African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1426: Chapter 11: Kitwe’s Road to Transformation (Part 2)

”At the same time, a batch of copper smelting and metal processing enterprises have been established corresponding to the east and west coasts, creating a competitive relationship with our city’s downstream industries.”

”Foreign imported copper ore has a large output, low price, and causes little environmental pollution to the domestic environment, which has led the authorities to support the development of these enterprises that rely on imported copper ore.”

Developing copper mines, or mining any mineral resources, is always accompanied by environmental pollution, but the cities in the East African Copper Belt are particularly severe in this aspect.

Because it is located in the heart of East Africa, as well as the confluence area of the Congo River and Zambezi River basins, each year the industrial wastewater discharged by cities in the East African Copper Belt severely impacts the downstream of the rivers.

Kitwe City’s copper mine output is very abundant, but the copper ore imported by East Africa from its colonial or economically backward regions is also very cost-effective and has little effect on the local environment, putting Kitwe City and other local copper mining production areas in East Africa in a very awkward situation.

”In order to cope with competition from overseas copper mining areas, as well as domestic similar production enterprises, especially those in coastal regions, Kitwe City has reached a point where change is inevitable,” said Mayor Deberne.

”In fact, the clues have already begun to emerge from the economic growth rate of Kitwe City over these years, which is that our city is still in a stage of rapid development, although the growth rate has already started to slow.”

”It’s not obvious now, but when enterprises and factories in coastal areas, such as copper smelting, non-ferrous metal processing, and so on, are established, and by then our Kitwe has not completed its transformation, it will be a disaster for the economy of our city.”

Someone asked, ”Mayor, what do you mean?”

Mayor Deberne said, ”Naturally, it means reform, to reshape our city’s economy. Now it is 1920, the beginning of the country’s fifth five-year plan execution, and we should respond to the central policy and transform our city’s economy.”

Then Deberne said, ”Currently, my view of our city’s economic development is as follows: Firstly, our city’s condition, excepting copper resources, does not noticeably have an advantage compared with other cities domestically.”

”Kitwe City is a city that rose from copper mining, but aside from copper mines, does our city have any significant advantages?”

”Politically, our city is just an ordinary prefecture-level city, and within the province, it holds a position not even comparable to Rhein City, New Frankfurt City, and Lusaka City, and may actually rank behind Kabwe City.”

”In terms of transportation, our city also lacks significant advantages; we have railways, highways, and canals, but we are not a national transportation hub like New Frankfurt City.”

After decades of development, transportation in East Africa is now very developed, establishing a nationwide network of railways and highways, which also greatly devalues the term ’transportation hub’ in East Africa.

Only a transportation hub of national significance like New Frankfurt City in East Africa is worthy of attention.

This is particularly evident in the railways. Last century, East Africa had few railways and short mileage, benefiting any city along the railway line and promoting city development.

However, today, East Africa is the second-largest railway country in the world, with national railway mileage exceeding 300,000 kilometers, so nearly any slightly important city is basically connected to the railway.

Under these circumstances, the status of cities along the railway line, and even some railway hub cities, has greatly decreased. In the age of railway scarcity, there were few route choices, but now with East Africa’s railway so developed, many options are available, which instead diminishes the role of some railway hubs.

For example, last century, when the East African Central Railway was completed, most people and goods were highly dependent on the Central Railway operation, but now, the proportion of people and goods on the Central Railway has actually decreased significantly.

Even such important railway or highway hubs are like this, let alone Kitwe, which is not an important transportation hub city. Of course, Kitwe is also a city where highways, railways, and canals intersect, but such transportation hubs are everywhere in East Africa.

Just like the Far East Empire in its previous life, with the establishment of highway and railway networks, many regional transportation hubs were formed. This was good for the whole country, but it wasn’t beneficial for some original important transportation hub cities.

During last century, although Kitwe was not a transportation hub, since East Africa had few railways and as Kitwe City was located along the Central Railway, it benefited, but with the establishment of the railway network in East African countries, the influence of railway routes on city development has become very weak.

Conversely, Kitwe’s water transport is quite different. Because of East Africa’s inherent geographical reasons, East Africa’s water transport has never held an important position in transportation and can only supplement railways and highways. So, even though Kitwe has artificial canals, it is also difficult to support development with water transportation.

Deberne then said, ”In terms of transportation, our city has not formed favorable conditions for a national center of commerce, logistics, etc.”

”In terms of resources, although our city’s copper resources hold a significant position nationwide, they are also threatened by external competition.”

”Firstly, the rise of external copper mining areas has turned our copper resources into a replaceable one. Secondly, the empire’s own copper mine distribution is quite uniform, which also impacts the copper mining and related industries of Kitwe City.”