African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 1072 Seven Urban Agglomerations

Steel output is an important factor used in East Africa to measure the level of national industrial development, so it is always placed at the top of national industrial development meetings.

The potential of East Africa's steel industry is still huge, mainly because with the implementation of the two five-year plans, East Africa's domestic industrial level has improved, and the gap in the steel industry is also growing.

Therefore, during the Third Five-Year Plan period, continuing to significantly increase East Africa's steel production is still an important issue for the East African government.

…

With the end of the steel industry analysis, the East African government did not continue to summarize other industries, but first summarized the national regional economic and industrial development.

Sweet said: "Currently, our country has formed three major industrial clusters, namely the east, central and west. With these three major industrial clusters, my country's industry has developed rapidly, forming three major industrial zones that are not inferior to those of other countries. "

Among the three major industrial clusters in East Africa, even the weakest industrial cluster in the west has grown to a considerable scale through two five-year plans. It is considered a place with good industrial development even in the powerful countries.

In addition, the industrial development in southern East Africa is also good, but the southern industry is concentrated in the coastal cities of New Hamburg and Maputo, and the inland industry and urban development are relatively weak.

Therefore, the southern industrial cluster can only be counted as half. In this way, East Africa has actually formed three and a half major industrial cluster areas. With the equator as the boundary, the East African economy clearly shows the characteristics of being strong in the south and weak in the north.

"We currently divide the country into seven urban agglomerations based on actual conditions. These seven urban agglomerations are mainly based on the level of industrial development between regions and are not strongly related. After rough calculation and rendering, we have classified the country's strongest industrial strength into The seven urban dense areas are defined as seven urban agglomerations. These seven urban agglomerations are the Rhine urban agglomeration, the Bohemian and Lorraine urban agglomeration, the east coast urban agglomeration, the west coast urban agglomeration, and the Ring of Malawi. Lake city agglomeration, southern city agglomeration and urban agglomeration around the Great Lakes.”

From the name alone, it can be seen that the seven urban agglomerations are only informal concepts used temporarily by the East African government for reference in national economic and industrial development.

After all, these seven urban agglomerations may not have deep political and economic connections within them. The East African government simply connected places with similar distances and similar economic development levels together to form the so-called seven urban agglomerations on the map.

Sweet introduced the map: "The Rhine City Group is centered on the Rhine City and New Frankfurt City, including Kabwe, Lusaka, Kitwe, Lubumbashi and other important cities, covering non-ferrous metal smelting, electricity, Automobile manufacturing, steel, precision instrument manufacturing, railway and other core industries.”

The Rhine City Agglomeration, which can also be called the capital city agglomeration, is a dual-core structure. Although the Rhine City has a prominent position as the capital of East Africa, in terms of economy, it is mainly centered on the New Frankfurt City. The New Frankfurt City has assumed the responsibility of the Rhine City from the beginning. The city’s economic, transportation, industrial and other management functions.

"The urban agglomeration of Bohemia and Lorraine, with the cities of Harare and Bulawayo as its core, includes cities such as Tatu, Gweru, Rope... In addition to Harare and Bulawayo, it is also dominated by many Chinese cities. Mainly small-scale industrial and mining cities, including mining, steel, non-ferrous metal smelting, large-scale machinery manufacturing, textile industry, electric power and other industries.”

"The east coast urban agglomeration, with Dar es Salaam and Mombasa as its core, includes Nairobi, Bagamoyo, First Town and other important cities. Its total economic output value ranks among the top in the country, second only to Posi The Mia and Lorraine urban agglomerations have the highest import and export trade in the country, covering industries such as chemical industry, steel, textile, and electricity.”

“The West Coast urban agglomeration, with Cabinda and Luanda as its core, including Kinshasa, Lobito, Benguela, Alexandria and other important cities, has developed rapidly with the help of my country’s trade with Atlantic countries and is currently ranked No. Four.”

