African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1638 Support for Industry and Agriculture

From this perspective, Joseph was undoubtedly a qualified "Tsar," who did not mind sacrificing the interests of other countries in order to consolidate the interests of the Soviet Union itself.

One of Consul General Blaine's tasks was to balance the Soviet Union in the Western Regions. Of course, given East Africa's presence in the Western Regions, it was impossible to sever ties between the local government and the Soviet Union.

In places like Afghanistan or Persia, East Africa could have clashed with the Soviet Union, but in the northwestern part of the Far Eastern Empire, East Africa had a low profile and no long-term, stable advocates for its interests.

Ultimately, it was transportation that restricted East Africa's access to the region. East Africa had considered establishing land transportation links with the Western Regions, but the Soviet Union was the obstacle.

Apart from the Wakhan Corridor, most of the foreign trade routes in the Western Regions were controlled by the Soviets. The Soviet Union also had considerable influence in the Wakhan Corridor, and the conditions there were likely harsh, making any investment there a sure way to lose money.

Even without the Soviet Union, the possibility of East Africa using the Wakhan Corridor would be extremely low, because the corridor was also valued by the British.

Consul General Blaine said, “There is no direct land link between East Africa and the West, so our trade can only be maintained by air transport, which is very limited in scale.”

"Therefore, it is simply unrealistic to rely on air transport to promote the prosperity of commerce in the entire Western Regions."

"So if you want your economy to develop, you still have to rely on your own hard work. On that basis, East Africa can provide financial, technical and personnel support."

The Western Regions Province was naturally disappointed that it could not obtain military support for East Africa from Consul General Blaine, but economic cooperation was clearly a good option for it.

The representative from the Western Regions Province asked Consul General Blaine, "Consul General Blaine, how do you think the two sides should cooperate in the economic field?"

As a semi-separatist local government, the Western Regions Province was clearly not very good at building a modern economy. In the past, some of the modern elements in the Western Regions were basically brought by the British and the Soviets. However, the two countries brought various additional conditions and did not place the Western Regions and the Far Eastern Empire behind them on an equal footing.

Consul General Blaine said, "Regarding cooperation in the economic field, we in East Africa also have a general idea. Currently, there are two trading ports in East Africa and the Western Regions Province, namely Dihua and Shule."

"So we can use these two regions as the core to start some new industries."

"Especially in industries that are easy to start, such as textiles, food processing, and metal processing, the Western Regions Province already has a certain foundation. If you combine them with more advanced production technologies and equipment, it can greatly improve your economic situation."

“Take Shule as an example. Shule was originally one of the textile centers of the Western Regions Province, but your textile industry is still at the level of traditional hand production, rather than industrialized production.”

"This has made Shule's homespun cloth, carpets and other products uncompetitive."

“If you can listen to our opinions and carry out some modernization in these areas to improve production efficiency, it will definitely be of great benefit to the economy of the Western Regions Province.”

"Not to mention exports to economically developed regions, its competitiveness was still quite good in Central Asia, the Soviet Union, and the Far East markets."

Indeed, textile products from the Western Regions Province could be exported to the Soviet Union, a country that was about to complete its industrialization. Among them, carpets from the Western Regions Province sold well in many parts of the Soviet Union. However, the carpets from the Western Regions Province were basically produced in the form of handicraft workshops, which was extremely inefficient.

"We can provide you with technical support and low-interest loans," Blaine said. "However, the funds we provide must be overseen by our staff to ensure that every penny is used effectively."

"At the same time, during the early stages of factory construction, our technical and management personnel must have absolute say. Only after your personnel have learned and mastered the relevant processes can the trusteeship in East Africa be terminated."

Consul General Blaine was clearly wary of the Western Regions Provincial Government. After all, funds intended for economic development could be misused without oversight, such as being diverted to expand military power or simply embezzled into personal pockets.

"At the same time, the raw materials for the development of the textile industry also need your cooperation to solve, especially the promotion and planting of cash crops such as cotton, the supply of wool, and energy sources such as coal and electricity."

