Chapter 1363: Kitwe City’s Transformation
The great development of the pharmaceutical industry has been generally affected by the overall environment of East Africa. Just as people are good at building water conservancy facilities in places with frequent floods, the pharmaceutical industry in East Africa happened to be born in a relatively poor sanitary environment.
If the medical and health problems are not solved well, it will be difficult for East Africa to develop, especially in areas with relatively humid and hot climates, or places where various tropical diseases are prone to breed.
This is directly related to the survival of the people, so even in the poorest colonial era, the East African government put medical and health governance at the forefront of national development affairs.
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Kitwe City.
Among the cities in East Africa, Kitwe does not appear frequently, but Kitwe is an industrial city with a very important position in the history of East Africa.
As of 1920, the total population of Kitwe City reached more than 300,000. The copper belt area where it is located is also the largest non-ferrous metal smelting and processing center in East Africa.
In the copper belt area, Kitwe City is the second largest city after Lubumbashi.
In the national administrative division change in 1896, Kitwe was separated from Swabia and assigned to the new Central Province, which is now the Central Province with Rhine City, the capital of East Africa, as its core.
Lubumbashi continued to retain its status as the capital of Swabia, which also widened the gap between the two cities. This is easy to understand. As the capital of the province, Lubumbashi is higher than Kitwe in political level and enjoys policy resources that Kitwe cannot match.
However, this cannot change the identity and status of Kitwe as a relatively developed industrial city in East Africa. After all, in terms of population, Kitwe can be ranked among the top 30 cities in East Africa.
In other countries, Kitwe is a big city, but in East Africa it can only be regarded as a medium-sized city.
The formation of Kitwe originated from the mining of local copper mines in East Africa, which was also one of the most important sources of income for East African countries in the early days.
In the last century, copper mines have always been the most important export mineral in East Africa, bringing a lot of fiscal revenue to East Africa. However, Kitwe, which made its fortune from copper mining, is now facing problems.
For this reason, the Kitwe City Government had to discuss the increasingly difficult economic development situation and find a new way out and future development direction for Kitwe's economy.
March 1920.
At this time, the European flu had not yet spread to Kitwe, but the entire Kitwe City Government was still in a state of panic.
Kitwe Mayor Debern convened a new round of economic development meetings, attended by city government officials and local companies in Kitwe.
DeBern said to the participants with a serious face: "Everyone, I believe you have already understood the purpose of this meeting, which is how to solve the economic development shackles that our city has encountered recently."
"Although from the surface, since the establishment of Kitwe in the late 1970s, our city has developed very rapidly."
"Today, Kitwe has grown from an unknown small place on the African continent to a large city with a population of 320,000, and is well-known all over the world."
"However, we should find that the development of Kitwe has been restricted in recent years, especially under external competition, the development of Kitwe seems to be more and more difficult."
DeBern's statement is obviously exaggerated. In fact, the world economy has just experienced a brief depression due to the European flu.
Before that, at least in East Africa, affected by the war dividend, most cities in the country were in a stage of rapid development, even Kitwe City was the same.
Therefore, in recent years, the development speed of Kitwe City is not fast or slow, but very fast. But why Debern is so nervous? This has to be explained from other aspects.
Debern's next words explained the source of his "alarmist" remarks.
"Some people think that I am worrying too much. After all, Kitwe City has been in a development stage for decades. Even during the four-five period, Kitwe City's economic growth rate was also very fast."
"However, we obviously cannot just look at the surface, but we must look at the long-term. Even now, we should also be aware of the problems encountered by our city's industrial development."
"Everyone, tell me, what is the real economic situation of our city? Everyone can speak freely now." Debern threw the question to everyone.
Someone said: "Mr. Mayor, you should want to talk about the industrial structure! After all, the drafting of the five-year plan at the end of last year emphasized this issue."
The industrial structure of Kitwe City is too single, which is a well-known situation, because Kitwe City's economy is very dependent on copper resources.
This was not a problem in the past. In the past few decades, East Africa has vigorously developed industries such as electricity, automobiles, and machinery, and the demand for metals such as copper is huge, which has enabled Kitwe to maintain rapid development for decades.
