Chapter 1364: Cooperation between Cities
Shortly after the city economic conference, the Kitwe City Government sent representatives to Lubumbashi for economic exchanges.
Lubumbashi.
The capital of the Swabian Province in East Africa, one of the four major provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the past, and the capital of Katanga Province. Later, after Katanga Province was split into four small provinces by the Congolese government, Lubumbashi remained the capital of Upper Katanga Province.
The reason why the Congolese government divided Katanga province into four provinces is obviously to prevent local separatism.
In the past, the capital of Congo was Kinshasa, but Kinshasa was too west of the territory of Congo and had weak control over the eastern region.
The eastern region of Congo, with Lubumbashi as its core, is not only large in area, populous, and relatively economically developed, but also has many ethnic groups. In addition, Congo has many neighbors, which makes Congo often a war-torn place.
The Swabia Province under the jurisdiction of East Africa is located within the Katanga Province of the Congo in the previous life. East Africa is obviously not worried about encountering the situation faced by the Congo in the previous life.
Today, Lubumbashi has become one of the most important cities in central East Africa, with a prosperous economy and a large population.
Mayor Deborn, who had just finished a meeting, came to Lubumbashi with his staff and felt the gap between the two places.
Mayor Deborn could not help but sigh: "Lubumbashi has developed too fast in recent years. In the last century, Kitwe could at least compete with them, but now Lubumbashi is more than twice the size of our city."
Kitwe and Lubumbashi, as the two largest cities in the Copper Belt, both started out relying on local copper resources. However, after entering the 20th century, Lubumbashi accelerated its development and continued to widen the gap with Kitwe.
Secretary Baya said: "Mr. Mayor, there is no need to be too self-deprecating. Lubumbashi's policy resources are much better than ours. If we can have the same policy conditions as Lubumbashi, our development will not be worse than theirs. After all, we are all cities in the copper belt. There is no difference in basic conditions. The current economic gap is still caused by historical reasons."
Debern agreed with what the secretary said. He said: "Compared with Lubumbashi, we do get less support. As the capital of Swabia, Lubumbashi can mobilize resources from the entire province, which is an advantage over us. In addition, Lubumbashi started its development several years earlier than us."
“The most unfortunate thing is that Lubumbashi became the hub of the Central Railway, which further increased Lubumbashi’s advantages over the past few decades.”
The Central Railway branches off from Lubumbashi and goes all the way north to the city of Kissan in Hesse Province and all the way west to the city of Cabinda. There is no doubt that as the most important railway trunk line in East Africa, the Central Railway can bring the most significant economic benefits to the cities along the line.
When the East African Central Railway was being built, Lubumbashi and Kitwe were both options for this hub, but in the end, Lubumbashi, with its superior economy, became the winner.
This is because Lubumbashi was the first city developed in the copper belt in East Africa, even earlier than Kitwe.
DeBern went on to say: "Lubumbashi is now one of the only cities in the country with a population of over one million, while our city has a population of only over 300,000. I estimate that it will be impossible for us to surpass Lubumbashi for a long time to come."
Relying on resources such as copper mines, the Copper Belt has become an industrially developed region in East Africa, which can be compared to an industrial area like the Ruhr area. However, the rise of the Ruhr region was mainly due to coal mines, while the rise of the Copper Belt was mainly due to copper mines.
Lubumbashi, the largest city in the copper belt, ranks seventh in the current East African economy, temporarily higher than Luanda in western East Africa.
It can also be seen from here that the East African economy is expanding from the east to the west. After all, the eastern and central regions of East Africa have an early history of development, while the western region was developed the latest. Therefore, even if western cities such as Luanda develop rapidly, it is impossible for them to surpass the central and eastern regions in the near future.
Baya said: "Lubumbashi is an industrial city with a high transportation status and higher scientific, educational, health and cultural resources than Kitwe, so it is easy to attract a large population. However, Lubumbashi is also facing the same economic problems as us."
The economic issues that Secretary Baya mentioned are mainly the industrial structure issues of the Copper Belt. Although Kitwe is the second largest city in the Copper Belt, Lubumbashi is the leader of the Copper Belt in the final analysis.
If the economic transformation of the entire copper belt fails, both Lubumbashi and Kitwe will be affected, and there is no doubt that Lubumbashi will suffer the greatest economic losses.
Debern lay on the car seat and said slowly: "So, this is why I came to Lubumbashi. The economy of the copper belt prospers together and suffers together. If the industry of the copper belt is finished, no one in the region will be well."
