African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 1063 Thrust

 At present, East Africa's shipbuilding manufacturing industry is already quite large-scale, and it has become the world's largest shipbuilding manufacturing country based on the number of ships built each year.

With the launch of the Second Five-Year Plan, as of 1908, the total tonnage of East African civilian ships had exceeded more than two million tons, approaching the level of three million tons, accounting for approximately 7% of the world's civilian ship manufacturing industry.

At that time, the total tonnage of German civilian ships was about three million tons. The gap between East Africa and Germany was not big. Of course, the United Kingdom was even more terrifying. Its total tonnage of civilian ships was about 50% of the world's, close to 20 million tons. tons, and the proportion was even higher in the 1990s. Even with the development of shipbuilding manufacturing in various countries, the UK's share has declined, and it still leads other countries by a cliff.

The UK firmly holds the top spot in the world's shipbuilding manufacturing industry. In addition to domestic demand, most of the orders from other countries are almost given to the UK, including countries such as East Africa and Germany. Due to manufacturing costs and technical factors, East Africa and Germany would also order ships from Britain.

Of course, East Africa has a long history of purchasing or leasing ships. Especially in the past, when sailing ships had not completely withdrawn from the stage of history, in order to meet its own immigration and cargo transportation needs, East Africa even purchased from small countries such as Italy, the Netherlands, and Greece. Boat.

As time goes by, East Africa's domestic shipbuilding industry has developed rapidly, especially after the Second Five-Year Plan. Most of East Africa's needs can basically be met by domestic shipbuilding companies.

Moreover, the peak period of East African shipbuilding manufacturing industry construction has basically bid farewell to the sailing era. At present, most of the East African shipbuilding manufacturing industry is at an above-average level. In the military shipbuilding industry, there is actually no obvious technological gap between East Africa and other powerful countries.

Through two five-year plans, East African seaport cities have been basically fully developed, especially in the coastal areas of former Angola and Mozambique. The East African shipbuilding industry has expanded nearly three times compared with 1900.

Emerging coastal cities such as Cabinda, Luanda, Benguela, Beira, Cremane, and Maputo are developing rapidly, and the number of important seaport cities in East Africa has increased from more than 20 in the 1990s to nearly 40.

The rise of these cities has played a huge role in promoting the development of East Africa's shipbuilding industry and promoted East Africa's status as a maritime power.

This also led to a rather prosperous scene on the east and west coasts of East Africa. After the Suez Canal replaced the Cape of Good Hope, commerce along the African coast flourished again.

Before the opening of the Suez Canal, most ships had to go around the Cape of Good Hope. After the opening of the Suez Canal, shipping on the east and west coasts of Africa actually experienced a long decline. It was not until the rise of East Africa in the 1980s that East Coast trade initially resumed prosperity. .

After the South African War, East Africa became a veritable two-ocean country. In addition, East Africa opened up markets in the Americas, Western Europe, and West Africa, and commercial trade on the west coast became active again.

Because of the existence of East Africa, the east and west coast routes of Africa have once again become the world's main commercial routes. Before the opening of the Suez Canal, although many ships passed through it, at that time Africa was basically undeveloped except for a few coastal areas, so Africa could be traded. The goods included only slaves, ivory and a few other specialties.

East Africa's development in Africa directly promoted the prosperity of various commodity trade along the coasts of both sides of East Africa. This also made sub-Saharan Africa the first country to export industrial products.

All in all, East Africa's shipbuilding industry has a good foundation for development. East Africa's own needs alone have greatly promoted the rapid development of East Africa's shipbuilding industry in recent years.

Ernst told government officials: “Emerging industries are not just industries that did not appear in the first industrial revolution, such as electricity, automobiles, petroleum, and chemicals, but also industries that are different from ordinary traditional industries because of the realization of major technological innovations. Emerging industries, such as steel, railway and shipbuilding manufacturing, etc.”

"For example, today's steel industry is very different from the past. Although the product is still steel, the technology has undergone earth-shaking changes. In the past, the steel industry relied on coal, but now it focuses on iron ore, and the efficiency of coal utilization is more efficient. , various new steel production processes, mainly the Thomas steelmaking method, make today's steel production very different from that during the first industrial revolution, allowing Germany and the United States to surpass the United Kingdom in the steel industry. "So this type of emerging industry. , different from our general emerging industries, which are the same thing as traditional industries on the surface, but have undergone earth-shaking changes internally. "

Everyone takes Ernst's words seriously. Since the 1990s, East Africa's industrial development has accelerated, and everyone has witnessed it. Now, the impact of emerging industries on the entire country has penetrated into various fields such as food, clothing, housing and transportation for East Africans.

To put it bluntly, East Africa has actually overtaken European and American countries to a certain extent. People in East Africa can enjoy technological products that many countries cannot enjoy, the most typical ones are home appliances and cars.

However, there is still a lot of room for growth in East Africa's industrial volume, and there is still a gap between East Africa and European and American countries in many fields. This makes East Africa's current industry as a whole still inferior to Germany and the United States.

As for the UK, as the Second Five-Year Plan for East Africa is about to be completed, East Africa is likely to have surpassed the UK in terms of industry.

After all, as early as five years ago, East Africa's steel output was almost the same as that of the United Kingdom. Steel output is the most intuitive data for industrial development in this era, so the level of industrial development of a country can be inferred to a certain extent through steel output. Today, East Africa's steel output is definitely above the UK.

Of course, there is still a big gap between East Africa and the United Kingdom on a per capita basis. Take the per capita steel production as an example. In 1900, East Africa's steel production was about three million tons, and its population was more than twice that of the United Kingdom. At that time, the British steel production was close to five million tons. .

And these five million tons of steel production do not include the steel production of the British colonies. Therefore, before the First Five-Year Plan, the per capita steel possessions in East Africa were significantly different from those in the United Kingdom. Over time, this has definitely improved greatly, but in the hearts of the East African governments It is not easy to surpass the UK.

Of course, when comparing national strength, especially the industry of other countries, per capita does not mean much to the East African government. The industrial volume and available resources are what East African officials pay more attention to.

As a country with a large government and a large amount of national resources, the East African government believes that its domestic industry is second only to the United States and Germany. After all, the population and land area of ​​East Africa also require that East Africa cannot be too low. As for per capita data, it is mainly used in the field of people's livelihood. , rather than competing with other countries. As East Africa becomes more industrialized, per capita data will naturally increase.

Moreover, the industrialization of East Africa is almost led by the government, which naturally makes the East African government pay more attention to the total industrial volume rather than per capita data. After all, in the eyes of many people, the development of industrialization in East Africa is almost driven by the government.

All in all, as the Second Five-Year Plan comes to an end, changes in East Africa are almost visible to the naked eye, especially in industrial construction.

The upgrading of emerging industries and traditional industries has brought unexpected effects to the East African government. Because of the rise of emerging industries, the Second Five-Year Plan has exceeded the psychological expectations of the East African government. This is a detail that has been ignored by the East African government in the past.

During the First Five-Year Plan, although emerging industries were vigorously developed and promoted, during the Second Five-Year Plan, with the further development of emerging industries, there was a more obvious thrust, allowing East Africa to experience a more rapid development than during the First Five-Year Plan. development speed.

(End of chapter)