African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1404 Warning
Afterwards, Ernst asked Morin about some of the situations in Russia, mainly the news from the top government in Moscow.

Morin said: "Because of the collapse of the Russian intelligence network, we are unable to understand the specific situation in the Kremlin. We can only summarize and identify the official news from Russia and some rumors."

"Russia's supreme leader Vladimir has not appeared in public for some time. According to the Russian News Agency, intelligence from the Tsarist era, and the analysis of our pathologists, Vladimir's health has not been good."

"Moreover, Joseph has been appearing more and more frequently in Russia's political affairs recently, and he is one of Vladimir's confidants. So, if Vladimir really has problems, Joseph is most likely to become the new leader of Russia."

"As for Joseph himself, he has been following Vladimir's faction since the split of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party at the beginning of this century. He was arrested by the Tsarist government many times and exiled to Siberia. However, like many members of the Labor Party, he successfully escaped from Siberia."

There was basically no strict supervision in the exile places of Tsarist Russia, because for Russia, criminals were actually one of the main forces in the development of the Siberian region. Many towns and villages in Siberia were probably developed from prisons.

"However, Joseph is not without competitors in Russia, such as Trotsky, who has a profound influence on the Russian army and is also deeply trusted by Vladimir."

"So, we cannot confirm who will become the new leader of Russia in the end. However, what is certain is that in the next period of time, the Russian top leadership may experience turmoil due to Vladimir's health."

"The main political difference between these two important Russian successors is that the latter is more extreme than Joseph. He advocates the global policy of the Labor Party, while Joseph pays more attention to the domestic situation in Russia and emphasizes consolidating the stability of the current Russian regime."

From the perspective of East Africa, Trotsky was certainly more harmful. After all, his remarks had a high probability of directly affecting East Africa, while Joseph was more pragmatic.

Ernst naturally hopes that Joseph will become the new leader of Russia. If Joseph becomes the new leader of Russia, it means fewer variables, which will also give Ernst a greater advantage in dealing with Russia.

Ernst instructed Morin, "In the near future, keep an eye on possible changes in the Kremlin. I have a feeling that Russia's next move is likely to have a significant impact on the entire Europe and even the world."

"Also, the selection of personnel for Russian intelligence work must be strict to prevent the Russian Labor Party's ideas from flowing back into the empire."

……

1924 1 Month 21 Day.

The leader of the Russian Labor Party, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, closed his eyes forever. For a time, anti-Labor Party elements in and outside Russia were extremely happy about the death of this Russian leader, and Russia was temporarily in a power turmoil.

However, for anti-Labor Party elements in Russia and abroad, they have long lost the opportunity to turn the tables. The Russian Labor Party will not immediately collapse due to the death of a leader. After all, the Russian Labor Party is truly "full of talents" at this time.

But precisely because of this, it can be predicted that throughout 1924, Russia will basically be caught in a power struggle until the new successor formally establishes his authority and eliminates dissidents. However, whoever ultimately consolidates the supreme power will definitely have no problems in terms of ability.

The direct result of Russia’s internal political struggle was that the situation on the Eastern European battlefield temporarily calmed down, because the foreign intervention forces led by Germany were unable to advance eastward at this time.

The intervention army was composed of a mixed bag of personnel. Except for Germany and Austria, most of the other countries did not contribute much. Germany was not interested in the war due to its own problems, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was completely incapable of organizing and leading the intervention army to fight against Russia.

The situation in Europe has temporarily stabilized, but outside Europe, competition among countries has become more frequent, especially when it comes to competition in overseas markets.

The highlight is the economic competition between East Africa and the United States, the two largest industrial countries in the world.

Cabinda, East Africa.

Staff from the Cabinda Municipal Market Supervision Bureau visited the Gorishon Electrical Appliance Factory in Cabinda.

"According to the latest standards set by the National Industrial Standards Committee, the electronic components produced by your factory have safety hazards in the materials used, which may cause short circuits and other problems in related electronic products." Market Supervision Bureau investigator Delain said to Factory Director Gorisawn.