Debern nodded and said, "Yes, what else?"
Someone said, "In addition to the industrial structure, the difficulties encountered by our city's economy also include external competition, and this competition is becoming more and more intense."
Kitwe Mayor Debern said, "Yes, in recent years, the copper mines in South America and the South Pacific have posed a major threat to the domestic copper belt, which has indirectly led to the shrinkage of our city's copper exports, which has already had a huge impact on the city's industry."
"At the same time, a number of copper smelting and metal processing companies have been established on the east and west coasts, forming a competitive relationship with our city's downstream industries."
"Imported copper ore from abroad has a large output, low price, and little pollution to the domestic environment, which makes the upper level support the development of such companies that rely on imported copper ore."
Copper mining, or the development of any mineral resources, is accompanied by environmental pollution, but the cities in the East African Copper Belt are particularly serious in this regard.
Because it is located in the hinterland of East Africa and is also the intersection of the Congo River and the Zambezi River Basin, the industrial wastewater discharged by the cities in the East African Copper Belt every year will have a serious impact on the middle and lower reaches of the river.
Kitwe City's copper production is very rich, but East Africa's imported copper ore from its own colonies or economically backward areas is also very cost-effective and has little impact on the local environment, which puts East African local copper producing areas such as Kitwe City in a very embarrassing situation.
"In order to cope with the competition from overseas copper mines and similar domestic production enterprises, especially those in coastal areas, Kitwe has reached the point where it has to change." Mayor Deborn said.
"In fact, we can see the initial signs from the economic growth rate of Kitwe in recent years. Although our city is still in a stage of rapid development, the growth rate has begun to slow down."
"It is not obvious now, but when the copper smelting, non-ferrous metal processing and other enterprises and factories in coastal areas are established, and Kitwe has not completed the transformation by then, it will be a disaster for our city's economy."
Someone asked: "Mayor, what do you mean?"
Mayor Deborn said: "Of course, we need to change and reshape our city's economy. Now is 1920, the first year of the implementation of the country's fifth five-year plan. We should respond to the central government's policies and transform our city's economy."
Then Deborn said: "At present, my views on the economic development of our city are as follows. First of all, I Our city's conditions, excluding copper resources, do not have significant advantages compared with other cities in the country. "
"Kitwe is a city that has risen up relying on copper mining, but in addition to copper mines, what other significant advantages does our city have? "
"Politically, our city is just an ordinary prefecture-level city. Its status in the province is not only inferior to Rhine City, New Frankfurt City and Lusaka City, but may even be ranked behind Kabwe City. "
"In terms of transportation, our city has no significant advantages. Although there are railways, roads and canals, it is not an important national transportation hub like New Frankfurt City. "
After decades of development, East Africa's transportation is now very developed, and a railway and road network has been established throughout the country, which has greatly depreciated the value of the so-called "transportation hub" in East Africa.
Unless it is a transportation hub that has an important position in East Africa, such as New Frankfurt City, it is worth paying attention to.
This is particularly evident in railways. In the last century, there were few railways in East Africa and the mileage was short, which enabled any city along the railway to benefit from it and promote the development of the city.
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However, today, East Africa is already the world's second largest railway country, with a national railway mileage of more than 300,000 kilometers. Basically, any slightly important city is connected by railway.
In this case, the status of cities along the railway and even some railway hub cities has greatly declined. In the era of lack of railways, there were few routes to choose from, but now that East African railways are so developed, there are many routes to choose from, which has relieved the role of some railway hubs.
For example, in the last century, when the East African Central Railway was built, most of the personnel and materials were very dependent on the operation of the Central Railway. Now, the proportion of personnel and goods on the Central Railway has actually dropped significantly.
Some important railway or highway hubs are still like this, not to mention that Kitwe is not an important transportation hub city. Of course, Kitwe is also a city where roads, railways and canals meet, but such transportation hubs are everywhere in East Africa.
Just like the Far East Empire in the past, with the construction of road and railway networks, many regional transportation hubs were formed. This is a good thing for the entire country, but it is not a good thing for some important transportation hub cities.
