African Entrepreneurship Record

The Mayor of Lorraine continued, ”Based on the above circumstances, the external forces that can aid our Mombasa economic development, in order, start with central policy inclination, followed by support within the province, then other provinces in East Africa, and what I want to discuss next is the fourth source of potential support, which is foreign capital.”

”Currently, in the economic development of various cities in East Africa, there is a city that serves as a typical case of development through foreign capital, and that is Maputo in the Hansa Province.”

”I believe everyone is familiar with Maputo, which was originally the capital of the Portuguese Mozambique colony. After the South African war, Maputo’s status in East African economy and politics actually declined, making it less advantageous in acquiring resources and policies, conditions much poorer than our Mombasa City.”

”However, with the support of the Hansa Province and Maputo City government, Maputo has significantly introduced foreign capital such as that from Portugal, achieving considerable economic development in the past few years, and with the establishment of the Maputo Steel Plant as part of the First Five-Year Plan, it undoubtedly marks its return to the ranks of significant cities.”

”This also gives us a direction to consider, which is how to fully leverage foreign capital in the development of Mombasa City. Through in-depth analysis and understanding, I found an often overlooked area, which is our country’s lack of emphasis on capital from colonies and underdeveloped countries.”

No doubt, the Mayor of Lorraine’s words stirred everyone’s interest, because of prejudice, colonies or underdeveloped countries often evoke an image of poverty and backwardness, naturally leading to little attention.

Lorraine continued, ”But people often overlook a very important point, which is that the people of these colonies or underdeveloped countries are indeed poor, but their upper class is very wealthy.”

”Here, I want to especially highlight India. India is a British colony, and undoubtedly, in the publicity and image in East Africa, Indians are seen as the oppressed, brutally exploited by the British, with many Indians not having enough to eat, often facing famine problems.”

”However, precisely because of this, we often forget that not all Indians are at the bottom tier. Indian society has the most well-established caste system, with many Brahmins, Kshatriyas, or upper-class people from other sects, or royal aristocrats being extravagantly luxurious, controlling vast amounts of wealth in India, and through cooperation with the British they have the autonomy to manage their wealth.”

”The British, similar to the Mongols in history, although the Mongols exploited other regions, they achieved mutual benefits by colluding with local interest groups.”

After all, the colonialists did all the bad things, allowing original local interest groups to reap benefits without bearing infamy, and the Indian royal aristocrats followed this model in collaborating with the British.

And when the contradictions within the lower layers of Indian society fully erupt and can no longer be suppressed, they will then emerge, ’conforming’ to the public sentiment, pretending as heroes in expelling British colonizers and taking over national governance.

Of course, no matter how dark these royal aristocrats and high-caste Indians are, it doesn’t hinder the Mayor of Lorraine’s ideas.

He straightforwardly stated, ”The key is that these upper echelon Indians hold a significant portion of social wealth, and the wealth of Indian royal aristocrats is mostly accumulated through rent collection and taxation, resulting in vast amounts of unspent wealth in their hands.”

”Although the Indian royal aristocrats might have investments and industries in the United Kingdom, the proportion is definitely not high in their total wealth, which can be seen from our commercial trade with India.”

”In the past five years, India has consistently been the second largest consumer of Mombasa automobiles, with a significant portion of orders coming from Indian royal aristocrats and the wealthy. Furthermore, Indians have a knack for business, as highlighted during the South African war, where many Indian merchants served the British and Portuguese armies, amassing considerable wealth through the British colonial system.”

”Therefore, to obtain industrial development funds, we can definitely target the wealth of the upper class in these underdeveloped but cash-rich countries and regions, attracting them to invest in Mombasa City.”

”Moreover, we also have an advantage here, primarily geographical; we’re close to countries like India and the Middle East, and there are already many Arab and Indian merchant communities in Mombasa itself.”

”We can use this as a breakthrough, by co-founding a series of industrial enterprises with their behind-the-scenes bosses, not withholding policy incentives. It’s just about the strategic support on land rent rules, as long as they first channel their money into building our factories, they can’t easily withdraw, and will have to help in selling products.”

Lorraine’s idea was essentially to bind these external capitals through joint ventures, making it difficult for them to withdraw investment once they fall into Lorraine’s set trap, and before the manufacturing plants start up, they can’t recover costs, and once in production, they’ll need to help with marketing. These companies capable of collaborating with the Mombasa City government are certainly not ordinary entities, possessing local influence and connections, facilitating new markets for Mombasa’s industrial products.

”Of course, we must not act unsustainably, the benefits that need to be given should be given. A person cannot stand without trust, and we cannot trade Mombasa’s future for short-term interests; we need industries to solve employment issues, not to pursue profit as the paramount goal.”

”Once the industries are established and developed, we can then consider other issues, casting a long line to catch a big fish.”

”If a credibility issue causes our reputation in Mombasa to deteriorate across the Indian Ocean region, we can forget about surpassing Dar es Salaam City, and could even lose future development opportunities because of it.”

One cannot neglect the business environment of the city just because of Mombasa’s geographical advantages; many cities fail to develop due to local governments being lazy or even colluding with the wicked.

Without regulation, the business environment anywhere can become quite poor; after all, over ninety-nine point nine percent of businessmen are driven by profit, something that’s unavoidable in all countries today.

This also places higher demands on the Mombasa City government. As an important commercial center in East Africa, Mombasa must provide a comfortable service to passing merchants, to attract more businesspeople to Mombasa to seek opportunities, spurring local economic growth.

Imagine if Mombasa City government officials were all grim-faced; it would certainly leave a negative impression on foreign merchants, inevitably tarnishing the image of the Mombasa City government, bringing negative impacts to local commercial trade activities.

Thus, Lorraine especially emphasized to the various departments of the city government, ”Remember, being a service-oriented government is a crucial development goal for our Mombasa City. In this increasingly competitive era, a smile could give foreign merchants a good impression, and if they are pleased, they might directly invest in an industry.”

”Therefore, I will include the government’s service attitude in the assessment of Mombasa City officials, further strengthening oversight and supervision, alongside organizing a staff training session next month. If anyone messes up, I’ll have them lose their position, and you shouldn’t feel aggrieved because these are essential actions for the success of the Greater Mombasa City plan; even I will lead by example.”