African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1534 Aviation Industry Conference
East Africa's approach to agriculture is similar to Roosevelt's later planned large-scale destruction of American agricultural products. Clearly, Roosevelt's New Deal's handling of agricultural overproduction also reflects the characteristics of "forced government intervention."

This all demonstrates the necessity of government intervention during economic crises, since economic crises are themselves a manifestation of market failure.

……

In May 1932, the Central Province Aviation Industry Development Conference was held in Rhine City, led by the governments of Rhine and New Frankfurt in East Africa, with the participation of towns such as Lusaka, Kitwe, and Kabwe. The conference mainly covered two topics.

First, there's the issue of the layout of aircraft manufacturing-related industries in the central province; second, there's the issue of site selection for the airport in the central part of the empire.

Mayor Messer of Rhine City said: "The aircraft manufacturing industry is an important emerging industry in the 20th century. The advent of airplanes laid the foundation for the current three-way transportation pattern of sea, land and air. Although the aviation industry is still far behind the former two, it cannot be denied that the aviation industry has shown its huge market potential."

"Our Central Province, as the heart of the empire, should not give up this emerging industry and market. At the same time, we should make up for our shortcomings in water transport development by vigorously developing the aviation industry, and consolidate the Central Province's position as the core transportation hub of the empire."

The Central Province is located at the heart of East Africa's economy, serving as a bridge between the north and south and connecting the east and west. It is also the location of the empire's administrative center. Therefore, in terms of land transportation construction, it is undoubtedly the heart of East Africa, home to two major national comprehensive railway hubs and several regional transportation hubs.

However, as Mayor Mese said, the Central Province has limited potential for water transport development. Although the Central Province is located at the confluence of the Congo River and the Zambezi River basins, it is difficult to play a core role in inland water transport due to its topography and climate.

Although there are artificial canals in the province, their freight capacity is limited and cannot compete with railways and highways.

This is a major regret for the Central Province, but the fact that the Central Province cannot become a core hub for inland water transport in East Africa is also unacceptable to other regions.

Given the specific circumstances in East Africa, to become a core hub for inland water transport, one must be able to connect waterways between the east and west of East Africa, but this is essentially impossible to achieve.

Mayor Mese stated, "For the Empire, even if inland water transport can be networked, its competitiveness is very limited. Apart from the Zambezi River basin, East Africa lacks even waterways that can directly reach the inland hinterland."

"On the contrary, railways and highways, with their improved accessibility and significantly reduced costs due to technological advancements, are more in line with the empire's national conditions."

"Aviation will become the fourth mode of transportation, no less important than roads, railways, and waterways. However, the aviation industry is different from automobile, shipbuilding, and locomotive manufacturing. It has more stringent technical requirements and involves many cutting-edge technologies, such as materials, engines, avionics, and aerodynamics."

"This makes the aircraft manufacturing industry chain longer, more technology-intensive, and more demanding on the knowledge and skills of its employees, requiring more specialized factories and skilled workers."

"Therefore, the development of the aviation industry requires a large number of upstream and downstream enterprises. It is far easier to achieve success in the aviation industry by working alone than by cooperating between multiple cities."

To put it bluntly, the complexity of the aviation industry can easily intimidate people. At least the Rhine City government is unwilling to take the risks of independent research and development and production. That's why it wants to bring in other cities in the Central Province to share some of the tasks and eventually form a large-scale regional aviation manufacturing base.

Messer said, "Take Rhine City for example. Its advantage lies in the high concentration of talent. Rhine City gathers talents from all over the country, as well as many research institutions. Therefore, Rhine City has an absolute advantage in the fields of aircraft design, aerodynamic research, and new material development."

"The main research and development will be undertaken by our city of Rhine, while production will be carried out by other cities in the province. We will combine our own advantages to allocate tasks, work together to make the pie bigger, and finally share the benefits."

It must be said that Messer's proposal has attracted the interest of many powerful towns in the province. As a high-end industry, the aircraft manufacturing industry can generate considerable profits even for some parts production.

The fact that the cities of Rhine and Neue Frankfurt are willing to share with them and involve them is indeed quite attractive to them.