"In terms of cotton cultivation, the Western Regions have unique advantages, while East Africa has a wealth of mature experience in cotton cultivation in desert regions."

"The desert areas of Gezira and some northern provinces in East Africa are important cotton growing bases."

"Therefore, we can provide you with the necessary materials needed in various cotton planting fields, such as cotton varieties, planting equipment, and pesticides."

"What you need to do is repair the local water facilities and develop farmland, among other things."

"In the energy sector needed for the development of the textile industry, the Western Regions province itself has abundant coal resources, so it can be directly used as a power source to drive machinery and equipment."

"However, we can also help you build coal-fired power plants to power the textile industry. Moreover, the construction of power facilities can also drive the development of other industries, such as supplying electricity to cities or powering other factories and workshops."

"Therefore, from a long-term perspective, we are more supportive of your construction of coal-fired power plants."

"In East Africa, steam engines have been largely phased out in the industrial sector. Except for a few sectors, most factories use electricity as their power source. As early as the beginning of this century, the textile industry in East Africa had already completed its electrification transformation."

The reason Blaine mentioned two options here is based on the actual situation in the Western Regions Province. Admittedly, building a power plant would be better, but it would require the Western Regions Province to invest more.

For example, coal mining, transportation, and investment and construction of power plants are all difficult steps for the Western Regions Province, which is extremely backward in industry and transportation.

Representative Wang said with difficulty, "I will report this matter to the province after I go back, and then make a final decision."

Blaine said, "I would recommend that you choose the second option. Although the cost is higher, it will be more beneficial to you in the long run, so you might as well get it done once and for all."

"Moreover, by choosing the second option, the subsequent implementation in industries such as metal processing and food processing can also proceed smoothly."

"Metal processing plants can also help you save on military spending. For example, the repair and replacement of some gun parts can be reduced by producing some parts yourself." "Of course, more importantly, metal processing can directly create more jobs in the local area. After all, the mineral resources in the Western Regions Province are relatively abundant. Compared to selling the ore directly, the profit from preliminary processing of the ore is also higher."

"Food processing, mainly flour mills, is now the staple food in the Western Regions."

The Western Regions province currently has only one small flour mill, built in 1935. Therefore, even an inconspicuous flour processing plant has a considerable market in the Western Regions province.

This also reflects the backwardness of the Western Regions Province today. To put it bluntly, any city in East Africa has a much stronger industry than the entire Western Regions Province. Even some of the stronger towns in East Africa may have a higher industrial capacity than the Western Regions Province.

Therefore, if these "trivial" industries mentioned by Blaine can be implemented, they will greatly promote the Western Regions Province itself. In layman's terms, the Western Regions Province has a very weak foundation, so it is easy to achieve results.

Blaine said, “We can use Dihua and Shule as examples first. If the economies of these two places develop well, you can then replicate the experience here to other places and drive the development of the entire Western Regions Province.”

"Especially in the light industry sector, you have a huge advantage. If you can operate well, you will never lack the market."

"Because the surrounding area, Central Asia itself has a very low level of industrialization, and although the Soviet Union had a relatively strong industrial base, its light industry was simply not good enough. Also, the eastern part of your country has a relatively large market."

This is also the current East African plan for the economic and industrial development of the Western Regions, focusing on agriculture and light industry.

Consul General Blaine said, "The situation in the Far East is self-evident. Food and some light industrial products have a huge market in your country because war could break out at any time. At that time, the normal production order of the Far Eastern Empire will also be disrupted due to the war."

"The Western Regions Province is relatively safe. Your only security threat right now is the extremist populism and religious terrorists supported by foreign forces."

"Although the Soviet Union is a threat, they are too busy to take any major actions in the Far East."

Undoubtedly, economic development requires a stable environment, and this will be one of the most favorable conditions for the future development of the Western Regions Province compared to other regions within the Far Eastern Empire.

Even the Guanzhong Plain and the Sichuan-Chongqing region, which are considered strategic rear areas, cannot be safer than the Western Regions Province, since the cities in these two areas may also be threatened by Japanese air power in the future.

