African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 521 application

Bulawayo City, once the capital of the Matabele Kingdom, is now the second largest city in Matabele Province in East Africa and has developed very rapidly.

 The basic conditions here are relatively good, and the central railway passing through here has created good transportation conditions for the development here.

  Bulawayo was famous for its industry in its previous life and was the largest manufacturing center in Zimbabwe. Including steelmaking, machinery manufacturing, food, textiles, fertilizers, daily chemicals and other industrial sectors, this configuration can show Bulawayo's economic status in Zimbabwe. After all, industry is quite rare for African countries.

The most important factors that made Bulawayo become Zimbabwe's industrial status are its historical heritage, transportation advantages, and rich mineral resources.

After East Africa occupied Bulawayo, it inherited most of Bulawayo's assets. However, the main assets left by the Ndebele people were houses, which solved the housing needs of East Africa's early population resettlement. As for the Ndebele's The national treasury has long been handed over to the East African treasury, mainly gold and other precious metals and gemstones, but there are also other things, but East Africa does not like them.

The whole world has the same preference for gold, and the Ndebele people are the same. The treasury of the Matabele Kingdom has also gained the most since East Africa colonized Africa. After all, the Matabele Kingdom has a large scope and has accumulated a lot of wealth.

In the past, many indigenous countries were eliminated in East Africa, but most of them did not accumulate wealth as much as Zimbabwe, which has a long history. Others migrated across the country, taking with them the wealth accumulated over generations, such as the Msiri regime and the former Great Lakes ( Lake Victoria) region country.

The history of Zimbabwe is divided into generations, but this does not affect the Ndebele people who later conquered the area from inheriting the heritage of the Shona ancestors from the Shona people. After all, the forces that were able to build the Great Zimbabwe site must have been in their era. It is like a regional hegemon.

As for whether the Great Zimbabwe site was built by the Shona people, Ernst believes that the Shona people must have participated. Just like Egypt, although it has been conquered many times, the race is still the same race and will not change just because of a different culture. Unless Like the United States and East Africa, they engage in massacres or vacate the cage for birds.

“Bulawayo is rich in coal resources, and compared with Mbeya, the biggest advantage here is that the terrain is flat and open, but the rainfall is a bit worse, but this also provides conditions for cotton planting, so we in Bulawayo In addition to being suitable for the development of the steel industry, it is also suitable for the textile industry like Nairobi."

“Mayor Luo An, do you mean you envy Nairobi?”

“Haha, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Nairobi is the ‘Textile City’. We started late in Bulawayo, but we also want to work hard and make progress!”

"We still need to investigate this before drawing a conclusion. After all, we cannot build a textile enterprise here just because of your one-sided words. After all, your development in Bulawayo is not slow. You have the iron and steel industry, but many cities What you ask for is not what you get.”

The steel industry in Bulawayo is mainly steelmaking, which is inseparable from the rich coal and iron ore resources in Matabele Province.

The reason why Bulawayo focuses on the steelmaking industry is mainly to pave the way for the stainless steel industry. After all, East Africa is the country with the largest chromite reserves in the world. Matabele Province’s chromite reserves are second only to Hechingen Province. If Taking these two provinces separately, they are ranked first and second in the world respectively.

 The main product of chromite ore is chromium, which is one of the main raw materials of stainless steel. There are also many others in East Africa such as manganese ore and nickel ore. Of course, the stainless steel industry has not yet been developed in East Africa. In the previous life, the British metallurgist Henry Brearley invented stainless steel in 1912, so there is no stainless steel now. As for Ernst, of course he knew about stainless steel. Stainless steel originated from Brearley's discovery. Ferrochromium alloy (stainless steel), Ernst knew the answer directly, but in order to interfere with history as little as possible, Ernst did not plan to make stainless steel available in advance and would only experiment at the Bulawayo Metal Research Institute.

East Africa has almost 90% of the world's chromite reserves, so East Africa will not worry about other countries surpassing East Africa in this aspect in the future. Just like the tungsten mines in the Far East Empire, the stainless steel market will not escape from East Africa in the future, so um Nor is Sturt in a hurry to develop.

"This year, the Ministry of Agriculture has carried out experimental demonstrations in our city of Bulawayo. It has opened three cotton experimental fields in Bulawayo District, and they have achieved good results. We are just waiting to analyze the cotton samples after the harvest. Let's not start now. I don’t know what the final result will be, but this land is definitely suitable for cotton cultivation, and the cotton fields are growing very well.”

"Is that so? That means the Ministry of Agriculture should make arrangements for Bulawayo, and Mayor Luoan doesn't need to ask us for help, right?"

"This is different. The Ministry of Agriculture has no control over factory construction. They just think that the environment near Bulawayo is suitable for cotton cultivation. They cannot ensure that the cotton textile factory will be settled in Bulawayo, so this matter still has to be discussed with your industrial department. Please help! Besides, the textile industry is a big industry, and Nairobi alone cannot afford it. We in Bulawayo are willing to help them share part of the industry."

The size of the textile industry is naturally quite huge. The British textile industry is a pillar industry, and the population in East Africa has grown rapidly in recent years, so Nairobi's output cannot keep up.

So Mayor Luo An continued: "You see, our city of Bulawayo is suitable for growing cotton. It has a good industrial foundation and the same transportation conditions. However, the industry in East Africa is still concentrated in the eastern region, inland, especially in the south. There will definitely be large-scale development in the future, and the population growth will be unstoppable and demand will definitely increase greatly, so there are definitely many benefits to building a textile factory in Bulawayo."

"This is not something we can decide, but we will submit your suggestions to the higher authorities. But I want to remind you first that if you want to build a textile factory, you must first solve the problems of raw materials and personnel. In terms of personnel, I I’m not too worried. The higher-level departments will definitely consider it and will most likely allocate personnel from Nairobi to support it. The issue of raw materials is more difficult. You need to discuss it with the Ministry of Agriculture to quickly expand the cotton planting area.”

“What you said is true. Our municipal government will give priority to this aspect. If the quality of the cotton in the experimental field this year passes the standard, we will apply for large-scale planting in the west of Bulawayo next year and strive to solve the cotton production problem in a short time.”

“Haha, aren’t you afraid that if you blindly expand the planting area, the factory will not be able to approve it, causing serious waste?”

"Then you are underestimating me. I have inquired with the East African Import and Export Trading Company in advance. Even if Bulawayo does not build a factory, they can still absorb the cotton production. On the one hand, domestic demand is huge. This year East Africa has also imported several batches of cotton from the Far East. On the other hand, foreign demand is also high, such as Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which have small land areas and large populations, so the market is relatively large."

"It seems that Mayor Luo An is fully prepared, so I won't advise you anymore. According to what you said, the probability of success is very high. It is estimated that your position in this market will be able to move up by then." ”

“Haha, let me lend you auspicious words. If it comes true, I will be your host and treat you to dinner.”

 (End of this chapter)