African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 589 Prosperous New City

"Well, it seems that as the factory director, you also understand the situation in the factory. Now is the era of science and technology. What we lack in East Africa is cultural people, so we still need to listen to experts more. However, there is a saying that all letters are worse than nothing. Books, theoretical research will inevitably conflict with reality, so our factories in East Africa must combine reality and focus on production in a down-to-earth manner."

Constantine is best at military affairs. He doesn’t know much about business management, especially state-owned enterprises in East Africa, so he didn’t give random orders and could only give some words of encouragement.

Of course, Constantine thought so. In fact, he was affected by the general environment in East Africa. He had been exposed to similar companies before. As a big government in Prussia, many factories were run by the state, which was concentrated in some military industrial enterprises. The most typical example is the nationalization of railways.

 It’s just that there are too many state-owned enterprises in East Africa. There are still many private enterprises in East Africa, and there are many enterprises invested by German businessmen in the east. However, the management in East Africa is stricter, so the number of investments is not large.

These private enterprises account for a small proportion of the East African economy, but they cannot be treated as non-existent, and they have accepted the rules and regulations of East Africa. This shows that these businessmen want to focus on industry. East Africa does not discriminate against businessmen, but has more restrictions. If they are willing to East Africa welcomes legitimate businessmen who accept East African rules.

The director of the Harare Tobacco Factory was naturally very happy when he heard what Constantine said. After all, it must be difficult to get a big leader, and this is the first time the king has visited Matabele Province, so He said respectfully: "We will continue to work hard and strive to contribute our own strength to the country's economic development!"

Constantine then left the tobacco factory under the auspices of everyone. His means of travel was a luxury carriage brought by a special train.

Through the car window, Constantine took another look at the urban construction situation in Harare. Because Constantine’s visit to Harare was not deliberately publicized, the roads were not closed, and pedestrians were busy on the streets as usual.

Of course, Constantine’s motorcade still attracted the attention of pedestrians. After all, there were mounted policemen clearing the way, and Constantine’s motorcade was very long, so it was obvious at a glance that it was a big shot.

As for how big it is, the citizens of Harare are not sure. It is impossible for His Majesty the King to come in person! Because there is no precedent for this in East Africa.

Constantine, on the other hand, looked at the bustling crowds on both sides through the car window with interest. Because the road planning in East African cities is relatively wide, even if Constantine's motorcade occupies the west side of the main road, both sides can still be used by citizens. Normal use and traffic vehicles.

 Harare has a total population of about 160,000. It has caught up with many established cities in a very short period of time, so it is called an upstart city.

As the deputy center of Matabele Province, the city of Bulawayo, the former capital of the Kingdom of Matabele, also has a population of hundreds of thousands. The population size of the two cities can provide a glimpse of East Africa’s support for Matabele Province.

"Your Majesty, according to the itinerary, we are going to visit the Harare chrome factory, then the steel factory, a newly built arsenal, and the Harare motorcycle factory." said the old butler Cade.

There are rich chromium ore resources near Harare. There are chromium ores scattered 60 kilometers away from the city. Therefore, this is one of the centers of chromite smelting in East Africa and can be regarded as one of Harare’s specialty industries.

Of course, gold mines are indispensable in the city of Harare. Unlike chrome mines, East Africa has no plans to develop new gold mines for the time being. After all, there are enough gold mines in the east. Even Ernst himself wants to know about this land in East Africa. How many gold mines exist underground.

As for the arsenal, it is easy to explain. The military industry in East Africa will definitely be located in Matabele Province, because this is the hinterland and rear area of ​​East Africa. It is not ruled out that some secret-related institutions and factories will be located in Matabele Province in the future. Layout of inland areas.

Steel plants and locomotive manufacturing plants are relatively conventional factories in East Africa. After all, Harare is an important node city along the Central Railway. First Town and Soga City, which are also along the railway, are relatively unreliable and have no layout in related industries. , because the two cities have different positioning.

The above are only some of Harare’s key industries, but there are even more supporting factories and facilities surrounding these industries. Take the chrome ore plant for example. At most, Constantine can only take a look at the periphery and meet with the leadership and workers in the plant. However, Constantine does not have time to inspect other processing plants surrounding the chrome ore plant.

The trip to Harare was Constantine's first in-depth understanding of the development situation in the interior of East Africa. So far, Constantine is quite satisfied with the construction situation in Harare.

Harare City, as a new city that was designed and planned first and then constructed, is very different from East African cities in the east. Although the cities in the east have only been built for a few years, they have been roughly developed in the colonial era.

At that time, East Africa did not have the extra money and energy to invite European architects to plan East African cities, so those early cities developed more or less spontaneously.

Moreover, in East Africa at that time, European architects were so worried that they risked coming to East Africa to do design work. At that time, East Africa was still a region that Europeans stereotyped as a land of ravenous people.

With the rise of a series of coastal cities in East Africa, the clean and prosperous city appearance and developed trade have attracted a group of businessmen to place orders or enjoy services in Dar es Salaam and Mombasa. The reputation of East Africa has also spread with these businessmen. Get out there and get better.

After all, the service in East Africa is first-rate. There are few services along the entire Indian Ocean that are better than those in East Africa. Of course, it is not without its drawbacks. That is, the security in East Africa is too good. It is a bit difficult to play high-end. The people on the sea are somewhat bold. Pie, pays more attention to pleasure.

Having said that, more merchants and sailors come to coastal cities in East Africa because there are not many thieves and pickpockets here, there are sufficient police forces, and safety is very important to many people.

With a good reputation, East Africa can take advantage of the opportunity to recruit some talents from Europe. Against this background, the urban construction of Harare is completely different from before.

After the expert team conducted an on-site inspection and spent more than half a year on the design, the Harare City construction project broke ground.

Harare City is focusing most on the construction of underground sewer systems, roads, drinking water pipes and other civil infrastructure, while leaving space for subsequent urban transformation.

Like other cities, Harare also pays attention to environmental issues. There are many parks and green plants in the city, making the whole city full of vitality.

However, Ernst has not conducted on-site inspections. The last time he came to Harare was on a business trip in his previous life. In his previous life, Harare was known as "Little Paris in Africa", "City of Sunshine" and "City of Flowers and Trees".

The city center is indeed beautiful, but Harare has also been voted one of the "least livable cities in the world".

This is not a contradiction. Many foreign countries have slums and rich areas, and the same is true in Harare. Public security problems are poor regardless of whether they are developed or not. However, many African countries do not even have a little order.

However, these have nothing to do with the current city of Harare. In its previous life, Harare inherited British culture and architecture, but in this life it was completely Germanized in the hands of East Africa, so there is no comparison at all.

 (End of this chapter)