Chapter 1214 The Fourth Five-Year Plan

The economic performance of East Africa from 1910 to 1915 was not inferior to the previous decade. During the first two five-year plans, East Africa had accumulated decades of experience, and the Third Five-Year Plan caught up with a good historical opportunity.

With the arrival of 1916, East Africa's "Fourth Five-Year Plan" was officially released and implemented, and targeted treatment was carried out for some problems encountered by East Africa after the launch of the new economic policy.

The Fourth Five-Year Plan has the characteristics of non-full planning, and its meaning is completely different. To a certain extent, it reflects the transformation of the economic functions of the East African government.

Because of the implementation of the new economic policy, East Africa has made the plan and the market develop in parallel during the Third Five-Year Plan. There is no doubt that this sudden economic turn has a huge impact on the country's economy.

However, with the historical opportunity of World War I, the Third Five-Year Plan still landed smoothly, but this does not mean that the problems exposed by it should be ignored because of the economic prosperity.

In particular, the lack of macroeconomic control measures for the free market has led to the wild growth of the free market in East Africa, exposing a large number of social and economic problems.

Therefore, the change from the Five-Year Plan to the Five-Year Plan means a major change in the governance model of the East African government in the economic field.

In Ernst's words: "Taking into account the unified and coordinated development of planning and the market, while giving full play to the dual advantages of government and market, is an important feature of the future economic development of East Africa."

Compared with the Third Five-Year Plan, the main point of the Fourth Five-Year Plan is not only the changes in the core ideology and guidelines, but also the guiding significance for the development of the national economy.

In the era of fully planned economy, the East African government was an all-round head who "managed everything", but now it mainly focuses on functions such as guidance and guidance, and even adds "service" content.

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Rhine City.

After the start of the Fourth Five-Year Plan, the East African government entered a busy stage again. Coupled with the window period of World War I, the work intensity of the East African government has reached a new level.

Ernst: "At this stage, the eastern, central and western parts of my country have made brilliant construction achievements, forming an economic core in the middle zone with the central railway line as the main axis."

"However, the economic development of other parts of the country cannot be ignored. Therefore, during the Fourth Five-Year Plan, the government will develop the regional economy with the Great Lakes region and the southern region as the core, and build a new economic map of East Africa."

The Great Lakes region and the southern region can be said to be the regions with the best agricultural and industrial basic conditions in East Africa respectively.

The Great Lakes region has a large area of ​​arable land, excellent rain and heat conditions, and relatively flat terrain. It has always been the most important agricultural area in East Africa.

As for the south, it is basically worth mentioning the areas of South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and other regions in the past. There are the richest mineral resources in East Africa, but in the past, except for the coastal areas, they have not been fully utilized and developed.

In fact, if East Africa had chosen the southern region for development and construction in the early days, it would undoubtedly have greatly saved the cost of industrial and economic development.

"The Great Lakes region is the reservoir of imperial agriculture and is responsible for the important task of national agricultural development. In the past few decades, it has always been the most important agricultural region in my country and the 'iron rice bowl' of all citizens. However, if the economy is to develop in an all-round and coordinated manner, the Great Lakes region cannot rely solely on agriculture."

"Therefore, during the Fourth Five-Year Plan, the development of the Great Lakes region is an important task of the government, especially the development of cities along the lakes such as Kampala and Kisumu."

"With the Great Lakes region as the core, we will create a new economic pole in East Africa and drive the high-quality and high-speed development of the northern economy."

Kampala, Kisumu, and Mwanza are all important cities along the Great Lakes region, especially Kisumu and Mwanza, which used to be old economic powerhouses in East Africa. In recent years, as the economic focus of East Africa has been placed on the middle belt, they have been somewhat unable to keep up with the big team.

Ernst went on to say: "Build an economic belt along the lakes around the Great Lakes region, make full use of the water transport advantages of the Great Lakes, and realize the allocation of materials."

The advantages of the Great Lakes region are obvious. It has the largest lake in East Africa and is very developed in water transportation. Coupled with the East African National Canal Plan and the construction of railways and highways, it can be said that the Great Lakes region has become an important inland transportation hub in East Africa.

