Chapter 1201 Economic System Advantages
Currently, 28% of the national electricity supply in East Africa comes from hydropower. This proportion is quite huge. After all, hydropower accounted for less than 20% in the previous Far Eastern Empire.
However, the development of hydropower resources in East Africa is not sufficient, and there is still huge room for growth. The reason why East Africa has such a large proportion of hydropower development is, in addition to its natural advantages, also closely related to East Africa's national conditions.
After all, most areas in East Africa have water storage needs, because the climate in East Africa is mainly savanna, which is divided into rainy season and dry season. This is destined to build a large number of water conservancy projects in East Africa to intercept the water in the rainy season and ensure that industry and agriculture Use water.
The construction of artificial reservoirs is naturally the top priority in water conservancy projects. Generally speaking, in order to improve utilization, most artificial reservoirs also have power generation functions, so the utilization rate of hydropower development in East Africa is relatively high.
Wang Hailong said: "Because of the existence of the Congo Basin, East Africa is equivalent to having a huge hydropower cornucopia. If it can be fully developed, it can solve most of the power supply problems in East Africa."
"However, compared with hydropower, thermal power still occupies an absolute advantage in the current power supply in East Africa, up to about 70%. And due to regional energy characteristics, different fuels are used as the basis for power generation. For example, coal is used in southern East Africa, and oil or natural gas is used in some northern areas. In addition to hydropower, the West also uses a large amount of petroleum as fuel for power plants.”
“In 1910, the electricity penetration rate in East Africa was as high as an exaggerated 62%, basically achieving universal access to electricity in all cities and towns and some rural areas. Even now, East Africa is the only country in the world with an electricity penetration rate of more than 1%. The country of fifty.”
Thanks to the first two five-year plans in East Africa, the East African power sector officially built the national East African national grid during this period. And due to technological progress, East Africa already had independent intellectual property rights for hydropower and thermal power generation, realizing A new round of breakthroughs in power production technology.
If compared with the regions and countries where East Africa was located in the previous life, this data can be said to be quite outrageous. After all, the regions and countries where East Africa was located in the previous life, that is, those small African countries, can be said to have the lowest electricity penetration rate in the world. Even in In the 21st century, many places do not have electricity.
East Africa is indeed the world's largest electricity producer and consumer in this time and space, and its electricity penetration rate firmly ranks first in the world.
Of course, the cost is also huge. East Africa has invested a lot of money, manpower and time costs. During the first two five-year plans in East Africa, the investment in infrastructure such as electricity was completely astronomical, and this also led to the third five-year plan in East Africa. An important reason for the lack of funds.
After all, East Africa was really happy when these infrastructures were built, but the massive resources invested in a short period of time cannot generate returns as quickly as light industry. The cycle can easily take ten or even twenty years.
This can be regarded as a manifestation of Yin eating Mao grain, so this is also an important reason why East Africa can't wait to promote the outbreak of World War I.
Only with the outbreak of World War I could production lines in East Africa be rapidly rolled out, turning these infrastructures into catalysts for production, and relying on the international market vacated during World War I to digest the construction results of the first two five-year plans in East Africa.
After listening to Wang Hailong's narration, Director Zhang and other officials from the Far East Empire seemed a little silent. The gap was really too big.
"When I was in Dar es Salaam these days, I noticed that the street lights in Dar es Salaam are on almost all night. Even at night, the whole city looks like day."
"Is this so-called electrification? We haven't even caught up with the cars of the steam era, but now we are far behind Western society."
For the Far Eastern Empire, East Africa is a member of the Western countries through and through. After all, East Africa is indeed located in the west of the Far Eastern Empire geographically. Of course, the East African government and most East African citizens have never thought so. East Africa's positioning of its own country is actually similar to the American New World concept and is not confused with Europe.
Although Africa does not belong to the New World, this is mainly due to North Africa's long-term participation in world history. After all, neither Europe nor Arab civilization can avoid North Africa.
But south of the Sahara Desert and North Africa are like two different worlds. At least in Ernst's perception, the development of civilization in the south of the Sahara Desert is not as advanced as that of the Indians in the Americas.
So Wang Hailong said: "There is no need to worry too much. There are still some differences between East Africa and Western countries. At least from my understanding, East Africa is very different from many Western countries."
"In addition to the economic development model that is very different from Europe and the United States, there is a big gap between many industrial fields in East Africa and Europe and the United States. For example, the concept of electrification I mentioned, it seems that only one country in East Africa has a national-level grand strategy, and they have started from the seventh century of the last century. The layout has already begun in the 1990s.”
"At that time, East Africa's scientific and technological level was far behind that of European and American countries, but it was precisely because of its advantages in economic systems that East Africa caught up and became a leader in some fields."
"Electricity and internal combustion engines are the two most typical cases. The development of electric power in East Africa originated in Germany. But now, although Germany is the leader in this aspect, it is inevitable that the gap will be widened by East Africa."
East African power technology actually comes from the Hechingen Consortium. The Hechingen Consortium should be regarded as one of the earliest capital groups involved in investment in the power field and made important contributions to the early stage of power construction in East Africa. Of course, Wang Hailong is the Don't know much about it.
"The reason why East Africa can surpass Germany is obviously that the advantages of East Africa's economic system have played a huge role. According to the propaganda of the East African government, it is to concentrate its efforts on big things. Through the full support of the government and the unified coordination of resource allocation, the scale of East Africa's power industry has grown rapidly. expansion, and ultimately achieve the effect of breaking the surface, driving the development of other industries in the country.”
General Manager Zhang said: "Concentrating efforts to do big things is the true essence of East Africa's economic development. After all, East Africa has rapidly emerged as a powerful industrial country in just a few decades. There is indeed a reason for this. of."
In the eyes of many countries, East Africa, a powerful industrial country, does not actually recognize this title. After all, according to the East African government's positioning of its own industry, East Africa is only a semi-industrialized country.
East Africa's standards for industrialization, influenced by Ernst, have always been based on some of the country's industrial indicators, the most important of which is the urbanization rate. However, the current urbanization rate in East Africa is obviously not as good as the East African government's psychological expectations. The entire East Africa The urbanization rate is only 33.6%.
This is the statistical data on the urbanization rate in East Africa in 1914. After all, it is now the end of 1915, and the East African Third Five-Year Plan is coming to an end, so the East African government has begun to collect some important data about its own country.
During the Third Five-Year Plan period, the urbanization rate in East Africa has increased significantly, even exceeding the growth rate of the previous two five-year plans. However, it is undeniable that in comparison with other industrial powers, the urbanization rate in East Africa is still at a low level. About 30%, which is higher than the three major powers, Russia, Spain, and Japan.
In other words, the current urbanization rate in East Africa ranks in the middle among the major powers. However, the UK and Germany, which have the highest urbanization rates, lag behind East Africa by a large margin. Even the United States and France are about ten years higher than East Africa. A few percentage points.
(End of chapter)