Chapter 931 Hans Layton's Reform
November 1897.
Mayor Hans Layton convened a meeting with several state-owned factory leaders and dozens of reasonably capable workshop managers in the city.
Although many workshops are small in scale, in countries like East Africa, they are also part of the state-owned capital. Except for a few large state-owned factories, these small workshops are enterprises directly led by Maputo City. In other words, the large state-owned factories are state-owned enterprises, and these handicraft workshops are municipal enterprises, but they are essentially the same, except that the state-owned enterprises do not necessarily depend on the face of Maputo City. They also involve the province and even the city behind them. Central department relations.
"Mayor Hans Layton, I wonder why you called us, the main factory directors and management of Maputo City, here?" the director of Maputo City Power Plant first asked .
"Ahem, I'm calling you to this meeting this time. I mainly hope that everyone will cooperate sincerely and make their own contributions to the development of Maputo City. After all, everyone knows that our Maputo City is poor! If we don't unite, In the future, the competition between Maputo City and other cities will only be in a disadvantageous situation, which is not good news for all of us.”
“Of course we know this, but the country does not provide resources and resources. In terms of indicators, we can’t even expand the scale if we want. After all, Maputo City is so big and has so many citizens, so we can’t produce more electricity and waste it!” said the director of Maputo City Power Plant.
“That’s right, the reason why we can build the factory is due to the promotion of major national policies, such as electricity, tap water, and wood, which all have quotas.”
Maputo in Under Portuguese rule, there was no electricity at all. Things such as running water were only newly established under the rule of East Africa. After all, East Africa developed the power industry and promoted the quality of urban life. Industries related to people's livelihood are standard features in every city. .
Hans Layton knocked on the table and said: "Of course I understand your difficulties, but opportunities are not just waiting to come, but should be found and grasped by oneself. This is also an important part of our meeting. The content is to change the ideological concept of the city’s economic development.”
"As we all know, although East Africa's economic development has many rules and regulations, it is not without room for activity. Why are the economies of coastal cities like Dar es Salaam and Mombasa prosperous? In addition to geographical and policy advantages, subjective initiative is equally important. , so we in Maputo City must also learn to look for opportunities on our own, so that we can break down economic barriers and catch up with other cities."
Someone retorted: "Mr. Mayor, you are right. But we don’t have enough contacts and resources to achieve it! If we insist on increasing production capacity, this is easy, but how to solve the problem of product sales?”
Hans Layton: “That’s very good. , this is indeed a problem for inland areas, but our city of Maputo is a coastal city after all, so the situation is different from that of inland cities. As a window for the East African economy, coastal cities have opportunities to communicate with the outside world, so This time the city government specially invited a group of professionals to help you get out of trouble."
Then at Hans Layton's signal, the secretary invited a group of people in suits and ties into the conference room.
“This is Mr. Wilco, director of the Maputo branch of the Hechingen Foreign Economic and Trade Company. He is mainly responsible for the Hechingen Foreign Economic and Trade Company’s coordinating the export work of the city’s business in this city. ." Hans Layton introduced to everyone.
"This is Mr. Greville from Portugal. He used to do import business in Mozambique all year round."
"..."
Under the introduction of Hans Layton, in the conference room Everyone knows that these are "reinforcements" brought by Hans Layton and the Maputo government. "Why should I invite these business elites here? The purpose is very simple, that is, the Maputo City Government intends to cooperate with you, and our government will complete the matchmaking to help you find sales outlets and markets. In the same way, we can also solve the problem of raw materials. Our companies in Maputo City are responsible for production and completing orders.”
Most of the businessmen invited by Hans Layton are Portuguese. After all, as a former Portuguese colony, The city of Maputo has the deepest cooperation with the Portuguese.
This is very different from the city of Beira. Cities such as Beira, with the help of the central government, attracted a large number of investments from German businessmen, but Maputo did not catch up with this train.
So Hans Layton turned his attention to the Portuguese. Although the Portuguese local economy was in a mess, it was mainly caused by the government's misdeeds, but the strength of Portuguese businessmen was not weak. After all, during the former Portuguese colonial empire, Portugal business activities all over the world.
Nowadays, Portuguese private business groups are as skinny as a camel is bigger than a horse, not to mention that colonial independence may not be able to get rid of the influence of the original sovereign.
Among them, the most typical one is Brazil. Brazilian business groups have a deep relationship with Portugal, and Brazil is undoubtedly a big market, so if we can use the Portuguese’s help to open up the Brazilian market, The help from the city of Maputo has been absolutely tremendous.
Hans Layton said: "I plan to establish a special economic office in this city. In order to promote the economic development of Maputo City, this office will be responsible for negotiating with domestic and foreign businessmen, and then through Maputo Enterprises entrusting the city to carry out unplanned production activities”
"Of course, the premise is to give priority to completing the planned production tasks, and on this basis, join the international market competition and promote the industrial and commercial development of Maputo City."
Hans Layton creatively proposed "within the plan" Of course, the management of many large state-owned factories have doubts about the concept of "unplanned". After all, in their view, completing the superior target tasks is enough, and there is no need to cause trouble.
Of course, Hans Layton did not expect these "big factory leaders" to be able to command you. Other city-owned enterprises are always under the overall management of Hans Layton.
He said to the leadership of municipal enterprises: "The municipal enterprises are small in scale and have low production efficiency, so I decided to integrate the resources of municipal enterprises in the city. For example, we have four timber companies in Maputo The factory, after the integration was completed, became one, with a guarantee from the city government and a loan from the Bank of Hechingen. It purchased a batch of advanced equipment, increased production, and expanded the production line. Finally, Mr. Greville Waiting for someone to contact buyers for sales..."
In Hans Layton's view, these small workshops have a group of skilled workers, but lack financial and equipment support, and relying on them alone will never be able to develop. Strong, so the municipal government first integrates them into a large factory, and then upgrades the tools and equipment. This way, a municipal enterprise with a good scale can be formed, which is no worse than the general state-owned enterprise factories.
Moreover, the management rights of such enterprises are mainly in the hands of the municipal government, which makes it easier for them to manage the economy and optimize resources of Maputo City. Only when they make money can they further carry out all-round transformation of Maputo City.
After all, Hans Layton cannot be content with staying put in "Maputo City", a city that was "abandoned" by East Africa. After all, according to the original status of Maputo in Mozambique, it is not the same as Maputo. Judging from the development process after the merger into East Africa, it is actually not taken seriously.
Tete, Beira, Quelimane, etc. in the north, and even Xinxiang City enjoy more policies than Maputo City, but Maputo City still has a new round of development opportunities. Provincial distribution results.
(End of this chapter)