the Maputo Municipal Government is willing to cooperate with you. Our government will complete the matchmaking, so as to help everyone find sales channels and markets. Similarly, it can also solve the problem of raw materials, while our Maputo companies are responsible for production and completing orders."

Most of the businessmen invited by Hans Layton are Portuguese. After all, as a former Portuguese colony, Maputo has the most in-depth cooperation with the Portuguese.

This is very different from Beira. Beira and other cities have attracted a large number of German businessmen's investments under the matchmaking of the central government, but Maputo did not catch up with this train.

So Hans Layton turned his attention to the Portuguese. Although the Portuguese local economy is in a mess, it is mainly caused by the government's reckless behavior, but the strength of Portuguese businessmen is not weak. After all, during the period of the former Portuguese colonial empire, Portugal's business activities were all over the world.

Now the Portuguese private business groups are also lean camels that are bigger than horses, not to mention that the independence of the colonies may not be able to get rid of the influence of the former colonial country.

Among them, the most typical one is Brazil. The business community in Brazil has a deep relationship with Portugal, and Brazil is undoubtedly a big market, so if the Portuguese can help open the Brazilian market, it will definitely be a huge help to Maputo.

Hans Layton said: "I plan to set up a special economic office in the city. In order to promote the economic development of Maputo, the office will be responsible for negotiating with domestic and foreign businessmen, and then carry out unplanned production activities through Maputo's enterprises."

"Of course, the premise is to give priority to completing the planned production tasks, and on this basis join the international market competition to promote the industrial and commercial development of Maputo."

Hans Layton creatively proposed the concepts of "planned" and "unplanned". Of course, many managers of large state-owned factories have doubts about this. After all, in their view, completing the superior target tasks is enough. Necessary to cause trouble.

Of course, Hans Layton did not expect these "big factory leaders" to be able to command you. Other city-owned enterprises are always under the overall management of Hans Layton.

It is said that he said to the leadership of municipal enterprises: "Municipal enterprises are small in scale and have low production efficiency, so I decided to integrate resources of municipal enterprises in the city. For example, we have four timber factories in Maputo. After the integration is completed, Becoming a company, with a guarantee from the city government, a loan from the Bank of Hechingen, purchasing a batch of advanced equipment, increasing production, and expanding the production line, and finally Mr. Greville and others will contact buyers for sales..."

In Hans Layton's view, these small workshops have a group of skilled workers, but lack financial and equipment support, and they will never be able to develop and grow by relying on them alone, so the city government first integrates them into a large factory. , and then improve the tools and equipment, so that a municipal enterprise can be formed that is not bad in scale, and is not bad compared with the general state-owned enterprises.

Moreover, the management rights of such enterprises are mainly in the hands of the municipal government, which makes it easier for them to manage the economy and optimize resources of Maputo City. Only when they make money can they further carry out all-round transformation of Maputo City.

After all, Hans Layton could not be content with staying put in "Maputo City", a city that was "abandoned" by East Africa. After all, according to the status of the original Maputo in Mozambique, the development after Maputo was merged into East Africa Judging from history, it is actually not taken seriously.

The cities of Tete, Beira, Quelimane, etc. in the north, and even Xinxiang City enjoy more policies than Maputo City, and the new round of development opportunities in Maputo City is the result of allocation within the province.