Chapter 682 Development Strategy
At the end of 1885, the western section of the Northern Railway was officially opened to traffic, but the Hessian Railway had not yet been completed. The construction of the Hessian Railway was much more difficult than the western section of the Northern Railway.
Because the western section of the Northern Railway has been completed, the Mombasa City Government has discussed this matter separately.
Because Mombasa is the starting point of the Northern Railway, the larger the radiation area of the Northern Railway, the more beneficial it will be to boost the economic and political status of Mombasa.
In fact, over the years, because of the exaggerated length advantage of the Central Railway and the vast economic hinterland, Mombasa has always been surpassed by Dar es Salaam.
The most obvious thing is that the population, resources and number of cities along the Northern Railway are much worse than those along the Central Railway.
Therefore, Mombasa strongly welcomes the construction of the western section of the Northern Railway and the connection of Kissan City with the Central Railway. This will give it more motivation to compete with Dar es Salaam, the city with the largest economy in East Africa.
From the perspective of East Africa's domestic economic location, Mombasa does not have an advantage, but by connecting with foreign countries and East Africa, we can find the advantage of Mombasa, which is that it is closer to the Eurasian continent than Dar es Salaam.
The northern city of Mogadishu, which mainly exports agricultural products, has a poor environmental carrying capacity and is not able to compete with Mombasa and Dar es Salaam.
"There is a huge gap between the west and east of East Africa, and the Northern Railway is an important factor in changing this, which means that the original transportation order in the entire northern region has been disrupted."
"In the competition between Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, we were at a disadvantage because the economy of the northern interior was far behind that of the central and southern regions. If it were not for the Great Lakes region as the population and economic ballast of the north, we could have completely given up the competition with Dar es Salaam."
Although the Great Lakes region is dominated by agriculture, agriculture is also the mainstream of the current national economies in East Africa. Moreover, the Great Lakes region is densely populated and relatively rich in resources, so it is not an exaggeration to call it the ballast of the Mombasa city's economy. As long as the cargo from the Great Lakes region goes to the sea through Mombasa city, the economy of Mombasa city will inevitably maintain its dominant position in East Africa. If it cannot be first, it will inevitably be second.
"With the western section of the Northern Railway, this situation has been greatly changed. The immigration process in Sigmaringen can also be greatly accelerated, and it will also play a huge role in the exchanges between many northern provinces."
The Northern Railway connects the Sigmaringen royal territory and several northern provinces, but in fact, development is very limited and a large amount of resources have not been developed. The opening of the Northern Railway provides transportation conditions for the development of these resources.
"The entire northern industrial belt will benefit from the western section of the northern railway project. The opening of this railway will extend the radiation area of the northern industrial belt from the Great Lakes region directly to the westernmost part of the country, and connect the entire West African economy, solving the main shortcoming of the northern industrial belt, which is the lack of resources."
Mineral resources and markets are important components of the industry and are indispensable, followed by other factors such as water sources, population, transportation, etc.
In fact, there is a shortage of minerals in the northern industrial belt, or the quality of mineral resources is relatively poor, which also makes the quality of products in the northern industrial belt relatively poor. The city of Mombasa has to import a large amount of coal and iron ore from India to develop its industry.
"But this is also something to be happy about in the short term. Don't think that you can keep reaping the benefits of the northern railway just because it is built. Although Europe and Asia are our main trade markets in East Africa, the west coast can also radiate to Europe, and can also target South and North America, plus West Africa, which is also not to be ignored."
In the past, East Africa's economy to the south and North America was mainly via the Cape Strait and the Red Sea routes. Now that the western section of the northern railway has been completed, it will provide a new way out for the future foreign trade of the north. What East Africa lacks now is an outlet to the Atlantic coast.
"Especially on the western coast, only the northern Angola area has a good climate and convenient water transportation. Our northern industrial belt cannot compare with this. The northern industrial belt mainly relies on the construction of northern railways, and in the future, there will definitely be more and more railways in East Africa until they cover the entire country."
The economic future of the west coast is bound to be concentrated in the north of Angola, unlike the east coast, where there are four large economic blocks, from north to south, namely Mogadishu and Kismayo in the Somali region, Mombasa, the starting point of the northern railway, Dar es Salaam, and the end point of the central railway, New Hamburg Port, which has created relatively fierce competition.
If the Atlantic coast is incorporated into the East African territory in the future, it will still compete with the city of Mombasa. This is because East Africa currently lacks economically important ports on the Atlantic coast. Most logistics in the west rely mainly on ports in the east, even though they are closer to the Atlantic Ocean.
The most direct manifestation is East Africa's trade with North and South America. The Red Sea route is larger than the Cape Town route. This is certainly due to the high winds and rough waves at the Cape of Good Hope and the bad weather along the coast of southwest Africa, which are not suitable for ship navigation. But more importantly, most of East Africa's logistics are now concentrated in a dozen foreign ports along the eastern coast.
“Therefore, to ensure the economic advantage of Mombasa in the future, we must immediately make plans for the northwest region to form path dependence and minimize our disadvantage in distance.”
To put it simply, business path dependence means providing better services and ensuring that the number of customers is not affected.
“Our main target is the economic connection between the Sigmaringen royal domain and the West African region, and it would be best if the provincial government could unite the entire northern region to create a northern economic corridor with the northern industrial belt as the core, from the city of Mombasa to the core of the interior of West Africa.”
The reason why the Northern Industrial Belt is the core is that the city of Mombasa certainly does not have such strength. The entire Northern Industrial Belt is one of the three major industrial regions in East Africa. Therefore, it is possible to develop the economy of northwestern East Africa, the Sigmaringone royal territory, and West Africa in the name of Northern Industry.
The city of Mombasa has given up many of the benefits and distributed them to cities such as Kisumu and Nairobi, but the ultimate beneficiary is still Mombasa, because the Port of Mombasa is the end and starting point of the economy. All economic activities in the northern economic zone will eventually converge in the city of Mombasa.
Therefore, promoting the development of the northern industrial belt means promoting the development of Mombasa itself. Under this logic, the Mombasa Municipal Government will be more motivated to give up some of its interests rather than develop on its own.
In fact, Mombasa has already felt the disadvantages of developing alone, especially compared with Dar es Salaam, which has a large number of brothers. Dar es Salaam itself has many surrounding cities, plus the cities along the central railway, such as Mbeya, Dodoma, Mwanza, Harare, etc., so it is difficult for Dar es Salaam not to develop.
When the Hessen Railway is opened in the future, Dar es Salaam will go even further, so this is also a problem that Mombasa is worried about. If it wants to compete with Dar es Salaam, the only way out is to integrate the northern economy and seek foreign aid to narrow the gap with Dar es Salaam.
Of course, Mombasa also knows that it has little chance of winning the competition with Dar es Salaam. The main purpose is to avoid being left behind, continue to enjoy the treatment of East Africa's economic twins, and avoid Dar es Salaam dominating the market.
(End of this chapter)
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