"At this time, Kitwe and Lubumbashi should unite and unite economically to integrate the resources of the entire copper belt, reduce internal competition and act in unison to face the outside world."
The purpose of Debern's coming to Lubumbashi was to reach a cooperation with the local government of Lubumbashi. Only when the two cities reach an agreement can the resources and industries of the entire copper belt be integrated, thereby helping the copper belt complete the industrial transformation in the economic field.
However, this is obviously not easy to achieve. After all, the interests of Lubumbashi and Kitwe are not completely consistent, and there has even been a long-term competitive relationship between the two in the past.
Although Kitwe is much smaller than Lubumbashi, it also has an overwhelming advantage over other cities in the copper belt except Lubumbashi.
Therefore, the two cities have been competing for economic dominance in the copper belt since the last century, and the most intuitive manifestation is the similarity of their industrial structures.
Since industries overlap, competition is inevitable, which in turn leads to fluctuations in product prices. The end result is that while the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman benefits.
Two hours later...
DeBern and his team finally arrived at the Lubumbashi City Government. It is only a hundred kilometers from Kitwe to Lubumbashi, which shows the complicated relationship between the two cities. After all, as the saying goes, there is no room for two tigers in one mountain.
"Mayor Deborn, you are such an honored guest." Lubumbashi Mayor Pok walked towards him and said.
Debern: "Long time no see, Mayor Poker. Recently, your city of Lubumbashi has been doing very well. Its economy has ranked seventh in the country, and its reputation as the largest city in the copper belt has been further consolidated."
Hearing Debern's compliment, Poker was very happy, but he still said modestly: "The predecessors planted trees, and the successors enjoyed the shade. I just stood on the foundation of my predecessors and made some small achievements. In recent years, your Kitwe City has developed well and is also one of the top cities in the central economy."
Through the conversation between the two, it is enough to see the gap in development between Kitwe and Lubumbashi. Lubumbashi is considered a big city in the country, while Kitwe's influence is only ranked among the top in the central region.
In fact, if Kitwe's economy is compared with the whole of East Africa, it can be ranked in the upper-middle level. However, the gap with truly big cities such as Lubumbashi is still too obvious.
DeBern said: "Alas, our city of Kitwe cannot compare with Lubumbashi. Last century, we might have been able to compare economically with Lubumbashi, but now, we have to admit that Lubumbashi has widened the gap with Kitwe, and we can't catch up even if we want to."
Poker did not answer, but asked: "Mayor Debern, what is the purpose of your visit to Lubumbashi this time?"
Debern was not polite, but said bluntly: "The purpose of our visit this time is very simple, that is, we want to reach cooperation with you Lubumbashi, to see if we can reach cooperation, and invite other cities in the copper belt to reach economic cooperation."
"Hmm! Don't know how to cooperate?" Mayor Poker asked curiously.
DeBern explained: "Mayor Poker, I think you should be very clear that our copper belt can occupy an important position in the national economy because of copper resources. It can be said that copper mining and non-ferrous metal processing are the core industries of our region."
Poker nodded and said, "Of course. After all, the name shows how important the copper mine is to our cities."
Debern: "That's right, but I think you should also know that the crisis faced by the copper mining industry in recent years, although not obvious at this time, has already shown signs, that is, the development of copper resources in non-copper mining belts and the impact of imported copper ore on us."
"External imported copper ore, in particular, poses the greatest threat to the copper belt. They have disrupted the market conditions of domestic copper ore, causing copper ore prices to shrink in recent years."
"The central government does not refuse to import copper ore into the country due to factors such as diplomacy, environment and colonial development. This has caused our economic development to encounter a bottleneck. If we cannot break through this bottleneck, let alone make further progress, the entire copper belt may decline in the future."
A typical manifestation at the diplomatic level is that East Africa has imported a large amount of copper resources from South American countries. Everyone knows that East Africa wants to win over South American countries.
If you want to win over these countries, you naturally have to tie your interests to theirs, and purchasing local agricultural products and mineral resources is one of the most common ways.
From an objective point of view, East Africa has never been a country short of copper mines and can be completely self-sufficient.
However, the East African government does not mind buying copper mines from Chile, Peru and other countries to improve relations between the two sides. Moreover, the copper mines in these countries are large in quantity and high in quality, and the prices are not much higher than those in their own countries.