After all, without the leading role of the two major cities of Rhine and Neu-Frankfurt, it would be impossible for other towns in the Central Province to build an aviation industry. Even if they did, it would be difficult to compete with industrially strong regions such as the eastern and western coasts or Bohemia.

The aviation industry requires huge investments. If you spend a lot of effort to develop it but are unable to compete with other regions, it will be a completely unprofitable business.

With the participation of Rhine and Neue Frankfurt, the significance is completely different. Rhine is the technology research and development center and education and culture center of East Africa, which can ensure the technological advancement and personnel reserves in the aviation industry.

Meanwhile, Neu-Frankfurt has a highly developed equipment manufacturing industry. To be honest, the combined efforts of Rhine and Neu-Frankfurt alone could solve a huge part of the problems in the aviation industry.

At this point, the mayor of New Frankfurt, Henry, said: "In the aviation industry of the Central Province, our city can provide support in terms of core equipment and workers, such as aircraft engines, airframe manufacturing and component welding and installation."

Neue Frankfurt is one of the automotive manufacturing centers in East Africa and an important supplier of railway equipment. When Neue Frankfurt was first established, East Africa had already set up locomotive manufacturing plants. Therefore, Neue Frankfurt has its own core advantages in engines.

In the early days of the world's aviation industry, one of the main sources of aircraft engine technology was the automotive industry. For example, piston engines were widely used in the automotive industry and were then adopted for use in aircraft.

Henry continued, "Other components, such as the aircraft's avionics systems, some instruments, and landing gear, tires, etc., can also be supplied by our city of New Frankfurt."

There is no doubt that Neu-Frankfurt itself has a very strong industrial base, which is the main reason why this Central Province Aviation Industry Conference was jointly led by Rhine and Neu-Frankfurt.

The city of Rhine is better at research and innovation, while the city of Neu-Frankfurt, with its complete industrial chain and a large number of skilled workers, can also share in the profits.

Of course, compared to these two cities, other industrial towns in the Central Province also have their own unique strengths. Following Rhine and Neu-Frankfurt, Kitwe was eager to highlight its own advantages.

“Kitwe has unique advantages in the fields of metal processing and metal materials science. We can be responsible for the production and processing of some metal parts. At the same time, some instruments and avionics equipment can also be produced in Kitwe.”

In recent years, thanks to the visionary leadership of the previous leaders of Kitwe, the city's transformation has been very successful. After experiencing growing pains, Kitwe's core development has shifted to the tertiary sector, especially the film and television industry, making it a typical case in East Africa today.

However, as a long-established industrial city in East Africa, Kitwe's industry has not declined as a result, but has instead shifted towards high-quality development. Breakthroughs have been made in fields such as metal smelting and processing, precision instrument manufacturing, and home appliance manufacturing. Although it cannot be compared with Rhine and Neu-Frankfurt, its industrial strength ranks higher than other towns in the Central Province.

However, Kitwe has not been without its challenges after shifting its industry towards high value-added sectors, especially in terms of market competition. East Africa boasts many cities with strong industrial capabilities. Therefore, Kitwe urgently needs to open up new avenues for industrial development to stabilize its high-end manufacturing sector, rather than allowing it to be a "flash in the pan."

This aviation industry conference caught the attention of the Kitweh municipal government. If they could secure more orders, it would pave the way for Kitweh's future industrial development.

Rhine and Neue Frankfurt were not particularly concerned about Kitwe's idea, as they were large and powerful, and it didn't matter if other cities in the province benefited. In fact, it would strengthen their competitiveness and influence in the national economy. After all, if Kitwe wanted to join them, it would inevitably become an extension of the two cities' economies.

As Mayor Mese said before, going it alone is not the goal of Rhine City. Rhine City, the capital of East Africa, has never limited its vision to the Central Province or even East Africa, but to the whole world.

Therefore, as long as Kitwe has the ability, Rhine City is willing to give it opportunities to perform rather than restrict its development, and the same is true for New Frankfurt.

As twin cities in East Africa, Rhine and Neue Frankfurt differ from other twin cities such as Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, Luanda and Cabinda, Harare and Bulawayo, in that their competition is fierce.

