African Entrepreneurship Record

With just a few words from Ernst, those below him would be busy until their legs broke. Although the aim was to relocate backward industries northward, the destination couldn’t be decided arbitrarily. Even backward industries are valuable resources for East Africa, given that the current industrial scale in East Africa is not large and the demand is far from sufficient. Therefore, even the relocation of backward industries requires research and investigation.

Regarding this, Ernst somewhat unscrupulously said, ”The location of Jezira City looks really good to me. It’s situated in the Jezira Plain, with a certain agricultural foundation, and close to the Nile River, so there is no shortage of water resources. We can focus on developing a batch of high-pollution industries such as chemical industries, which won’t affect our domestic environment and will also facilitate trade between us and Egypt.”

The Nile River flows from south to north and is an international river, primarily involving East Africa, Egypt, and the Abyssinia Empire.

International rivers generally tend to involve international disputes, mainly focusing on water source issues. Most of the rivers in the upper basin of the Nile (South Sudan) ultimately converge into the Nile River.

While Jezira City is the last section of the Nile River in East Africa, placing high-pollution industries here is indeed quite unscrupulous. Located upstream of the river, East Africa will inevitably pollute the Nile River water within Egypt.

As Egypt’s mother river, most of the drinking and irrigation water comes from the Nile, so Ernst’s idea is quite dangerous.

However, the officials of East Africa highly agree with this point. After all, people of this era have no environmental awareness, and developing industry will inevitably cause pollution. Industrial wastewater from East Africa is entirely discharged into rivers and the sea.

Currently, East Africa’s main industrial areas are concentrated in the eastern coast, along the shores of Lake Malawi, and central regions. Therefore, East Africa’s industrial wastewater is primarily discharged in two directions: the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

The lake water of Lake Malawi flows through the Shire River into the Zambezi River, while the main rivers near the central industrial area are the tributaries of the Zambezi River and the Congo River. So part joins the Zambezi River, and part joins the Congo River, eventually leading to the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

Of course, if East Africa deploys high-pollution industries in Jezira City, the impact is not as bad as imagined. After all, the country that pollutes the Nile River most severely is actually Egypt itself.

Although backward, Egypt’s industrial level is second only to East Africa in the entire continent, and Egypt’s industrial wastewater is evidently also discharged into the Nile River. In the previous life, the Nile was one of the world’s most polluted rivers, comparable to India’s Ganges.

Although the Ganges basin has a much larger population than the Nile, the Ganges has greater flow and strong self-cleaning capability. The Nile has a relatively smaller water volume, with only one river downstream, making pollution naturally more severe. Additionally, Egypt’s dense population and the reliance of riverbank residents on the Nile for water necessitate the river to handle the living and industrial wastewater.

So even if East Africa does not pollute the Nile, the Egyptians would do it themselves. This is indeed the current situation. In Ali’s era, Egypt introduced a large number of textile enterprises, and the pollution from the textile industry is very severe, making it the primary source of industrial wastewater polluting the Nile.

As for the Abyssinia Empire upstream and East Africa, their impact on the Nile is actually minimal. Naturally, the Abyssinia Empire is a purely agricultural country and can’t possibly have a large negative impact on the water quality of the Nile.

Although East Africa has a certain scale of industries, most of the industrial deployment is beyond the few cities along the shore of the Great Lake (Lake Victoria), primarily in agricultural regions, so its impact on the Nile is not significant.

Of course, whether or not Jezira City can undergo industrial development is inevitable. Jezira City is one of the important long-staple cotton producing areas in East Africa. Besides, the textile industry definitely has to be arranged there, so a part of the textile industry in Nairobi will certainly migrate to Jezira City.

As for the chemical industry, although Jezira holds this upstream advantage, developing a chemical industry also requires a certain industrial foundation on the ground, and many cities in East Africa are interested in the chemical industry, as chemical industry in East Africa is also an emerging industry.

Moreover, Jezira City is far from the heart of East Africa, and the railway from Juba City to Jezira City hasn’t opened yet, so the industrial development of Jezira City requires time.

”Bangui City is definitely to be developed prominently, along with the coastal areas of Somali like Mogadishu, Kismayo, and Bangassou on the Azande Plateau, Dedradawa, and Turkana Province are all priority options.”

Turkana Province is specially singled out as one of the earliest developed regions in East Africa. Currently, Turkana Province is the most important oil-producing area in East Africa, and has multiple trade ports connecting to the Abyssinia Empire. Railways and highways have also long been opened, so it will be the focal point for the industrial department this time.

Besides Turkana Province, Bangui holds the most prominent position. Downstream is Kinshasa and Cabinda, northward leads to the Sigmaringen’s royal territory and German Cameroon, and westward is Belgian Congo, so East Africa must vigorously develop Bangui City.

Apart from economic reasons, it’s naturally due to national defense and security considerations. The Northwest Region has a sparse population and isn’t the main direction of East African development, but with the activities of other colonizers, East Africa will certainly focus more on local security to prevent territorial erosion.

The border between East Africa and Belgium is mostly located on the right bank of the Ubangi River, which is swampy, making the current border between the two countries hard to distinguish. As for the other two colonies, East Africa is not worried about Sigmaringen. Although relations with German Cameroon are friendly, precautions must be taken.

Ultimately, the East African government has confirmed several key cities for the relocation of backward industries, including Dedradawa town, Jima City, Gambela City (the Abyssinia Empire border), Juba City, Jezira City, Bangassou City (Central Africa), Bria City (Central Africa), and Bangui City.

These eight cities basically span various provinces in the northern parts of East Africa, mostly located in border areas, including Dedradawa town, Jima City, Juba City, and Jezira City. Bangui City is also actually near the border, but the city area is quite far from the border. Furthermore, they serve as regional transportation hubs, such as Bangui City, Juba City, and Bria City.

As for cities that weren’t selected, it’s not because of poor conditions. Cities like Mogadishu, Kismayo, and some cities in Turkana Province inherently have a certain industrial foundation, so they don’t need these soon-to-be-eliminated backward industries.

Take Mogadishu for example, its key development industry is the food processing industry, and the food processing industry in Mogadishu is among the top levels in East Africa. Additionally, the textile industry is one of its pillar industries, which has only recently started production, mainly due to the investment promotion results of the last two provinces of Somali in the ”Europe-Asia Fruit Basket Plan.”

Moreover, with cooperation between East and German (region), more German region businessmen opt to invest and build factories in East Africa’s coastal areas, so opportunities are abundant. Therefore, the relocation of backward industries doesn’t especially appeal to places like Mogadishu.

After all, investments from Germany and Austria-Hungary would surely focus on emerging market technologies. If accepting the eliminated backward industries from central and eastern areas, it would not be an opportunity but rather a burden for these cities.

Therefore, these backward industries still need to be moved to underdeveloped regions of East Africa. Indeed, they must have some economic foundation, otherwise even transferring backward industries there might not function, and the above-chosen eight cities fit this intermediate level perfectly, meeting the East African government’s requirements.