African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1427 Economic Answer Sheet
Especially in the shipping industry, the East African government currently intends to continue to transform and upgrade the waterway of the lower Zambezi River, increasing its navigable mileage from the current 400-plus kilometers to more than 600 kilometers, which means basically achieving navigation along the entire lower reaches of the river.

This is of great significance to the development of the overall shipping industry in East Africa, because the Zambezi River has better shipping conditions among the major rivers in East Africa.

Moreover, in the long run, the navigation of the Zambezi River still has the potential to be improved. For example, if the Cabora Bassa Reservoir is built in the future, as long as a corresponding lock system is provided, the waterway of the Zambezi River can be further expanded westwards.

However, the current East African government is clearly powerless to undertake such a project, mainly because such large-scale hub projects have high technical requirements, large investments, and high uncertainty. At least Ernst psychologically expects that construction will only begin after the technology and demonstrations are fully mature, at least by the end of this century.

With the support of this big country in East Africa, assuming that the shipping mileage of the Zambezi River can exceed one thousand kilometers, it actually has the conditions to become one of the most important canals in the world.

On the contrary, although the navigation conditions of the Congo River are much better than those of the Zambezi River, the East African government is reluctant to invest too much in it. This is mainly because the economy and population of the Congo River basin are too different from those of the Zambezi River basin.

……

With the strong recovery of the world economy in 1925, the world as a whole entered a period of relatively rapid economic development, except for a few countries.

At the same time, 1925 also became the year for periodic settlement of East African governments, in order to test the effectiveness of the implementation of the Fifth Five-Year Plan and learn from development experiences and lessons.

Rhine Palace.

Finance Minister Logans read from his speech: "Compared with the previous five-year plans, the results of the Fifth Five-Year Plan are not satisfactory, but this is normal because during the Fifth Five-Year Plan, the East African economy suffered severe external and internal crises."

"For example, the early global economic depression, the European flu, and so on, the internal economic transformation and adjustment all had a great negative impact on the economic development of the empire."

"However, the imperial government faced various pressures during the Fifth Five-Year Plan and still withstood these tests and achieved some new breakthroughs."

"During the Fifth Five-Year Plan, the empire's hydropower construction, chemical industry, electrical equipment, automobile and aircraft manufacturing industries developed rapidly."

"The development of industries such as energy, railways, and steel is relatively stable. The development of industries such as shipbuilding and textiles is relatively slow."

At the beginning of the Fifth Five-Year Plan, East Africa's own shipbuilding industry experienced a serious decline. The reason was very simple. With the end of World War I, the naval competition among countries around the world came to an end.

Before the war, the navy's ship orders had a great impact on the shipbuilding industry. Before World War I, the navies of various countries were overdeveloped and caught in vicious competition.

After all, the navy is directly related to a country's national defense and security. The disorderly expansion of any country's navy is likely to trigger a chain reaction among the navies of countries around the world.

For example, Germany vigorously developed its navy before World War I, so the countries around Germany had to follow suit. In the end, the size of the entire European navy increased greatly. As the size of the European navy increased, the navies of other regions of the world also had to follow suit.

After all, although there is intense competition among European countries, who can guarantee that they will not turn their guns outward? Even if the possibility is only one percent, other countries must remain vigilant.

Therefore, before World War I, countries such as East Africa, Japan and the United States all chose to join this game. It is worth mentioning that at that time, South American countries were also engaged in naval military competition due to political conflicts. However, after the outbreak of World War I, many of their orders were directly rejected by European shipyards and requisitioned by their own navies.

After the end of World War I, not only did the original naval competition come to a halt, but with the signing of the London Naval Treaty, several major powers in the world were not only unable to continue expanding, but had to cut most of their main naval forces. This had a very bad impact on the shipbuilding industry.

Therefore, the development of East Africa's military shipbuilding industry fell into a long period of stagnation after the war, and has only begun to rebound now.

The development of the civilian shipbuilding industry was also bumpy. This was also because the end of World War I and the recovery of the shipping industry in other countries in the world led to a significant reduction in overseas orders in East Africa.

