Chapter 1014 Light Industry

As time went on, the conflict between Japan and Russia became increasingly acute, and along with it, many industrial projects in East Africa were completed and put into production under the First Five-Year Plan.

The First Five-Year Plan was an important national policy to promote the rapid growth of industrialization in East Africa in a short period of time, which also made the output of industrial products in East Africa enter a stage of further rapid increase since 1903.

"From 1901 to now, the industrialization process in East Africa has been accelerating, and a large number of industrial products have been localized. As long as these products are produced, they will inevitably face an unavoidable problem, that is, who will sell these products to?"

"Since the 1990s, the country has begun to create a large national market, but relying solely on the domestic market to ensure East Africa's industrialized production is feasible, but it also has a great negative effect, thus generating distribution contradictions, which cannot be eliminated in a short period of time."

"Therefore, our country must rely on foreign markets to alleviate the instability of this domestic supply and demand relationship. Even in the early stages of industrialization, the rapid production of a large number of industrial products will lead to a situation of oversupply, and through the export of foreign goods, the inconsistency in domestic distribution issues can be alleviated to a certain extent."

Why the Soviet Union's first two five-year plans flourished, in addition to the excellent situation of economic crises in various countries in the world at that time, the most important thing was that through redistribution, a huge consumer market was created, so that after the establishment of the Soviet industrial system, the country's industrial development could achieve a positive cycle.

East Africa is similar to the United States. Both countries created a huge domestic market demand through colonial means. The original immigrant groups were truly proletarians. They not only had no material property, but also no jobs and income. However, after immigration, they obtained the land of the indigenous people through plundering, and created value on this basis.

Therefore, the large domestic market mentioned by Siwei Te is also the basic guarantee for the current industrial construction in East Africa. East Africa is in the transition stage from an agricultural country to an industrial country. Agriculture is still the main body of the East African economy, and the consumption capacity of East African farmers is above the world average.

The most typical one is the light industry in East Africa, led by the textile industry. In the past, most of the light industrial products were almost consumed by the agricultural population of the country, and only a small amount was exported as basic industrial products to developed countries such as Germany as new industrial production raw materials for further processing.

Siweit mentioned: "With the construction of the textile industry in the west, the expansion of the textile industry in various regions, as well as technological progress, improved mechanical efficiency and other factors, my country's textile production has made great progress."

"East Africa does not lack basic materials such as cotton, linen, silk, and wool required for textile production. In the past, the cotton planting area in East Africa has been expanding. From the north to the south, from the east to the west, a large number of cotton fields have been built and put into production, with a variety of varieties. Among them, the production of long-staple cotton is second only to Egypt."

"At the same time, East Africa is one of the few major hemp-growing countries in the world. Ramie, jute, sisal and other hemp are widely planted in East Africa and have formed a considerable scale. Among them, sisal production ranks first in the world."

"The scale of raw silk production is relatively small, but the climate environment in East Africa and the support and guidance of national policies in the past have made my country's raw silk production second only to Egypt. in Asian countries. "

"Wool textile industry, the main raw material is wool, is rapidly forming in southern my country, and will basically meet the domestic market demand in the future."

"At the population level, my country's fertility rate has remained at a high level over the years, and the labor force required for various industries is relatively sufficient."

"In conjunction with the support and construction of light industry during the First Five-Year Plan, my country's textile industry has developed rapidly, but this has also put forward higher demands on the market, and East Africa's advantages in the domestic market of the textile industry are not as good as other major countries."

This is very easy to understand. Other major countries in the world are mainly located in the temperate zone, and the temperate zone is characterized by four distinct seasons. In this way, the demand for clothing is naturally greater than that in East Africa. There are corresponding clothes for almost every season, and in winter, in order to keep warm, more textile raw materials are needed for clothing.

This can also be seen from the construction of palaces of European royal families. Many national palaces are divided into winter palaces and summer palaces. This is the case in Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the original French Empire. However, it is impossible for East African palaces to be built in two according to the rainy season and the dry season.

As a tropical country, East Africa has little seasonal change, and the change is mainly concentrated in precipitation rather than temperature difference. In this case, East Africans only need simple clothes to meet their daily needs.

This is obviously unfavorable news for the textile industry in East Africa. On the one hand, East Africa has sufficient raw materials, and on the other hand, there is little demand. In this way, the expansion of the textile industry in East Africa must solve market problems.

Siwei Te said: "Therefore, my country's textile industry has passed the stage of only satisfying the domestic market in the past. In the future, the textile industry will further develop and will inevitably move more to the international market."

"But the international market competitiveness is not strong, which has always been the short board of East Africa's light industry represented by the textile industry. my country's light industry has been vigorously developed in recent years and finally formed a system, but it has also lost precious time to enter the international market."

The development of light industry in East Africa can be said to be a weak link in the field of industrial development in East Africa. Even until the First Five-Year Plan, many light industrial products in East Africa were able to achieve industrialized production.

Light industry can be simply summarized as food, textiles, furniture, papermaking, printing, daily chemicals, stationery, cultural supplies, sports goods industry and other industries closely related to people's lives.

It can be said without hesitation that East Africa has gone through a long process from scratch to produce the most basic products such as pots, pans, and bowls.

In the early days, light industrial products in East Africa were barely realized by imports and handicrafts. For example, the most common product, bricks, was basically produced by inheriting the brick kilns of the Sultanate of Zanzibar.

Even now, East Africa still has a large gap in light industrial products. On the one hand, productivity still exists in the form of traditional handicrafts, with weak technology and low output. On the other hand, the rapidly increasing population in East Africa has made the demand for light industrial products in East Africa always in a rising stage.

Moreover, this traditional handicraft still has some tenacious vitality in East Africa, which is one of the important reasons why East Africa is still not an industrial country.

Therefore, the light industry in East Africa was quite weak in the first thirty years. Except for important fields such as textiles, many light industries basically did not exist, but met the country's demand for light industrial products through imports and traditional handicrafts.

After the establishment of the heavy industrial system in East Africa, it began to drive the development of light industry and realize the large-scale production of most light industrial products.

However, it still faces serious problems such as small scale, scattered production, and poor technology. Therefore, during the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa focused on the problem of weak development of light industry and invested in the construction of a number of modern light industrial factories.

Among them, the cotton textile industry occupies the majority, especially the western Angola region, which has formed a new cotton textile production base.

The food industry in East Africa is a dominant industry in light industry. Relying on the rich products and huge market demand in East Africa, it has developed earlier, especially the northeast and north are relatively developed, and can form competitiveness with European and American countries.

However, under the overall national conditions of East Africa's key investment in heavy industry, the light industry is seriously unbalanced or lacking, which cannot be quickly eliminated in a short period of time.

Moreover, East Africa's light industry is insufficient as a whole, but it is facing the problem of market lack in some parts. This contradiction is becoming more and more prominent in East Africa.

Therefore, while looking for markets for East Africa's light industry, it is necessary to continue to upgrade and transform the light industry field in East Africa at the same time.

The task of the East African government is to guide and integrate the transformation of domestic handicrafts to light industry, while seeking many international markets to inject development momentum into some of the light industries that have already developed in East Africa.