“The urban agglomeration around Lake Malawi is centered on the cities of Mbeya and Tete. Tete has maintained rapid development in recent years. Although the gap between it and Mbeya is still very large, due to geographical reasons , Mbeya City is at the northernmost end of Lake Malawi, while Tete City is at the southern end. The two complement each other and cooperate with each other to a high degree. The share of heavy industry is second only to the urban agglomeration of Bohemia and Lorraine, and steel production currently ranks first in the country. "Second place." "The southern urban agglomeration is centered on the New Hamburg Port City and Maputo City. The southern urban agglomeration is the original distribution area of ​​the Zulu and Boers. It is the area with the richest mineral resources in our country. Manufacturing, electric power and other industrial fields are more prominent.”

“There is no obvious core city in the urban agglomeration around the Great Lakes. The most developed cities in the region are Kisumu, Mwanza and Kampala. They are the weakest among the seven major urban agglomerations, and the advantage of water transportation is the most prominent in the country. The agricultural product processing industry is the largest in the country.”

The concept of seven urban agglomerations is a summary of the industrial development in the Second Five-Year Plan. They are the seven regions with the most concentrated and developed industries in East Africa. This shows that East African industry has formed a large scale and is relatively concentrated.

Moreover, many of the seven urban agglomerations are dominated by dual cores. The most typical ones are Dar es Salaam and Mombasa in the East Coast urban agglomeration, and Harare in the Bohemian and Lorraine urban agglomeration. City and Bulawayo City.

"The seven urban agglomerations reflect the overall distribution of my country's industry and account for more than 70% of my country's industrial production."

"However, this has also brought uncertainty to my country's future industrial and urban development. Today's high concentration of industrial production can easily lead to differences in economic development levels across the country. However, industrial agglomeration has also been beneficial to the development of my country's industry."

As Siweite said, it triggered everyone's thinking. The boundaries between industrial agglomeration and dispersion in East Africa are not clear. The effect of industrial agglomeration is indeed obvious, but the Second Five-Year Plan is obviously more balanced than the First Five-Year Plan.

This was especially true before the First Five-Year Plan. At that time, the central and eastern parts of East Africa accounted for most of the industrial and economic shares. Now, the industrial development in the west, south and other regions of East Africa is obviously more balanced than before the First Five-Year Plan.

Ernst expressed his opinion: "The development speed of my country's industry shows that there is no problem with this path at present. As for the relationship between the pursuit of growth and balance, we must look at it from a dynamic perspective."

"Today, our country's industry is still focused on pursuing stock, because our priority is competition with other major countries in the world, so it is more important for us to concentrate on doing big things, improve production efficiency, and reduce costs. Only by firmly Only after we have a firm grasp of the market should we focus our attention elsewhere.”

"This is the same as people should have enough food first, and then pursue other things. Today, our country's national strength cannot support balanced development across the country, and even if we want to achieve balanced development, it is not realistic and we can only achieve relative balance."

"The emergence of seven urban agglomerations illustrates the development trend of my country's industry in the past ten years. These seven regions, combined with their advantages in resources, population, transportation, and markets, have emerged as a new force in the national economy rather than by chance."

"Now our country is facing a period of major changes in the world structure. The international situation is becoming increasingly turbulent, especially the increasingly prominent conflicts among European countries. This also represents an opportunity for us in East Africa. If we want to take advantage in the next few years, we must first ensure Expansion of the country’s industrial scale, and then consider other issues.”

Without the development of the two Five-Year Plans, East Africa would not have formed the seven urban agglomerations it has today. At least in the west, Mozambique and other places in East Africa that were ruled later would not have been able to compete with other places in a short period of time without the inclination of national policies. reach the same level.

Without adequate industrial development, it is impossible to form huge urban agglomerations. Although these urban agglomerations still have a lot of room to improve their industrial strength, it also shows that East Africa's first two five-year plans are qualified.

(End of chapter)