Especially the food, rubber, timber, minerals and other resources in the Great Lakes region, which used to be transported by water first and then sent to the whole country or other parts of the world by rail or road.

If we talk about the shortcomings of the Great Lakes region, it is probably the mineral resources. However, this does not mean that the mineral resources in the Great Lakes region are not rich, but that there is a lack of basic resources for early industrial development, such as iron ore and coal mines.

The mineral resources in the Great Lakes region are mainly characterized by a wide variety and wide distribution. For example, in Uganda in the past, there were more than 50 kinds of proven mineral resources, including oil, mica, feldspar, limestone, phosphate, iron, vermiculite, tantalum, vanadium, copper, cobalt, tungsten, etc.

This is just one area in Uganda. You can imagine how rich the resources in the Great Lakes region are. However, if you want to use these resources, you must have a certain industrial foundation.

In the early days of East Africa, the Great Lakes region has always been the largest gold production area in East Africa, and the relatively scarce tungsten resources in East Africa are also mainly in the local area and Hesse Province.

There is no doubt that the Great Lakes region has made a great contribution to the early development of East Africa, because it is the most important agricultural area in East Africa and the first place to develop gold mines in East Africa, providing a lot of funds for the early industrial development of East Africa.

"The overall idea for the development of the Great Lakes region's industry is to first complete the construction of the Empire Dam and port reconstruction, then relocate the residents of the flooded area, reintegrate local resources, and form an economic and industrial zone around the Great Lakes region, focusing on the development of shipping, metal smelting, fisheries, electric power and other industries."

The shipping industry naturally needs no further explanation. The Great Lakes region is vast and has always been the most developed inland waterway in East Africa.

Metal smelting naturally utilizes the rich metal mineral resources in the Great Lakes region, and the Great Lakes region is also one of the regions with the richest fishery resources in East Africa. As for electric power, this involves the abundant hydropower resource potential of the Great Lakes region.

This has a very deep connection with the climate and topography of the Great Lakes region.

The Great Lakes is the former Lake Victoria. From the map, the Great Lakes is actually a huge lake located in the middle of the Great Rift Valley of East Africa.

This results in a number of mountains distributed in the east-west direction of the Great Lakes region, while the north-south direction is relatively flat. The rivers originating from these mountains are also the main source of water in the Great Lakes region.

The Great Lakes region is an important rainy area in East Africa, adjacent to the Congo Basin. Although its rainfall is slightly inferior to that of the Congo rainforest, it is also very sufficient.

The most difficult thing is that the precipitation season in the Great Lakes region is very evenly distributed, and it is wet and rainy all over, which further enhances the potential for the development of local hydropower resources.

Therefore, the East African government intends to make full use of the local terrain and climate to build a number of hydropower stations to provide a large amount of cheap electricity for the Great Lakes region and the eastern and northern regions of East Africa.

The development of industry and economy in the Great Lakes region will undoubtedly strongly drive the economic development of the northern region of East Africa.

In fact, the Great Lakes region belongs to the eastern region in the geographical definition of East Africa, but its geographical location is close to the north of East Africa, and it is also the most suitable place for large-scale development in the north of East Africa at the current stage.

This is very important. In the past, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and other regions around the Great Lakes region were all relatively good places for economic development in Africa.

And if you look further north, South Sudan, Central Africa, Somalia and the like basically have no lower limit in the African region.

Although these areas are definitely very different from the previous life under the rule of East Africa, there is no doubt that under the same conditions, the development of the Great Lakes region will definitely be smoother than other northern regions.

In fact, the northern part of East Africa also occupies Chad, Sudan, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Ethiopia and other places in the previous life.

Either the area is too small, the climate is bad, or the terrain is too complicated. For example, the area occupied by East Africa in Sudan in the previous life, except for the small plains in Gezira with farming conditions, most of the rest are deserts with scarce water resources. The Ethiopian area occupied by East Africa is surrounded by mountains and difficult to develop. Cameroon and Gabon are densely covered with rainforests.