African Entrepreneurship Record

”The aluminum industry is one of the mainstream industries of the future world, just like electricity was at its inception. Nowadays, the enormous potential of the electricity industry is evident to everyone, while the aluminum and petrochemical industries in East Africa are just beginning. These are crucial pillar industries for industrial growth.” This was a significant reminder from Jubisio to the governments of Xinde Town and Tete City.

This point is indeed persuasive. When electricity was still in its infancy, East Africa invested heavily, and now the electricity industry is developing rapidly in East Africa. Every city hopes to get a share of this growth.

So, Jubisio’s words indeed had some effect, at least reinforcing the resolve of the Tete City and Xinde Town governments to establish the aluminum industry in their regions.

Considering the introduction of the aluminum industry in Xinde Town and Tete City actually reflects the current focus of the East African Government’s regional investment shifting towards underdeveloped areas like Angola and Mozambique.

This is important because if the Central Government of East Africa doesn’t support it, this initiative would likely be difficult to achieve, much like the Heixinggen Province in Southern East Africa, which was the former Transvaal Republic.

In the past, it was the core economic area of South Africa, with highly developed industries, ranked first in Africa. However, due to Ernst’s restrictions, the development of Heixinggen Province remained lukewarm.

After all, the state-owned economy accounts for seventy percent of East Africa’s economy, meaning that the development of various regions is entirely at the discretion of the Central Government of East Africa.

Ernst can determine where development happens entirely by himself. If Ernst decided to develop Whale Bay Port into East Africa’s largest city, it could become the largest city, even if the local climate conditions are harsh.

Of course, as a national ruler, Ernst certainly won’t formulate national development strategies based solely on personal feelings. Under the big framework of government-led economic development in East Africa, the driving force for the national economy ultimately brings more advantages than disadvantages.

The most typical comparison to East Africa is Brazil. Currently, Brazil’s economy and population are completely concentrated in the southeastern coastal regions, significantly hindering inland development. In contrast, East Africa has already completed the development and construction of its eastern and inland hinterlands and is now turning its focus to other regions. Under such circumstances, the gap between Brazil and East Africa will only continue to widen, as can be clearly seen in the agricultural sector, where the expansion speed of arable land in East Africa far exceeds that of Brazil, even ranking first in the world.

With international grain prices depressed, Brazil’s development of inland land has been hampered, while East Africa is pulling ahead through administrative means, driving development and construction in its various regions. Even in areas like Heixinggen Province, where development is restricted, economic growth rate is still far higher than Brazil’s.

Moreover, the coordination of the state-owned economy far exceeds that of private enterprises, tightly aligning with the major strategy for the development of the East African countries. Although it is not conducive to competition, in the current global context of rising monopolistic organizations, the situation in East Africa instead aligns with the trend of the times.

After all, competition between countries is mainstream, and monopolistic organizations are needed to achieve this, otherwise, under the encroachment of foreign capital, there is a concern whether domestic enterprises can survive.

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With the massive population migration in East Africa and the initiation of new construction projects, a new wave of construction has surged in places like Angola and Mozambique.

According to the East African Government’s plan, at least one million people migrate annually from the central and eastern regions to settle in relatively underdeveloped areas.

Thus, new villages are springing up in Angola and Mozambique. The railway system in East Africa is overwhelmed, and the highways are also very congested, making the various levels of government in East Africa busier.

”This year’s railway passenger traffic and freight volume have clearly exceeded the design standards, especially with severe shortages in the number of trains, exceeding capacity by more than thirty percent, forcing us to relieve traffic pressures via highways and waterways,” reported Liu Yideville, Minister of Transport, to Ernst.

”Moreover, the numbers continue to rise. Besides our own citizens, Black laborers are also moving across the country, so we, together with the Ministry of Transport, believe that we should increase train production,” the Ministry of Railways also lamented.

Industry transfer, population migration, and construction projects all rely on the railway and highway systems, and none are small in scale, causing immense pressure on the operations of both ministries.

”Currently, the operation of railways is just like during the South African War, we’re practically facing an economic war in peacetime. The west, south, and north of East Africa all need to develop, and these regions have lagged far behind our central and eastern areas, so I understand your difficulties,” Ernst said.

Currently, the nationwide work in East Africa is akin to the ”Third Front” construction of the Far East Empire. The primary development directions also correspond to the west, south, and north, summarized as ”Three-region” construction.

Of course, there are significant differences between these two constructions. The ”Three-region” construction in East Africa is primarily driven by population and agriculture, whereas the Far East Empire’s Third Front construction was primarily focused on industry, especially national defense and military industry.

After all, the Far East Empire’s population has already reached saturation; even in remote areas, the population was not small at the time. In contrast, the ”Three-region” areas in East Africa even lack population, which is a critical resource. First, the ”have and have-not” issue regarding population must be resolved.

Once the population issue is resolved, the next natural step is agricultural development. Otherwise, relying on the existing arable land won’t solve the subsistence problem, unless the arable lands in the central and eastern regions, which have transitioned to economic crop fields, are reverted back to grain crop farmland.

Obviously, this is impossible; as East Africa’s important economic source, the area for economic crop cultivation will only expand, not reduce. After all, East Africa aims to become a hegemonic state in economic crops.

With the current arable land unchanged, naturally, new arable land must be cultivated, and the exploration of farmland cannot be separated from the population factor, so the two complement each other.

This also means that East Africa’s future scale of grain exports will decrease. After all, during the period of population migration, it will take time for newly cultivated land to yield grain. At the same time, it is accompanied by various infrastructure constructions in East Africa, including transportation and irrigation projects, which will consume a massive amount of grain.

However, the reduction in grain exports has little impact on East Africa. Firstly, international grain prices have been low for years, meaning profits are low. Secondly, East Africa is also a country with surplus grain production, so if the surplus grain capacity can be consumed through population migration and construction projects, it is beneficial.

Of course, with the expansion of new arable lands in East Africa, grain output is bound to increase significantly, which is not a big issue as the population growth rate in East Africa is also fast. By the end of this century, the population of East Africa is very likely to surpass eighty million.

Although the ”Three-region” construction also involves the industrial sector, it is vastly different from the Third Front construction. The industries transferred in the Third Front construction were the top, high-quality industries of the Far East Empire at that time, whereas East Africa is transferring only underdeveloped industries. Besides expanding East Africa’s industrial volume, there is also a need for industrial upgrading in the central and eastern regions.

Moreover, even with underdeveloped industries, not all are being transferred. Currently, the industry in many East African cities is dependent on mineral resources.

In such cases, if the destination for transfer doesn’t have corresponding minerals, it will not work, meaning that not all underdeveloped industries are to be phased out from the central and eastern regions, only some.

Also, the transfer of underdeveloped industries and industrial upgrading is not a one-shot deal; they coincide with East Africa’s population migration, requiring years to complete.

In fact, by taking advantage of this massive migration, East Africa, while developing the western, southern, and northern ”Three-regions,” also concurrently enhances its industrial scale and urban population. Cities like Luanda, Bela, and Bangui will all benefit.

The ”Three-region” construction effectively serves as a comprehensive system optimization of domestic construction in East Africa. Once completed, the demographic, urban, industrial, agricultural, and transportation patterns within East Africa will be more balanced.

This is also the process of East Africa laying a ”foundation.” After the completion of the ”Three-region” construction, the East African economy will ascend to a new level, and in the next stage, Ernst needs to consider the comprehensive industrialization of East Africa.