Chapter 930 Hansa Province
The financial difficulties in East Africa are essentially due to the fact that there were too many projects and programs in East Africa throughout the 1990s, and money had to be invested in all aspects. Under such circumstances, the East African government must optimize financial investment and achieve comprehensive development in all areas.
Although military spending has been cut, this is relative to other areas. According to the economic development process in East Africa, military spending is actually still growing, but the speed has slowed down. However, compared with other countries, East Africa's military construction has actually made great progress.
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Maputo city.
After the administrative division adjustment, the city of Maputo was incorporated into the Hansa Province, but the capital of the Hansa Province was still chosen as the New Hamburg Port City.
However, as one of the excellent seaports in East Africa, Hansa Province had high hopes for Maputo. In October 1897, the Hansa Provincial Government decided to build Maputo into one of the province's foreign economic windows.
Although the conditions in the Port of New Hamburg are not bad and its resources are excellent, the Port of New Hamburg is not completely without disadvantages. As one of the naval bases, the Port of New Hamburg has a higher level of confidentiality than ordinary coastal cities. In addition, the port area is small, so land resources are quite tight as it is shared by both the military and civilians.
The city of Maputo does not have such concerns. Maputo has the condition of an excellent port. Its northern part is Plain Province. As a new province, the economic conditions of Plain Province are not as good as those of Hansa Province. After all, Hansa Province has the new Port of Hamburg, a large city with one of the highest economic levels in East Africa.
During the Portuguese colonial period, Maputo was also the economic and political center of Mozambique. Xinxiang, the capital of Plaines Province, was originally Chokwe Town, which was under the jurisdiction of Maputo during the Portuguese period. There was a significant gap between the two. Even though Xinxiang has now become the provincial capital, as an inland area, its transportation infrastructure has not yet been formed, so it is difficult to compete with Maputo.
"According to the documents from higher authorities, although Maputo is not a provincial capital, it has a favorable geographical location and a very good economic foundation in Mozambique, so a university, Maputo Agricultural College, was allocated to Maputo. According to the instructions of the documents, Maputo's agricultural basic conditions will be comprehensively utilized to build a regional agricultural powerhouse."
Maputo is also part of the southern plains of Mozambique. At the same time, because it is backed by the Drakensberg Mountains, it has abundant rainfall and many rivers flowing through the area, so the agricultural infrastructure is very good.
Although other areas of Hansa Province also have plains, their area is not as large as that around Maputo City. In line with the development trend of agricultural mechanization, Maputo's advantages are more obvious.
“Our city has a large area of plains, many rivers and lakes, vast waters, mountains and terraces in the west, and the sea in the east, so the comprehensive conditions of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery are obviously advantageous. This is one of the important reasons why the Hansa Provincial Agricultural College is located in Maputo.”
"At the same time, according to the instructions of the provincial government, in addition to establishing a provincial key university, in 1898, we will focus on investing in 18 industrial projects in our city, covering the two major fields of agriculture and industry, including the Maputo woolen mill, wood processing plant, real estate..."
The appearance of real estate in the project list was rather abrupt, but Mayor Hans Layton quickly gave an explanation.
"According to the opinions of the provincial government, as an important commercial and trade port in the southern hemisphere, our city has vigorously developed the service industry to relieve the reception pressure of the provincial capital New Hamburg Port City. A number of service-oriented properties such as restaurants, hotels, pubs, and ship repair shops surrounding the service industry have been built, mainly to provide services for ships and passengers docked in the Hanseatic Province."
In fact, this is the same path as Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, but compared with the two cities, Maputo is too remote.
Before the opening of the Suez Canal, Maputo may have been a must-pass place for many ships. However, after the opening of the Suez Canal, the closer the East African cities are to the north, the easier it is to succeed in commercial trade. This is also the main reason why Mombasa can compete with Dar es Salaam despite its relatively weak overall conditions.
Of course, Maputo’s approach is not wrong. After all, East African coastal trade is a big cake that cannot be monopolized by these two cities. This is the case with the development of the New Hamburg Port City.
Of course, the early development of the Port of New Hamburg actually focused more on industry rather than commercial trade, and its commercial trade activities were mainly carried out with the Portuguese and British colonies. But now the two Portuguese colonies have been incorporated into East Africa, which has cut off one leg of the foreign trade of the Port of New Hamburg.
However, relying on the most developed industry in southern Africa, the Port of New Hamburg can still stand out from the crowd, and domestic trade accounts for a large part of the trade of the Port of New Hamburg.
For example, most of the mineral resources in the southern region are exported from the Port of New Hamburg to resource-scarce areas such as Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, especially coal and iron ore, which account for the majority.
At the same time, industrial products from the Port of New Hamburg are also exported inland, including the provinces of Hechingen, Orange and Baden. Relying on its seaport conditions, it can also export certain daily necessities to Southwest Africa.
As the southernmost port city in East Africa, the New Hamburg Port City has actually formed a staggered development with Mombasa and Dar es Salaam in the north. What can threaten the status of the New Hamburg Port City are actually the former coastal cities of Mozambique, including the extremely rapidly developing Beira City.
Take the two advantageous resources, iron ore and coal, exported from the Port of New Hamburg as an example. After the opening of the Beira Railway, the Central Bohemia Province (formerly Matabele Province) will also be able to transit through Beira to transport the province's coal and iron ore to coastal cities.
Under such circumstances, the Hansa Province urgently needed new cities to ensure its economic position in southern East Africa, so building a twin city structure of Maputo and the New Port of Hamburg became an important goal of the Hansa Province.
There is a railway connection between the Port of New Hamburg and Maputo, and communication is convenient, so the coordinated development can further consolidate the economic position of the Hanseatic Province.
Of course, the goal of Hansa Province is actually to prevent itself from being surpassed by Zambezi Province, whose capital is Beira. As for the Plains Province between the two, it has been positioned as an agricultural province and is restricted in its development, making it difficult to achieve anything in a short period of time.
Of course, it is still quite difficult for Hansa Province to compete with Beira City. Behind Beira City is the largest heavy industrial base in East Africa. Although Matabele Province has been split and Bulawayo City has been incorporated into Lorraine Province, the cities in Bohemia Province, headed by Harare City, far surpass the New Hamburg Port City in comprehensive economic strength.
Hans Layton said: "Although Maputo left behind a certain industrial and agricultural foundation during the Portuguese colonial period, it is far behind the cities in East Africa. Therefore, if our city wants to become an important city in southern East Africa, we must reintegrate the city's resources, give full play to the influence left by the original Portuguese, transform and upgrade the port area resources, and provide more convenient and high-quality services for domestic and foreign ships."
During the Portuguese rule, Maputo had basically no industry, with only a few small factories engaged in the most basic industries such as tobacco and wood processing. The biggest assets left by the Portuguese were actually a bunch of handicraft workshops, which were mainly to meet the needs of the city of Maputo at the time. They were self-sufficient but unable to expand. In addition, after Maputo fell into the hands of East Africa, a large number of local population returned to Portugal, and the already prosperous handicraft industry also shrank.
These are what Hans Layton wants to reuse. Currently, the city of Maputo can only obtain a few policy resources. After all, there are so many cities in East Africa competing for resources, and there are too many people and too little resources. Even the resources that can be obtained are limited.
Therefore, according to Hans Layton's idea, the original handicraft industry in Maputo should be reintegrated. Although it is not as efficient as large-scale factories, it is enough to support the early development of Maputo. Moreover, many handicraft industries are temporarily unable to realize industrialized production, so Hans Layton believes that there is a lot of room for operation.
(End of this chapter)
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