Gorisean said with a bitter face: "Sir, we at Gorisean have always processed products according to this process. Now many factories use our products and do not have the problems you mentioned. Why didn't you mention it before?"

Delain explained to Golishawn: "Mr. Golishawn, you don't have to be too anxious. In fact, you should know very well that our department has existed for a long time, and the East African Industrial Standards Committee is an organization that has existed since the planned economy era."

The East African Industrial Standards Committee is an institution established in the last century, similar to the German Industrial Standards Committee. However, the German Industrial Standards Committee was established much later than the East African Committee.

The establishment of the Industrial Standards Committee did play a huge role in the early East African industry and established manufacturing standards for many East African industrial products.

This meant that during the planned economy era, East African products had a very good reputation, especially in the industrial fields in which East Africa was more adept. However, before that, the East African Industrial Standards Committee mainly dealt with East African state-owned enterprises.

After all, the rise of the market economy in East Africa has only been around for a few years, and after 1910, the East African Industrial Standards Committee also remained quiet for a while.

So Delain said: "However, because the government has relaxed market supervision in the past decade to encourage the development of private enterprises, this does not mean that this situation will continue for a long time."

"Over the past decade, due to the lack of supervision, a large number of counterfeit and shoddy goods have appeared on the market, seriously damaging the reputation of our East African manufacturing."

"Especially in some overseas export products, because of problems such as substandard manufacturing processes or short weight, irreparable losses have been caused to East African commodity exports."

"Your products involve export industrial products. Some manufacturers use the parts you provide. Although this helps to solve the cost problem to a certain extent, it also leads to quality problems of the products."

Gorishon replied to Investigator Delain: "This shouldn't be our problem! After all, business is a matter of mutual consent. Some manufacturers order products from us, and we do things according to their requirements."

"After all, if our products do not meet the standards, they can simply not place an order from my factory. So, the price they pay and their own requirements, because they do not meet the national standards, you should go to these manufacturers instead of our factory!" In Gorisaw's words, it seemed as if Gorisaw Electric Factory had suffered an injustice. However, Delain would not buy it.

He said to Golishawn, "Mr. Golishawn, you don't have to pretend to be ignorant. The production technology used in your factory is more than ten years old. It is clearly an outdated technology that will be eliminated in East Africa."

"We reminded you three years ago that you should adopt the latest production technology and produce related products according to the latest national standards."

"However, in order to save costs, you did not update your production equipment in a timely manner. Even though we have repeatedly issued warnings, you continued to produce outdated products. This is wrong in the first place."

"After all, your factory's process is very polluting to water sources. We have received complaints a long time ago. The new process can not only improve production efficiency and product quality, but also reduce pollution."

"So, you are knowingly committing this crime. You don't need to play innocent in front of me. A large part of your factory's products flow into the South American and European markets, which has indeed had a negative impact on East African manufacturing."

Gorisean said: "What do the downstream manufacturers say? Our products are not directly for civilian use. They are just primary processed products and will not flow directly into the market. Therefore, rectification should start from the downstream manufacturers."

In this regard, Delain explained: "If it was before 1920, we would naturally not hold on to this issue, but after 1920, new national standards were formulated, and with the requirements of the Fifth Five-Year Plan, we must promote the high-quality development of the national industry."

"In the past, our department mainly dealt with state-owned enterprises. In recent years, we have begun to involve some large private enterprises of a certain scale, and your company is among them."

"After all, to be frank, there are still many small workshops in Cabinda, which makes it difficult to regulate, so we can only solve the problem at the source."

"Your factory is one of the important suppliers of many small home appliance workshops. Therefore, in order to improve the development level of East African manufacturing industry, we will prioritize the investigation of enterprises above a certain scale this time."

"As for some of your customers, they can't escape either. It's just a matter of time. As our department expands again, the supervision of the market will continue to be strengthened."

Delain bluntly stated that, at least from this stage on, the East African government's market regulation is mainly focused on large-scale industries such as the Gorishon Electric Factory.