Before World War I, Britain's shipbuilding industry was the most developed. As soon as the war ended, Britain's shipbuilding industry resumed normal production order, which created another wave of impact on the shipbuilding industries of countries around the world at that time.

Of course, in the eyes of the British, their losses were the greatest. After all, during World War I, East Africa and the United States seized a large part of their original shipbuilding market. Even though they regained some market share after the war, the British shipbuilding industry still suffered heavy losses.

After all, the advantage of the British shipbuilding industry over East Africa and the United States lies in its deep accumulation of technology and experience, as well as the reputation that the UK has accumulated over a long period of time.

Before World War I, as long as countries around the world had sufficient budgets, they would give priority to placing orders for military or civilian ships from Britain.

However, World War I lasted for five years, and Britain did not have enough ships of its own, which allowed East African and American shipyards to make huge profits in the overseas ship market at that time.

Moreover, these five years are enough time for shipyards in East Africa and the United States to apply and verify a large number of emerging technologies, and other countries will also be able to break the original stereotypes of the ship market after purchasing warships or merchant ships from East Africa and the United States.

This is particularly important for East Africa. After all, East Africa has a very short history and is considered a latecomer among latecomers. This also means that East African industrial products need to make more efforts to go overseas.

After all, for international customers, old brands mean guarantees of quality and reputation. Even if two products are of the same quality and price, people will definitely prefer old brands, after all, the latter are less likely to have major problems.

The only industries in East Africa that will not be affected are traditional advantageous industries such as automobiles and electrical appliances. After all, these are newly opened tracks.

As for why the development of the textile industry in East Africa is not satisfactory, there are many influencing factors. The most important one is that the textile industry in the world developed rapidly throughout the early 20th century.

Take the Far Eastern Empire for example. In recent years, the textile industry in the Far Eastern Empire has developed by leaps and bounds, which has led to the development of many textile companies in other countries that rely on the Far Eastern market, such as Britain, France, Japan, the United States and other countries being hindered.

Although the development of heavy industry in the Far Eastern Empire was not satisfactory, the development of light industry was relatively smooth. The main reason was that the threshold of light industry was lower than that of heavy industry. The Far Eastern Empire was only one of the representative countries. Throughout the early 20th century, the light industry of most countries developed rapidly, and even some colonial industries were vigorously developed, such as India, Vietnam, Egypt, Australia, etc., which also intensified the competition of light industry in the world.

Of course, the recovery of Europe's domestic textile industry also had a certain impact on the development of East Africa's textile industry after the war. The recovery of industrial production capacity in France, Britain, Germany and other countries made the original East African market even smaller.

Compared with those temperate or cold zone industrial countries, the local market in East Africa has relatively less demand for textiles. After all, many East Africans have never even experienced winter. This is one of the reasons why the textile industry in East Africa is relatively weak.

Loggens said: "In general, from 1920 to 1925, the empire's industry suffered some twists and turns in the early stage, but basically recovered in the later stage and even made new breakthroughs. The empire's various industrial indicators basically returned to the level of the First World War."

“Although the change in total volume is not obvious, there has been a qualitative improvement in quality, especially in traditional industrial sectors. The empire has even surpassed established countries such as Britain, France and Germany in some areas.”

"In the field of emerging industrial development, the Empire has demonstrated its superiority, further consolidating its own advantages."

The recovery of production to the level of World War I is definitely great news for East Africa, which means that East Africa has completely digested the achievements gained in World War I.

For countries like East Africa and the United States, World War I was like a tonic. Taking it could indeed make them suddenly strong in a short period of time. However, if the medicinal power could not be digested, it might not only cause waste but also damage the foundation.

Logans said: "In terms of specific industrial data, by 1925, the Empire's steel production exceeded million tons, ranking first in the world, the new railway operating mileage exceeded kilometers, oil production exceeded million barrels, and the total national power generation exceeded billion kilowatt-hours..."

"With this round of industrial upgrading and adjustment, although the increase in Imperial Steel's output is not significant, the overall competitive advantage of the steel industry has been greatly improved. While the overall cost has been greatly reduced, production efficiency has been effectively improved."

