Chapter 1036 Railway Second Five-Year Plan
From the 19th century to the early 20th century, steel production was an important reference data for a country's national strength. As the food of industry, steel production could measure the scale of a country's industrial and infrastructure construction. This was also the first time that the steel industry was included in the industrial development plan in East Africa. The main reason for being number one.
As a powerful country, it is undeniable that East Africa has achieved amazing results in many fields, but its steel production can reflect that the current East African industry still has a long way to go. Although East Africa’s steel production ranks third or fourth, Among the top countries, East Africa has the lowest per capita steel share.
This shows that there is still a lot of room for improvement in the scale of East Africa's steel industry. It also reflects that there is a big gap between East Africa's current industrialization level and advanced industrial countries. Therefore, during the Second Five-Year Plan period, continuing to increase East Africa's steel production capacity is a constant goal. .
Ernst concluded: “The steel industry provides the most basic production raw materials for various industries, including railways, shipbuilding manufacturing, automobile manufacturing, power equipment manufacturing, construction industry, engineering construction, etc., which all require a large amount of steel, so steel Output is an important factor that restricts the development of other industries. In the stage of accelerating industrialization in my country, steel companies must provide more steel output for national construction. "
"At the same time, as the times progress, East Africa also needs more special, high-quality, and diverse steel materials. This is particularly important for the development of emerging industries and the defense industry. Therefore, the upgrading of the steel industry must not only pursue quantity, but also quality. , grasp the balance between quantity and quality, and promote the rational development of the national steel industry.”
After talking about the development direction of the steel industry, according to usual practice, railway construction still ranks second. The Ministry of Railways summarized the national railway construction plan during the First Five-Year Plan.
Minister of Railways Andre said: "In the past thirty years, our country has built a total of about 150,000 kilometers of railways, of which 50,000 kilometers were completed during the First Five-Year Plan. During the First Five-Year Plan, my country's railway construction speed was obvious. Accelerate, reaching an average of 10,000 kilometers per year.”
“Worldwide, railway construction is second only to the United States. According to the data we have collected, in the 10 years from 1880 to 1890 alone, the United States built more than 10,000 kilometers of railways every year.”
“During my country’s First Five-Year Plan, the performance of the U.S. railway construction field was still strong, so my country’s railway construction tasks still have a long way to go.”
Leaving aside the perversion of the United States, the construction of East African railways is not inferior to any other country. However, since the beginning of the 20th century, East African railways are no longer satisfied with comparisons with countries, but with regional comparisons.
Especially North America and Europe, the two largest railway networks in the world. Through the acceleration of the First Five-Year Plan, the total mileage of East African railways still ranks behind North America and Europe, making it the third largest railway network in the world.
Andre said: "Our country's territory is much larger than that of the United States, and it does not have high-quality water transportation channels like the Great Lakes or the Mississippi River, and it cannot be compared with Europe's dense inland water transportation network. So in theory, our country The demand for railways is much higher than that in European and American countries.”
"In the construction of railways in our country, the central and southern parts are much higher than the northern part. The central part includes the west coast and the east coast, the most economically and industrially developed and densely populated areas in our country. The southern part has also built a large number of buildings because of its rich mineral resources. Railway lines.”
This is normal. Northern East Africa is obviously inferior to other regions in East Africa in terms of population, urban density, economic development level, and mineral resource distribution. Therefore, it is normal for the northern railways to be relatively sparse.
“At present, in the railway construction in the northern region, in addition to the three trunk railways, there are only two important branch railways, one reaching the border of the Abyssinian Empire and our country, and one reaching the Nile Basin. In addition, there are only a few minor branch lines in northwest Somalia. railway."
What Andre said is a bit annoying for the countries or colonies in northern East Africa. As the only infrastructure madman on the African continent, the transportation in the north where Andre said there is a lack of railway construction is not as good as any on the African continent. , countries or colonies outside East Africa can be compared.
Among the countries bordering East Africa, Egypt is the most economically developed, but Egypt has very little demand for railways. After all, Egypt's core land is basically distributed along the Nile River. To put it bluntly, building a railway along the Nile River can basically meet the needs. Most of Egypt's needs. The area bordering Egypt and East Africa is mainly Sudan, and there is not even an inch of railway track in Sudan. This is still the case in Egypt. Among other countries bordering East Africa, only the Abyssinian Empire and the Kingdom of South Germany have very few railway lines. , and the railway between the two countries is also an overseas extension of the East African railway network.
According to the situation in the previous life, even if the East African railway does not develop now, by the next century, other regions in Africa, except for North Africa and the Mediterranean region, may not have many additional railways.
So what Andre said about threats to national security should be understood conversely. East Africa is the biggest threat to neighboring countries and colonies.
Of course, national defense and security require caution. No one can say that East Africa’s neighboring countries may step aside and call the shots in the future, although this possibility is lower than the probability of aliens invading the earth.
“In order to meet the needs of social and economic development in the north and the needs of national defense and security, during the Second Five-Year Plan, the Ministry of Railways plans to upgrade railway construction in the northern region.”
“During the Second Five-Year Plan, the overall goal of my country’s railway construction is still to reach 50,000 kilometers, which means that when the Second Five-Year Plan is completed, the national railways will reach at least 200,000 kilometers.”
“At the same time, we will optimize and upgrade some railway lines, continue to build the African continental bridge, connect the economic connections between the east and west coasts and the inland, promote the national regional industrial division of labor and cooperation, and promote the continuous progress of East Africa’s industrialization process.”
During the Second Five-Year Plan, East Africa's railway construction still adopted a relatively conservative plan. After all, with the completion of the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa's industrial and infrastructure capabilities have greatly improved, and it is fully capable of building more railways.
Of course, even the conservative plan is, from a global perspective, more conservative than the American railway companies. The 50,000-kilometer railway construction plan is almost equivalent to building another German railway.
Germany is already the country with the most developed railways in Europe. According to the railway construction situation in East Africa, excluding some areas that are difficult to develop in East Africa, such as deserts in the southwest and northeast, tropical rainforests in the west, some mountains and large lakes, when the Second Five-Year Plan is completed, At that time, when comparing East Africa and the entire European railway network, the gap was basically negligible.
Moreover, the internal situation of the European railway network is complicated. For example, countries such as Tsarist Russia and Northern Europe adopt different railway gauges. This makes the European railway mileage longer than that of East Africa, but the utilization efficiency is not necessarily higher than that of East Africa.
Of course, the total population and economy of East Africa at this stage are far from being compared with Europe as a whole. However, economic development factors have led to the flow of people and logistics, and the economic benefits of European railways are definitely higher than those of East Africa.
The population of Europe is more than four times that of East Africa, and the area of East Africa is also larger than that of Europe. In addition, the industries of many European countries are extremely developed, which means that the East African railway will not be able to compete with Europe in terms of revenue in a short period of time.
In this era, the United States can compete with Europe, but even the United States is still far behind Europe as a whole. Therefore, there is a long way to go for industrial development in East Africa. Now East Africa can only compete with a single country in Europe in terms of industry and national strength. Make comparisons.
(End of this chapter)