The Soviet Union, on the other hand, was now directly facing the behemoth that was the German bloc, so it simply did not have the energy to focus on other regions outside of Europe. This was the main reason why it adopted a policy of compromise and defense in the Far East in recent years.

If it weren't for the threat from the German bloc, East Africa wouldn't have been able to enter the Western Regions so smoothly and establish stable cooperation with the Western Regions provincial government. After all, the Western Regions province was already considered half of the Soviet Union's sphere of influence, and it was extremely dependent on the Soviet Union in various fields such as military, politics, and economy.

Similarly, the Soviet Union's diplomacy towards Japan was essentially a policy of concession.

In conclusion, the Western Regions Province is unlikely to face major external war threats at present. The only factors affecting the security and stability of the Western Regions are extreme nationalism and religious forces.

These two forces are also a thorn in East Africa's side, as East Africa's global strategy towards Arab religion has always been consistent: to reduce its living space.

As mentioned before, if it weren't for the harsh environment in Gwadar, Ernst would have wanted to build a non-Arab state in Gwadar.

Consul General Blaine said to Representative Wang, "We in East Africa are not interested in the politics of the Western Regions, but there is one point on which we both agree: the threat of extreme nationalism and religious forces, which is a threat that the whole world must face together."

"To be honest, we in East Africa even believe that this religion is more harmful than the Soviet Union, and it is also a destabilizing factor for your country."

"This is also one of the reasons why we chose to cooperate with you instead of the neighboring eastern provinces, as those three organizations have been designated as 'terrorist organizations' in East Africa."

Suppressing Arab religion is, in fact, the politically correct approach in East Africa. After all, in Ernst's view, if we consider the future, the external forces that pose the greatest threat to East Africa are these Arab countries and regions.

Given the size and industrial strength of East Africa today, there is no country that can defeat it head-on. Therefore, East Africa is not afraid of war. On the contrary, Ernst must now consider the issues of refugees and illegal immigrants from his previous life.

East Africa is surrounded by Arab countries and regions, except for South America and Australia, including present-day India, which also has many Arab followers.

Therefore, in order to solve the immigration problem after the slowdown in East Africa's population growth, Ernst needed to continuously establish breeding pools of non-Arab populations in countries and regions along the Indian Ocean coast and in Africa, thereby shrinking the living space of Arabs.

East African officials are quite convinced of this, after all, global population statistics don't lie, especially those from European countries like France, Britain, and Germany, which have provided ample data showing that as a country's economy develops to a certain stage, it will inevitably lead to a slowdown in population growth, or even negative growth.

Of course, officials of Blaine's rank were unaware of this; he simply disliked and was hostile towards this group, much like in other Western countries today, which can be seen as a continuation of hatred between two religions.

Representative Wang didn't fully understand Consul General Blaine's thought process, but he also quite agreed with the statement, especially given that their neighboring province, the Western Regions, was a competitor.

He said, "Combating extreme nationalism and religious elements is something we in the Western Regions Province must continue to do. However, the situation in the Western Regions Province is complicated, and it will be quite difficult to completely solve these problems."

The area that the Western Regions Provincial Government can manage is very limited. After all, the entire Western Regions Province is too vast and the transportation is inconvenient. There are always some remote and inaccessible areas that the Western Regions Provincial Government cannot manage.

Consul General Blaine had no good advice on this, so she steered the conversation back to economic development.

This conversation became an important opportunity for the development of the Western Regions Province in the following years. In the years that followed, East Africa’s investment in the Western Regions Province continued to increase, and many industrial workers and East African personnel settled in the Western Regions to support the development of local industry and agriculture.

Furthermore, with the completion of Gwadar Airport, East Africa's border crossings have become more prosperous, especially high-end East African goods, which are very popular in the Western Regions.

Here, the only competitor for East African goods is the Soviet Union. However, the goods produced under the Soviet Union's light industry and economic system are obviously difficult to compete with East Africa and can only occupy the low-end market. They even have some difficulty competing with the national industries of the Western Regions.

(End of this chapter)