"At the same time, the reform of most state-owned steel enterprises was completed, thus avoiding problems such as waste and inefficiency caused by management."

"In terms of railways, from 1920 to now, my country has built nearly kilometers of new railways, and the actual operating mileage has increased by more than kilometers, because this involves the adjustment and reconstruction of some lines."

East African railways experienced explosive growth in the first twenty years of this century, with an average of 10,000 kilometers of new railways built each year.

However, this over-the-top construction has also caused many problems, such as unreasonable selection of railway lines, or major safety hazards or quality problems on some railways.

Especially in some areas with relatively complex geological conditions, subsequent railway maintenance may be difficult due to substandard construction design.

This situation is most common in the rainforest areas of East Africa. For example, the northern section of the East African Central Railway, from Lubumbashi to Kisangani, is often hit by heavy rains and mountain torrents, which can wash away the railway subgrade.

For these railways, the East African governments either rebuild them or simply select new sites for construction, which is one of the reasons why the construction of East African railways continues.

Of course, this has also been influenced by new technologies, especially the electrification railway reconstruction projects led by East African governments in recent years.

Logans went on to say: "In the energy sector, my country's coal production has not increased significantly, but oil and natural gas have developed rapidly, especially oil production, which has exceeded 600 million barrels, ranking first in the world."

In fact, East Africa's natural gas production is also among the highest in the world, but there is a lack of data on natural gas production in other countries. The only country that could possibly surpass East Africa is the United States, but this possibility is very low, because even the United States has a much smaller population than East Africa, and it is difficult to exceed East Africa in demand.

Countries with a population equal to or greater than that of East Africa have a very low level of economic development, such as Russia, the Far Eastern Empire and India. It is clear that their natural gas production in this era is not even a fraction of that of East Africa.

"During the Fifth Five-Year Plan, my country's power industry has achieved leapfrog development, especially hydropower development has made great strides, and thermal power has also increased significantly."

"As a result, in 1925, the Empire's total electricity generation far exceeded that of the rest of the world. Currently, the Empire's electricity generation may even be twice that of the United States, both per capita and total.

In 1925, East Africa's electricity generation was over billion kWh, while the United States may have only more than billion kWh. In terms of total amount, East Africa is more than twice that of the United States, but in terms of per capita population, East Africa's population may not be twice that of the United States.

At present, the population of East Africa is still based on the last general population standard, which is more than 160 million. Only five years have passed. Even if East Africans are very fertile, there is a limit. The U.S. population has already exceeded 100 million. Therefore, as long as the population of East Africa does not exceed 200 million, the per capita power generation in East Africa will be higher than that of the United States.

An important reason for East Africa's high power generation is that a large number of hydropower stations and thermal power stations were built in East Africa during the entire Fifth Five-Year Plan period.

Moreover, this kind of infrastructure and livelihood project construction led by the East African government was basically not affected by the war and European flu.

Furthermore, East Africa itself is a country with extremely high demand for electricity. Since around 1910, East Africa has become the most electrified country in the world. In the past decade or so, electrification has been one of East Africa's basic national policies. Therefore, it is not surprising that East Africa's power generation has reached an astonishing trillion kilowatt-hours.

In the industrial field of power generation, East Africa only has the United States as a reference standard. There is no other way. Only the United States' industrial level and scale can be compared with East Africa. Other countries are really far behind.

This can also be seen from the world import and export data in 1925. The United States is the only country at the same level as East Africa in terms of total import and export volume, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany and other countries.

Overall, East Africa's Fifth Five-Year Plan delivered a satisfactory answer. However, some East African officials still felt a psychological gap. After all, the economic growth rate of East Africa from 1920 to 1925 was too different from that of the First Five-Year Plan to the Fourth Five-Year Plan, that is, from 1900 to 1920. It was even lower than that of the late s. During this period, the economy of East Africa could be described as excellent.

Of course, as far as Ernst sees it, the current economic growth rate in East Africa is already very good, which is completely in line with his psychological expectations. It would be a good idea to give them and the people of East Africa a psychological shot of prevention.

(End of this chapter)