African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1430: Chapter 12: Intercity Cooperation_3

Mayor Deberne said: ”Currently, we cannot stop the Central Government’s decision to limit imported copper ore from entering East Africa through collaborating with other cities.”

”Therefore, to resolve this issue, we must address it ourselves, and copper mining and related industries are our core and foundation, so obviously we cannot abandon them.”

”Imported copper ore mainly threatens our upstream industry, but in the midstream and downstream industries, we still have great advantages, though there remains the risk of these advantages being overtaken.”

”Therefore, we should start with two points: in the upstream industry, that is copper mining, we should reach agreements with other regions in the copper belt, allocating mining shares and standardizing prices based on resource conditions, economic strength, population, etc., to avoid vicious regional competition.”

”In the midstream and downstream industries, we should merge and coordinate a batch of enterprises, consolidate similar companies, thus integrating technology and talent resources, avoiding competition while forming a batch of key enterprises to compete externally, improving our overall risk resilience.”

”Coordination means restructuring the industrial chain of the government copper belt based on transportation, resources, geography, environment, etc., allowing each city to develop its advantageous industries, which will promote coordinated regional industrial development.”

Deberne’s words are easy to understand; if each city in the copper belt fights independently, it is easy for outsiders to take advantage, so everyone should consolidate, to prevent competitors outside the copper belt from completely usurping them.

Naturally, Mayor Boke was very moved by Deberne’s proposal, but he still said: ”But if we proceed this way, our copper belt must have unified leadership, otherwise it will be difficult to reach consensus among the ten or so major towns.”

Deberne said: ”At this point, our competition only benefits outsiders, so let’s divide the share according to each city’s economic strength.” ℯℯ𝑙.

”For example, with newly merged enterprises, each city invests according to its capability and gets their deserved share. Coordinating these towns’ industries requires considering multiple aspects, such as environmental carrying capacity in face of serious copper mining pollution; naturally, regions with stronger carrying capacity can mine more, while weaker ones should mine less.”

”Regarding mining equipment, we should also utilize it wisely, improving efficiency while enhancing workers’ safety in the mines.”

After listening to Deberne’s words, Mayor Boke understood, according to Deberne’s idea, one should eat as much meat as possible within one’s capacity.

And with a simple calculation, is there any city more developed than Lubumbashi in the entire copper belt? Clearly not; even Kitwe, the second largest city, has a significant gap compared to Lubumbashi.

So, Mayor Boke immediately changed his expression and cheerfully said to Deberne: ”Mayor Deberne, you truly have foresight; the copper belt should have been integrated long ago, not saying to become as powerful as the Ruhr District, but at least become one of the world’s important industrial bases.”

”We in Lubumbashi are very pleased to see the integration of the copper belt area; towns within the region should put aside their differences and cooperate sincerely for the overall region’s progress and strength.”

In fact, Lubumbashi City had previously considered integrating the copper belt, but unfortunately, other towns disagreed, and the biggest opposition to Lubumbashi was Kitwe City.

Now, Kitwe City has set aside the notion of competing with Lubumbashi, willingly ”following” Lubumbashi’s arrangements, which Lubumbashi’s city government naturally welcomes.

Kitwe City’s change in attitude is actually an inevitable choice, because integrating the copper belt is more important for Kitwe, and Kitwe does not have the capability to do so, hence allowing Lubumbashi to complete this task is the best option.

Currently, Kitwe City faces more serious economic bottlenecks than Lubumbashi, as Lubumbashi, apart from copper mining, has advantages in policy, geography, transportation, offering it more routes; even if the copper belt declines, as the capital of Swabia Province, Lubumbashi’s development won’t be too poor, which is incomparable for Kitwe as a Prefecture-level City.