In the last century, although Kitwe was not a transportation hub, because there were few railways in East Africa at that time, Kitwe City, as a city along the central railway, benefited from it. However, with the completion of the railway network of East African countries, the impact of the railway on urban development has become very weak.
The water transportation of Kitwe is just the opposite. Due to the terrain of East Africa itself, the water transportation of East Africa has never occupied an important position in transportation and can only serve as a supplement to railways and roads. Therefore, although Kitwe has an artificial canal, it is difficult to develop based on this.
Debern continued, "In terms of transportation, our city does not have favorable conditions to form a national trade, logistics and other centers."
"As for resources, although our city's copper resources occupy an important position in the country, they are also threatened by external competition."
"First, the rise of external copper mining areas has caused our copper resources to become a replaceable resource. Secondly, the copper mines in the empire itself are also relatively evenly distributed, which has also had an impact on our copper mining and other related industries in Kitwe City."
The copper resources in the copper belt are the richest in East Africa, but the copper resources in other parts of East Africa are not few. For example, Bohemia, Salzburg, and West Coast all have considerable copper reserves.
"In addition to copper resources, our city's other resource shortcomings are very obvious, which is also an important reason for the relatively single industrial structure of our city."
"In other aspects, such as education and scientific research, our city is not outstanding, which makes the advantageous industrial position of our city unstable."
"Therefore, Kitwe's development prospects are not clear, and even very bleak. In this case, if we do not reintegrate the city's resources and adjust the industrial structure, Kitwe City may decline in the future and withdraw from the top 20 economic ranks in the country."
Kitwe's population ranks in the top 30 in East Africa, but its economy ranks in the top 20 in the country. This also shows that Kitwe's economic quality is relatively high in East Africa.
And it is precisely because of this that Mayor Debern is unwilling to see Kitwe decline in the future and become an unnecessary city in the empire.
After all, Kitwe has a good economy, which has led to the fact that the quality of Kitwe's officials has always been at the upper-middle level in the country, and it is precisely because of this that such high-quality bureaucrats have more "motivation".
Why do I say this? The reason is simple. If bureaucrats in any country in the world want to "progress", they will inevitably seek to work in economically developed areas, which is actually a kind of talent siphoning.
And Kitwe is considered a relatively developed region in East Africa in this era, so the quality of Kitwe's officials is still higher than other regions in East Africa.
Only those mediocre bureaucrats will choose, or have to be "exiled" to backward areas to sit on the bench, at least when the highest level of government does not intervene.
This is likely to cause a vicious cycle, with capable officials actively moving to economically developed areas, while mediocre or even useless bureaucrats stay in places where the economy is already difficult to "dominate", which will further aggravate the unbalanced development between regions.
And Debern can be the mayor of Kitwe City. He has the ability and ideas, so he does not want to see the decline of Kitwe City.
Debern said to other people in the city government: "So, for the development of Kitwe, we should come up with practical solutions. At least during my term, Kitwe must successfully transform."
"Our city's industries must transform and develop towards diversification, step by step getting rid of the heavy dependence on copper resources, and focusing on agriculture, energy, manufacturing, and the environment."
"Especially in the manufacturing industry, we must promote the development of emerging industries such as electricity, auto parts, and home appliance manufacturing. Our city itself has a developed non-ferrous metal smelting and deep processing system. Relying on this, we will promote the development of related industries and achieve leverage."
"At the same time, we will promote cooperation with Rhine City, Mbeya City, and New Frankfurt City to introduce new technologies, new talents, and new concepts."
For this point, it is mainly because Kitwe City's education and scientific research capabilities are relatively weak. After all, higher education and large-scale scientific research in East Africa are mainly led by the East African central government, and Kitwe City does not have national key universities and laboratories, so it naturally lacks relevant talents and technologies.
Kitwe itself cannot generate these resources. Although Kitwe's economic capacity is sufficient to develop education and scientific research, without the approval of Rhine City, Kitwe naturally cannot build good universities and key laboratories.
However, Kitwe is not without advantages. It is close to Rhine City and is under the jurisdiction of Rhine City. After all, Kitwe belongs to the Central Province, and the provincial government is also in Rhine City. Therefore, Kitwe can get policies and talents first, which is at least better than most cities in East Africa.