Chapter 1215 Regional Coordinated Development

All in all, the shortcomings and shortcomings of these areas are too prominent, and the comprehensive conditions are far inferior to those of the Great Lakes area.

Therefore, the Great Lakes region will be one of the key areas for development during the Fourth Five-Year Plan of East Africa. This has always been a pattern for East Africa's economic development, from the eastern coast at the beginning, to the development of the central region by the westward movement, and finally to the new Western development.

Now it is finally the turn of the Great Lakes region, which is also considered a veteran region in East Africa. After all, the history of the Great Lakes region being included in the territory of East Africa is relatively early.

After talking about the Great Lakes region, Ernst began to turn the topic to the south. The south can actually be understood as South Africa, but because of the existence of the British South African colony, it is more accurate to describe it as the southern region.

"In the past two decades or so, our country has tended to be conservative in its development of the southern region. After all, the south has a relatively short history of being integrated into our country and faced significant national defense pressure in the early days," Ernst said.

The southern region, especially the northeastern part of the South African Plateau, has only been fully integrated into East Africa for more than 20 years. After East Africa obtained the South African Plateau region, the then-defeated British government was not an easy target to provoke.

Therefore, East Africa has not been vigorously developing the south. Britain, which originally lost the South African War, is unbalanced. If East Africa develops the mineral resources of South Africa on a large scale, I am afraid that Britain may really jump in.

After all, the gold mine resources in the South African plateau alone are enough to make any country in this era jealous, and South Africa's other mineral resources are also not inferior to any country in the world.

At that time, the East African government could not guarantee that the British government would not come back, and the south was close to the border. There was only a mere Orange River between the two countries. If a war happened again, it would definitely not be a good thing for East Africa at that time. information.

The actual situation is similar. The development of New Hamburg Port City and Maputo and other areas in recent years is enough to make the British jealous.

Although this is mainly the result of East Africa's own efforts, the British do not think so. East Africa's development of Africa can be said to have given European countries great stimulation and inspiration.

This also intensified the competition between European and American countries for West Africa at the beginning of the 20th century. However, this fierce process was eventually interrupted by World War I.

Ernst said: "Now that the United Kingdom is no longer a threat to us, the defense pressure in the southern region has been greatly reduced, so the development of industrial and agricultural resources in the southern region must be put on the agenda again, especially for the provinces of Hechingen and Oran. The construction of the three inland provinces of Zambia and Baden must be accelerated.”

It is not that East Africa has not developed the southern region, but in the past industrial investment was concentrated in coastal areas, and the New Hamburg Port City, Maputo City, and Beira City were developed, three of the largest cities in East Africa.

Although the economy of the Plains Province, which also belongs to the southern coast, does not look very good, it is much stronger than that of the southern interior. The Plains Province is positioned as an agricultural province in East Africa.

Even the economy of Xinxiang City, the capital of Pingyuan Province, is much higher than that of the three inland provincial capitals. You must know that at the end of the South African War, the predecessor of Xinxiang City, Shaokui, was just a colonial town, and at that time, the provincial capital of Hechingen was indeed the former The capital of the Transvaal Republic and developed for several years under East African rule, the provincial capital of the Province of Orange was the capital of the former Orange Free State.

These two areas, which were once the capitals of the Boers, had much better basic conditions than Xinxiang City. However, in just over 20 years, they have been left behind by Xinxiang City. It can be said that their fate is miserable.

So Ernst said: "Build a number of emerging industrial cities in Otto (Pretoria), Bloemfontein, Gaborone, Kimberley, Upington, etc. to revitalize the southern region. Mainland economy.”

"Build a number of thermal power, hydropower energy bases, modern agricultural production bases, vigorously develop mineral resources, and build a number of energy, mineral and technology-based enterprises."

There is no doubt that the basic conditions in the northeastern part of the South African Plateau are excellent, especially the local energy and mineral resources, that is, the coal resources are very rich.

Therefore, developing local thermal power resources is an important purpose. After all, thermal power occupies an important position in East Africa's current energy resources. Hydropower resources in the south are also relatively abundant, but they are concentrated in the Drakensberg Mountains, which is the coastal area.

East Africa's energy construction in the south places equal emphasis on thermal power and hydropower, which is completely different from the Great Lakes region. After all, the Great Lakes region has huge hydropower potential and is very short of coal resources.

The situation is different in the south. Coal resources are abundant, and although hydropower potential is considerable, it cannot completely replace thermal power generation due to climate factors.

Especially in the inland areas, the climate is very dry and the river water volume is small and unstable, which leads to completely different energy development paths in the two regions.

In fact, East Africa is very insincere in the development of the southern region, especially the southern interior. Although Ernst said a lot, the benefits that can be brought to the local area are not many.

This is significantly different from the development of the Great Lakes Region. In the description of the Great Lakes Region, there is the concept of the Great Lakes Economic Zone, while Ernst only mentioned a few cities in the southern region.

This shows that East Africa’s economic and industrial investment in the southern inland region will be concentrated in a few points rather than in one area.

Of course, this is also related to the climatic conditions of the South African plateau. As mentioned before, the southern inland is short of water, and industrial development is obviously inseparable from an adequate supply of water resources.

Therefore, even if Ernst goes all out to develop the southern interior, southern industries and cities will eventually be constrained by the important factor of insufficient water resources.

What's more, Ernst also attaches great importance to agriculture in the southern region. In the plan, he emphasized the importance of making the local area an important modern agricultural production base in East Africa.

Although there is a relative shortage of water, it is undeniable that the agricultural conditions in South Africa in the previous life are very excellent among many African countries. The Republic of South Africa in the previous life relied on local natural conditions to build the best farms and ranches in Africa.

Agricultural development will occupy a lot of water resources, and mining is also quite water-consuming, which means that the development of inland cities in the south will put more pressure on water sources, so it is better not to expand the scale of industry, which is a good thing for local cities and ecology.

Of course, in this way, East Africa's planning for the southern inland is somewhat similar to the collection of the northeast and northwest of the Far East Empire in the 21st century in the previous life.

Two tasks, one is to farm, and the other is to provide minerals and energy. Of course, there is a big difference in farming in East Africa. Ernst has mentioned before that it is to build a modern agricultural production base, so the local agricultural development is likely to be in line with South Africa in the previous life, that is, full mechanization, intensive, farm, etc.

However, the population of the inland areas of southern East Africa is relatively small compared to other parts of East Africa, the mineral resources are richer, and the population distribution is more concentrated.

This means that the living and income levels of the people in the inland areas of southern East Africa will not be too bad in the future, at least it will be more promising than the Great Lakes region as a whole.

Moreover, the economic and industrial strength of the southern East Africa also includes the eastern coastal areas. Beira, Maputo, New Hamburg Port and other regions are already at the upper level of East Africa, and the starting stage is much stronger than the Great Lakes region, which has been stagnant in recent years.

In contrast, the Great Lakes region has only two major cities, Mombasa and Nairobi, in the east, and only Mombasa as an outlet to the sea. It is relatively far from the coastline, and the resources are not as rich as those in the south.

So although the policy is more favorable to the Great Lakes region, Ernst is more optimistic about the economic and industrial development of the southern region.

Ernst and the East African government did this naturally from the overall perspective of East Africa's economic development. While East Africa's economic development is strong now, they should take more care of the backward and poorly basic areas in East Africa.

The North is undoubtedly the worst economic region in East Africa, and it can be said to be backward in all aspects, whether it is population, cities, industry, or resources. It is far behind other regions in East Africa.