African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1433: Chapter 13: Copperbelt Economic Development Zone Planning_3

Now, East Africa has surpassed the era of blindly pursuing output; for the sake of quality economic development, it is necessary to target these backward production units, even those walking the legal edge.

This is not an exaggeration. Many privately mined small mines fail to guarantee worker safety, compromise production standards to save costs, and often lack protective measures altogether.

Additionally, the existence of these illegal mines and workshops clearly exacerbates environmental damage, such as unrestricted water use and indiscriminate waste disposal.

While legitimate production companies cannot entirely avoid these issues, under the supervision of the East African Government, they at least undertake some basic measures, even if just for appearances. These informal production enterprises, however, are unwilling or unable to make even face-saving efforts.

Ernst said, ”As economies around the world recover, industry competition will become increasingly fierce. Instead of waiting for others to burst our internal bubble, it’s better for us to eliminate some safety hazards first.”

This is certainly not to destroy certain sectors in East Africa but rather to compel them to adopt new technology and equipment, thereby increasing production efficiency and enhancing market competitiveness.

If even this cannot be achieved, then being squeezed out by the East African Government and the market is well deserved, given that the East African Government has already allowed domestic enterprises ten years of unregulated growth.

During this period, as long as the company was not recklessly mismanaged, most have completed initial capital accumulation and earned their first profits. In the new round of East African economic development, the government’s goal is to have them use their earnings to improve production efficiency, product quality or service.

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April 1920.

The East African Government officially approved the ”Copperbelt Economic Cooperation Development Zone Plan.”

This round of resource integration in the Copperbelt officially began, with towns like Lubumbashi exploring industry collaboration and enhancing production efficiency.

Soon, a group of regional backbone enterprises, led by Lubumbashi and Kitwe, began merging or establishing, while relevant legislation was introduced to unify production standards within the Copperbelt copper mining industry.

Deberne’s anticipated scenario of ”baking a bigger cake” officially commenced, and Lubumbashi, as the leader, indeed sacrificed significant actual interests to balance various parties’ benefits since Lubumbashi City would be the biggest beneficiary once the cake was baked.

Of course, if the cake is not baked well, Lubumbashi will surely suffer backlash, so to avoid unexpected situations, Lubumbashi City must employ real financial resources to fully engage in managing the Copperbelt Economic Development Zone.

At the economic development meeting in Kitwe City, Deberne commented, ”Now Lubumbashi City is almost tied to the Copperbelt Economic Development Zone plan. The future copper mining industry in the Copperbelt will be primarily managed by the Lubumbashi government, but we cannot remain idle. Now we should focus our efforts on other development fields.” ℴℴ𝘮

”A city can only achieve sustainable development through diversification, and our primary learning targets are New Frankfurt City or Mbeya City.”

”In the coming period, our city’s development focus will be on research and manufacturing, which are closely related.”

”The city government will fund and encourage a number of laboratories and research institutions to establish in our city, especially in fields like new materials, pharmaceuticals, and machinery.”

”In terms of manufacturing, we encourage the development of light industry, promote the development of premium light industrial enterprises in our city, and simultaneously attract investment from external quality enterprises.”

”Then there is the service industry and ecology; globally, service quality enhancement must be strengthened, raising the recognition of our city’s service industry and increasing its attraction to the Copperbelt and even the entire nation.”

”In the ecological field, environmental remediation activities should be conducted, restoring lush mountains and clear waters, addressing land pollution issues, improving food production safety, restoring vegetation in some mining areas, and rehabilitating river ecosystems among others.”

It can be said that while Lubumbashi is fully integrating the copper mining industry, the Kitwe City government, under Deberne’s leadership, has embarked on a completely different development path, which has not yet been noticed by the Lubumbashi government.