Obviously, national interests may not be completely consistent with local interests. The East African government does not mind introducing large quantities of copper mines from foreign countries or colonies. The Copper Belt region obviously minds this, but they cannot stop it. After all, the Copper Belt is not unique in East Africa, and there are many other places in East Africa that produce copper.
DeBern's words also made Poke think. Just as DeBern said, the cities in the copper belt are overly dependent on the development of copper resources, and now with external competition, it has indeed had an impact on Lubumbashi.
The reason why Pok does not have the same urgency as Debern is that the conditions in Lubumbashi are much better than those in Kitwe, whether in terms of transportation, education, or even resources.
However, now that Debern has raised the issue, he is still willing to go along with it, but he has to first see what kind of cooperation plan Debern has.
So Mayor Polk asked, "So how are you going to solve this problem? How are we going to work together?"
Mayor Debern said: "We are now unable to stop the central government's decision to restrict the import of copper ore into East Africa by joining other cities."
"So, if we want to solve this problem, we still have to solve it from within ourselves, and copper mines and related industries are our core and foundation, so we obviously cannot give up."
"Imported copper ore mainly threatens our upstream industries, but we still have great advantages in the mid- and downstream industries. However, this advantage is still at risk of being overtaken."
"So, we should start from two points. In the upstream industry, that is, copper mining, we should reach an agreement with other regions in the copper belt to allocate mining shares and unify prices based on resource conditions, economic strength, population and other factors to avoid vicious regional competition."
"In the mid- and downstream industries, we should merge and coordinate a group of companies, merge a group of similar companies, so as to integrate technology, talent and other resources, avoid competition, form a group of backbone companies to compete with the outside world, and improve our overall risk resistance."
"Coordination means reshaping the industry chain of the government's copper belt based on factors such as transportation, resources, geography, and environment, so that each city develops its own advantageous industries, thereby promoting the coordinated development of the industry in the entire region."
Debern's words are easy to understand. If the cities in the copper belt fight each other, they will easily be taken advantage of by outsiders, so everyone should integrate, so that at least they will not be completely wiped out by competitors outside the copper belt.
Mayor Poker was naturally very tempted by Debern's proposal, but he still said: "But in this case, our copper belt must have a unified leadership, otherwise it will be difficult for the dozens of major towns in the copper belt to reach a consensus."
DeBern said: "At this point, the competition between us is completely to benefit others, so we should divide the pie according to our respective economic strengths."
"For example, the newly merged enterprises are funded by each city, and how much they can occupy depends on their own ability. Coordinating the industries of these towns requires consideration from many aspects, such as the environment. Copper mining is very polluting, so areas with strong environmental carrying capacity can naturally mine more, and areas with weak environmental carrying capacity should mine less."
"There are also mining equipment, which should be used rationally to improve efficiency and the safety of workers in the mines."
After listening to what DeBern said, Mayor Poker understood that according to DeBern, one should eat as much meat as one can afford.
And with a simple calculation, is there any city in the entire copper belt that is more developed than Lubumbashi? Obviously not. Even the second largest city, Kitwe, has a huge gap with Lubumbashi.
Therefore, Mayor Poker immediately changed his expression. He said to Debern cheerfully, "Mayor Debern, you are still far-sighted. The copper belt should have been integrated long ago. Even if it cannot become a powerful industrial area like the Ruhr area, it can at least become one of the important industrial bases in the world."
"We in Lubumbashi are happy to see the integration of the copper belt. All towns in the region should put aside their prejudices and cooperate sincerely, so that the whole region can make progress together and become bigger and stronger."
In fact, the city of Lubumbashi had the idea of integrating the copper mining belt before, but other towns disagreed. The biggest opponent of Lubumbashi was the city of Kitwe.
Now, the Kitwe City Government has given up the idea of competing with Lubumbashi and is willing to "obey" Lubumbashi's arrangements, which the Lubumbashi City Government naturally welcomes.
The change in attitude of Kitwe City is actually a helpless choice. After all, integrating the copper ore belt is more important to Kitwe City, but Kitwe City does not have such ability. Therefore, letting Lubumbashi complete this task is the best choice.
At present, the economic bottleneck of Kitwe City is more serious than that of Lubumbashi. After all, in addition to copper mines, Lubumbashi also has advantages in policies, geography, transportation, etc., so it has many ways out. Even if the copper belt declines, the development of Lubumbashi, as the capital of Swabia Province, will not be too bad. This is something that Kitwe, a prefecture-level city, cannot compare with.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
