Chapter 1112: Attracting Investment

East Africa has become increasingly domineering in the international arena in recent years, and there is no room for mercy in the struggle for interests, especially at this juncture when East Africa wants to enter more international markets. As the third largest market in East Africa, the Far Eastern Empire must be under East Africa's focus. As for the first place, it is still the Central and Eastern European market, followed by the Western European market.

This is determined by the industrial structure of East Africa. East Africa can be proud of its heavy industry and agriculture. If many heavy industry products are to be sold, the other party must have the spending power, and the same is true for agriculture.

East Africa's foreign agricultural trade is dominated by tropical cash crops, and the largest consumer of cash crops in the world is Europe.

Europe itself does not have a rich climate, especially lacks tropical climate types, and Central and Eastern Europe has harsher climate conditions than Western Europe. Coupled with the distance advantage between East Africa and Central and Eastern European markets, Central and Eastern Europe has become the largest consumer market for agricultural products in East Africa.

As for Western Europe, after being developed on the west coast of East Africa, it has developed very rapidly in recent years due to its geographical convenience. However, it also has the most competitors. Caribbean countries, South America, and West Africa can all compete with East Africa, while those on the east coast can The only competition with East African agriculture was India under British control.

…

Berlin.

A business delegation organized by the Maputo City Government came to Berlin all the way to prepare to raise development funds in Berlin.

Since the start of the Third Five-Year Plan, East African policies have been further liberalized, which has also allowed Maputo City to see opportunities. For Maputo City, what is most lacking in development today is money.

As an important city on the east coast of East Africa, Maputo City has not enjoyed many policy dividends. Most of its early development funds were supported by the province.

However, the strength of Hanseatic Province is limited after all, so if it wants to go further, Maputo City can only look abroad.

At this time, the city of Maputo was also trying to attract investment from Portugal by relying on its status as the "political center of the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique".

However, after all, Portugal is a small country and its economic level is still poor. It is difficult to meet the needs of Maputo City.

In the previous life, Portugal plus its colonies still had a population of more than 10 million, but now Portugal's several overseas colonies are small and pitiful, and its economy has plummeted, making it a third-rate country in Europe.

"Berlin is indeed a world-class metropolis. Just with this level of prosperity, I am afraid that Dar es Salaam may not be able to catch up with it in twenty years."

“The population of Berlin should be close to three million, which is more than twice that of Dar es Salaam. However, we don’t have to belittle ourselves. One million is not the limit of Dar es Salaam, but the policy is not in place for the time being. , otherwise there would be no problem if the population doubled.”

“And although Berlin is big, its level of development may not be higher than that of Dar es Salaam. What Berlin has, Dar es Salaam basically has, and Dar es Salaam is not the political center. It can be said that it is not easy for the city of Ssalaam to develop to the scale it is today.”

Berlin is the political center of Germany, and Dar es Salaam is not even the provincial capital, not to mention the capital. Today, the provincial capital of Maritime Province is still the first town and city. After the East African capital was moved, the provincial government did not move. This is also the first time. The main reason why towns and cities can continue to keep cities running.

"Alas, let alone big cities like Berlin and Dar es Salaam, our city of Maputo should set Beira as our goal first!"

The conversation between members of the Maputo business delegation attracted the attention of Kweil, a receptionist at the Berlin city hall and the business manager of Rooneybank Berlin.

Kewell is no stranger to East Africa, but he doesn’t know much about it. Because of past East African policies, small banks like Rooney Bank have no ability to participate in investments in East Africa.

Kwell asked the person who just spoke without leaving a trace: "Director Rogge, your Maputo City should be considered a big city in East Africa, right? After all, Maputo City is the capital of the former colony of Mozambique, and East Africa should attach great importance to it. That’s right?”

The man named Rogge said: "Mr. Kwell, you are wrong. Maputo is indeed in the middle and upper reaches of East African cities, but its economy is only ranked in the thirties or forties nationwide. In the past, The Portuguese do value Maputo, but Maputo can only be regarded as an ordinary city within the empire. "

Kwell: "Why is this? Since Maputo is valued by the Portuguese, then the conditions in Maputo should not be bad, right?"

Rogge explained: "Of course, Maputo is also considered a relatively good port city in East Africa. However, Maputo's geographical location is too far south and it does not have much advantages in resources. Moreover, the East African economy is coordinated by the central government. Management, so urban development in East Africa is closely related to policies. The policies available to Maputo City are not outstanding nationwide, so Maputo’s development has an upper limit after all.”

Kewell has also heard about this, because East Africa is the most typical non-free market country in the world. If such a country were placed in Europe, it would easily arouse the resentment of other countries, but East Africa is far away overseas and has military strength. It's quite strong, so no country is free to bring this topic to East Africa to make trouble.

According to European public opinion, the freer the economy, the better. Businessmen generally resent government control, so Kewell asked curiously: "Can you tell us about your domestic economic situation? I still have no idea how the economy of countries like East Africa will develop." Rather curious.”

Rogge did not refuse this request, and as Rogge told him, Kwell began to slowly understand the basic logic of East Africa's economic development. It can be said that most of East Africa's economy is completely under the control of the East African government.

Kwell said curiously: "Under this economic system, don't you feel disgusted?"

Hearing this, Rogge's eyes became sharp. In fact, Rogge is not a businessman, but the director of the Maputo Municipal Government Investment Promotion Office. Most of the members of the delegation who came to attract investment this time are also like this. They are either Maputo Municipal Government personnel or some corporate personnel. Most of the companies in Maputo are state-owned enterprises, mainly local enterprises.

After organizing his words, Rogge said: "Our East African economy has been running like this since the beginning, and the development of East Africa in recent years has also been above the world average, so we naturally live in this country, which is a matter of course in East Africa."

"Of course, now that the policy has been liberalized, we are also actively connecting with the international market, so domestic economic reforms are underway, which is also the premise for us to come to Berlin to attract investment."

There is actually not much to say about the economic system in East Africa. East Africa has been running like this for more than 50 years, so the new generation of East Africa has no special feelings about the economic system that is very different from the world in East Africa.

Moreover, East Africa has been in rapid development, its international status has become more and more prominent, and the overall environment is improving. Naturally, domestic conflicts will not be particularly prominent. Although there are definitely people who blindly believe in the free market, they are not a big deal in East Africa.

Kwell was just curious. Although he didn't understand the mentality of East Africans very well, he was a German after all, so it was not easy to point fingers.

So Kwell turned to seek opportunities from the policy changes in East Africa. As an important city on the west coast of the Indian Ocean, Maputo City must have more opportunities. Whether he can seize them depends on Kwell's ability.

So he began to ask Rogge about the basic conditions of Maputo City, focusing on population, income, minerals, and the situation of enterprises.

As Rogge told him, Kwell also realized that Maputo City definitely has great potential, but the premise is to make good use of Maputo City's resources. In terms of population, Maputo City alone has a population of nearly 300,000, which is also a large city in Germany, and the consumption level of East Africans is not low, so Maputo City's consumption capacity alone can do a lot of things.