In the past, the market regulatory authorities in East Africa could be said to be in an invisible state in order to promote the development of the East African market economy. But now, the East African government believes that after more than ten years of development, East Africa has formed a large number of powerful private enterprises, and these private enterprises should naturally be included in the national supervision.

In the past decade or so, the state-owned economy in East Africa has shrunk from over 70 percent to more than 40 percent. This shows the wild growth of the private economy in East Africa in the past decade or so.

This wild growth has also brought about a lot of problems, especially counterfeiting and shoddy workmanship, but the most serious of these is product counterfeiting.

It not only harms consumers in East Africa, but also has an extremely bad impact on the reputation of East African export products. The collapse of credibility is obviously not conducive to the long-term healthy development of East African industry.

Delain told Gorishon: "In recent years, the state's supervision of the market has only become more and more stringent, not only in terms of product quality, but also in terms of production equipment and technology replacement, business conditions, financial conditions, workers' welfare and so on."

DeLaine's words could be said to have poured a bucket of cold water on Gorishon's head. After all, no company likes government intervention and meddling.

Golishawn asked Delain, "Does the government even control how much I pay my workers? I provide them with a livelihood and they work for me. It's a two-way street. So the government should learn from the United States and Europe and reduce its intervention in the market. This is not conducive to the active development of the economy."

Delain said to Golishawn: "Mr. Golishawn, your idea is obviously wrong. We certainly hope that enterprises can develop healthily, but enterprises should consciously abide by relevant national regulations and assume social obligations."

"As for the issue you mentioned about European and American countries, our East African market is indeed less active than theirs, but the development in recent decades has proved that East Africa's economic system is also superior. Otherwise, how could our country develop into the world's first industrial country in such a short period of time?"

"You mentioned economic activity, but in fact, during the First and Second Five-Year Plans, when East Africa's economic growth was the fastest, the national economy was completely state-led and arranged, and it still achieved brilliant economic achievements."

“I admit that many private enterprises have developed rapidly since the rise of the market economy in recent years, but the premise of your rapid development is based on the economic construction of East Africa in the past few decades. East African state-owned enterprises have laid a solid foundation for the country.”

In fact, there are also many supporters of the planned economy in this East African country. After all, the end of the planned economy in East Africa was not due to economic problems at the time, but because of the government's proactive adjustments.

Therefore, the memory of the planned economy era that has been shaped for the East African people is that East Africa has achieved brilliant results overall. Although there are some problems, compared with the contributions, the merits outweigh the flaws.

Therefore, Delain used the example of the planned economy era to refute Golishawn, which left Golishawn speechless. Although he was a beneficiary of the market economy, he could not lie with his eyes open.

After all, it has been less than fifteen years since East Africa completely ended the era of fully planned economy, and the memory of the East African people is not so easy to change.

Delain said: "Moreover, it is not a bad thing that you cooperate with the country's work. Nowadays, the world economic competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Only the strong can survive. Therefore, we must promote our own competitiveness, such as being competitive in technology or production efficiency, so that we can better participate in market competition."

"Of course, this is also related to the needs of today's social development. I think Mr. Gorishon, you should also be aware of the current situation in European countries."

"An important reason why the labor parties in various European countries are active today is that the contradictions between enterprises and workers are becoming increasingly fierce. Therefore, in order to prevent the empire from following the footsteps of Russia, it is not excessive but reasonable for our enterprises to give workers some benefits."

"After all, if the workers have a hard time, they may be instigated by the Labour Party. If the empire really becomes like Russia, I'm afraid you would have been hung on street lamps or paraded through the streets by now."

Delane's words made Gorishon feel nervous, but he still said stubbornly: "I haven't seen any active Labour Party members in East Africa. This is completely nonsense."

Delain laughed and warned, "Believe it or not, we are not trying to make things difficult for you. We are doing this for the health and stable development of the country. In short, your factory has a lot of problems. I suggest you look through the new policies issued by the government in recent years and make rectifications. We will come to investigate next time. If you still choose to ignore them, we can only act according to the rules and regulations and the law."

(End of this chapter)