African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1350: Chapter 357: Emerging Industrial Power

East Africa also caught up with the good times; in addition to the multipolar pattern, it also caught the last train of colonialism, the concentrated outbreak period of the capitalist crisis, and the outbreak of contradictions among imperialist groups, all of which were at the forefront of the era. This is the fundamental reason for East Africa’s successful takeoff.

Ernst continued: ”Currently, our country’s population is mainly concentrated around the equatorial region, including the central regions (primarily the Zambezi and southern Congo) and the Bohemian Industrial Zone (mainly Zimbabwe), the eastern coast (primarily the coasts of Tanzania and Mozambique), and the western coast (primarily the coast of Angola), accounting for 60% of the national population.”

”The next densely populated regions are the Great Lakes Region and the south, and lastly, the north and southwest regions.”

”The industrial population is concentrated in the central-southern plateau and coastal areas of the country, with Rhein City at the center, presenting multiple economic and industrial core areas nationwide.”

The issue of East Africa’s economic development generally manifests as an imbalance in the north-south direction, which is also the main reason for focusing on the development of the Great Lakes Region during the fourth and fifth periods.

Of course, considering factors such as geographical location, climate conditions, and economy, strictly speaking, the Great Lakes Region does not really belong to the north but is the area closest to the north with development potential.

This is also well understood, just like the western development of the Far East Empire in the previous life; in reality, the government truly focused on economic development in the Guanzhong and Sichuan and Chongqing regions.

As a country with a vast land area, East Africa definitely cannot follow the model of each region sharing the benefits like the current European countries, especially Germany, nor can it adopt the model of excessively centralizing resources to a few regions like Petersburg and Moscow in Russia.

The economies of European countries are developed, and the economies between regions are relatively balanced, but this is determined by their history and political factors.

Take Germany, for example. Although Germany became a unified country, the rights of the states and Free Cities unified by Germany remain substantial. In addition, Germany’s terrain constraints, especially the basin and valley areas in the southern region, easily lead to resource concentration, forming economic and industrial centers such as Munich and Stuttgart.

Moreover, the proliferation of countries in Europe also leads to a waste of public resources, whether the United Kingdom, France, or Germany; their construction is centered on their own countries.

As a result, multiple systems of railways, highways, and water networks have formed in Europe, leading to a certain degree of waste, especially for Europe as a whole.

Especially in the border regions of various countries, only one railway or highway is needed, but due to the different strategies of various countries, it may lead to redundant construction.

And the city development model of Tsarist Russia is clearly of no learning value for East Africa. After all, besides the areas around Saint Petersburg and Moscow, and the eastern Ukraine, the rest of the places are almost all impoverished rural areas.

Development is very uneven, which is also an important reason for the collapse of the Russian government. Russia was indeed developed and powerful, but this was built on the premise that most areas and people did not benefit, not only not benefiting but also further extracting from backward areas to support the development of industrially developed areas.

In reality, the grassroots workers and peasants of Russia could hardly survive, making them naturally easy to be incited by the Labor Party.

Therefore, although East Africa also concentrates on developing big cities, other regions must also be able to share in the benefits; this is the path to balance.

And East Africa’s multiple economic cores are just like this; East Africa not only formed five nationwide industrial regions known as the ”three large and two small,” but also improved the utilization efficiency of public resources under a unified large market.

Ernst said: ”From the distribution of our household registration population, it can be seen that our country has formed multiple key industrial and market agglomeration areas under a unified large market.”

”Just like a big tree and its branches and leaves, under the guidance of the government, we have built a developed and efficient transportation network, forming the overall framework of national economic development with a Trinity of railways, highways, and waterways.”

”And relying on this nationwide developed transportation system, we have developed the current ’three large and two small’ industrial and economic development pattern, thereby driving national economic development. This demonstrates the overall rationality of our current population distribution.”

The so-called three large and two small is an internal concept of the East African government, referring to the five nationally important economic and industrial center regions in East Africa, namely the central and Bohemian Industrial Zone centered on Rhein City, the eastern coastal industrial belt, the western coastal industrial belt, the Great Lakes Industrial Zone, and the southern group development region.

The first three are basically formed, so they are called the three large, and the latter two are in the development and construction stage, so they are called the two small.

And these five regions are the most suitable areas for urban, industrial, and agricultural development in East Africa, with superior basic conditions in terms of energy, minerals, arable land, water sources, and climate.

Therefore, these five regions will inevitably become the ”five poles” of East Africa’s economy in the future, which is also part of Ernst and the East African government’s long-term plan for the balanced development of East African economy.

Of course, how should other areas of East Africa develop outside these five places? This issue is also easy to solve because, besides these key economic areas, other places have a small population, which also means that the overall economic data of non-”two large and three small” regions do not look good, but if it is considered per capita, that is another matter.