The cooperation between Rhine City and New Frankfurt City outweighs the competition, or rather, New Frankfurt City has no intention of competing with Rhine City at all. After all, Rhine City is the capital of the empire, and the status between the two is very clear: Rhine City is the "boss".

Of course, this is also related to the different directions of economic development between Rhine and New Frankfurt. Rhine focuses on the tertiary sector, scientific research and development and cutting-edge industries, while New Frankfurt focuses on equipment manufacturing. The complementarity between the two outweighs their competition.

The biggest competition between the two cities is probably in transportation. Although Rhine is also an imperial railway hub, it mainly plays a backup role and does not hinder the role of the New Frankfurt railway hub in the national economy.

The main strategic competitors of New Frankfurt are other major East African cities with equipment manufacturing as their core, such as Dar es Salaam and Cabinda in the coastal area, or Harare and Bulawayo in the central region.

As for Kitwe, although its strength is considerable in East Africa, it is not enough to catch the eye of New Frankfurt. Therefore, New Frankfurt is not too concerned about giving Kitwe some concessions in certain industries.

With Kitwe setting a precedent, other industrial towns in the Central Province began to voice their opinions. However, among the other cities in the Central Province, only Lusaka and Kabwe had the strength to get a share of the production of some parts. Other towns had fewer opportunities.

Therefore, the cities in the Central Province can be divided into four tiers: the first tier includes Rhine and Neu-Frankfurt, the second tier includes Kitwe, the third tier includes Lusaka and Kabwe, and the fourth tier is basically not even considered.

After intense discussions, the distribution of the aviation industry pie in the Central Province was completed, and the next issue was the selection of a site for the airport in the central part of the empire.

The so-called Central Empire Airport is actually a rather forward-thinking idea. Now that the potential of the civil aviation industry has been initially demonstrated, naturally some people want to use airplanes as a means of transportation to achieve breakthroughs in logistics and passenger transport, and then drive regional economic development.

Regarding this, the three cities of Rhine, Neue Frankfurt, and Kabwe are the most interested. The first two, needless to say, naturally hope to get a share of the aviation market and, more importantly, to consolidate their position in the national economic landscape.

Kabwe is a special case; his interest in the location of the central airport was purely to ride the coattails of others.

Therefore, on this matter, Mayor Kabwe spoke first: "Regarding the location of the Central Empire Airport, it must be chosen in the middle area of ​​Rhine City, New Frankfurt City, and our Kabwe City."

“Since the 1920s, Kabwe has been actively integrating into the central metropolitan area advocated by Rhine and New Frankfurt. Due to its geographical location, Kabwe has been fortunate enough to become one of the important cores of this metropolitan area.”

"Therefore, since the 1920s, our city of Kabwe has been actively developing eastward and northward, hoping to strengthen cooperation with Rhine and New Frankfurt, promote the economic integration of the three cities, and ultimately accelerate the formation of the central metropolitan area."

"Therefore, the Central Airport should naturally be located in the center of our three cities. I believe that the three cities should jointly invest in building an aviation industrial zone that integrates logistics, passenger transport, and industry."

"This aviation industrial zone is located about 30 kilometers away from all three cities, which can meet the travel needs of residents in the three cities. This distance can also reduce noise pollution from the airport, and at the same time, it can ensure the airport's passenger and cargo transportation needs without making logistics costs too high."

The construction of Kabwe City can meet the needs of all aspects to the greatest extent. In the previous 21st century, the ideal distance between most airports and the city center was about 30 to 50 kilometers. This distance is not far for East African cities at present. It can be reached by car in half an hour.

At the same time, it can optimize the radiation area. Rhine and Neu-Frankfurt are both large cities with populations of over one million, and Kabwe has a population of over two hundred thousand. At the same time, building the airport and aviation industrial zone here can also radiate to Kitwe and Lusaka, two important regional cities in the central province, one in the south and one in the north.

This also shows that the so-called Central Imperial Airport was very different from conventional airports in the world today. It was more inclined to drive regional economic development than just passenger transport.

If the goal was simply to develop conventional airports, Rhine and Neue Frankfurt already had them. Of course, conventional airports in the 1930s, in terms of both scale and function, were clearly incomparable to the behemoths of the 21st century.

(End of this chapter)