Chapter 995 Service-oriented Government
Mayor Lorraine continued: "Based on the above situation, the first external force that we can rely on for Mombasa's economic development is the central policy tilt, and the second is Provincial support, the third is other provinces in East Africa, and what I want to talk about next is the fourth force that can be used, which is foreign capital.”
“At present, in the economic development of various cities in East Africa, there are One city is a typical example of development with the help of foreign capital, and that is the city of Maputo in the Hanseatic Province.”
“I think everyone is familiar with the city of Maputo, which was the capital of the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique. After the South African War, Maputo City’s status in East Africa’s economy and politics actually declined. This made Maputo City not have an advantage in the resources and policies it obtained, and its conditions were worse than our Mombasa City. "
"With the support of the Hanseatic Province and the Maputo Municipal Government, Maputo City has introduced a large number of foreign capital such as Portugal, and has achieved good results in economic development in the past few years. , and with the completion of the Maputo Steel Plant in the First Five-Year Plan, there is no doubt that this is a sign of its return to the ranks of important cities.”
"This also gives us a direction of thinking, that is, how to fully utilize foreign capital in the development of Mombasa. Through in-depth analysis and understanding, I discovered an area that is often overlooked, and that is our country's lack of colonial awareness. Or the attention of capital in backward countries.”
The words of Mayor Lorraine undoubtedly aroused everyone’s interest, because colored glasses, colonial or backward countries, always give people the impression of poverty and backwardness. It doesn't get much attention either.
Lorraine continued: "But people often overlook an important point, that is, the people in these colonies or backward countries are indeed poor, but their upper class is very rich."
"I would like to highlight India among them. India is a British colony. There is no doubt that in the propaganda and impression of East Africa, Indians are enslaved and brutally exploited by the British. Many Indians are hungry. Famines often occur. "
"However, because of this we often forget that Indians are not all lower class people. Indian society has the most complete racial system. Brahmins, Kshatriyas or others in India. Many of the upper echelons of the sect, or the princes and nobles, are arrogant and extravagant beings. They control a large amount of wealth in India, and through cooperation with the British, they have the autonomy to control their own wealth. "
"The British are like the Mongols in history. Although the Mongols exploited other areas, they achieved mutual benefit by colluding with local interest groups."
After all, the bad things were done by the colonists. , so that local interest groups can get benefits without having to bear the stigma. This is how the Indian princes and nobles cooperated with the British.
And when the contradictions at the lower levels of Indian society were completely aroused and unable to be suppressed, they jumped out, "complied" with the people's hearts, pretended to be heroes who drove away the British colonists, and took over the state power.
Of course, for these princes, nobles and high-caste Indians, no matter how dark they are, they will not hinder Mayor Lorraine's ideas.
He said clearly: "The key point is that these high-level people in India control a large amount of social wealth, and most of the wealth of Indian princes and nobles is achieved through rent collection and taxation. This makes the Indian princes and nobles There is a lot of unspent wealth stored in your hands.”
"Although Indian princes and nobles may have investments and industries in the UK, the proportion of their wealth is definitely not high. This can be seen from our commercial trade with India."
"In Over the past five years, India has been Mombasa's second-largest consumer of cars, with a large portion of orders coming from India's maharajahs. They are rich people, and Indians are not bad at doing business. During the South African War, a large number of Indian businessmen served the British and Portuguese armies. These Indian businessmen also accumulated a lot of wealth through the British colonial system." "So we. If you want to obtain industrial development funds, you can completely get them from the upper levels of these countries and regions that are backward but have a lot of funds. to attract people to invest in Mombasa.”
“And we happen to have advantages in this regard. First of all, we are very close to India, the Middle East and other countries. There are many groups of Arab and Indian merchants in Mombasa itself.”
“We can use this as a breakthrough. Let's make a breakthrough and jointly build a group of industrial enterprises with the bosses behind them. Don't be stingy with some policy concessions, which are nothing more than support in terms of land rent. As long as we let them invest money in the construction of our factories first, they will You can’t get away easily, and you have to be on our side to help sell the product.”
Lorraine's idea is to seize these external capital through joint ventures. As long as they fall into the trap set by Lorraine, it will not be easy for these external funds to withdraw their investment. Before the factory is built and put into production, they will not be able to recover the cost, and after it is put into production We also need to help solve the sales problem, and companies that are capable of cooperating with the Mombasa Municipal Government are definitely not ordinary people. They have strength and connections in the region. This will make it easier for Mombasa's industrial products to open up new sales.
“Of course, we cannot catch all the benefits, we must give them the sweetness they deserve. People cannot stand without trust, and we cannot sacrifice the future of Mombasa for short-term interests. What we need is industry to solve the employment problem, not The primary goal is profit. ”
“Only after the industry is established and developed can we consider other issues and take a long-term view to catch big fish.”
“If the reputation of Mombasa in the Indian Ocean is tarnished due to credibility issues, let alone surpassing Dar es Salaam, we may even lose future development opportunities.”
< br>Mombasa cannot ignore the city’s business environment just because of its geographical advantages. Many cities cannot develop because of the laziness and neglect of local governments, or even aid in their misfortune.
If there is no supervision, the business environment anywhere will be quite poor. After all, more than 99.9% of businessmen are only interested in profit. This is inevitable in various countries today.
This also puts forward higher requirements for the Mombasa Municipal Government. As an important commercial center in East Africa, Mombasa City must provide comfortable services to passing merchants so that more merchants can come to Mombasa to look for them. opportunities to drive local economic development.
Just imagine, the officials of the Mombasa Municipal Government are all putting on bad faces, which will definitely leave a bad impression on foreign businessmen. This will inevitably have a bad impact on the image of the Mombasa Municipal Government, and will give Local commercial and trade activities have had a negative impact.
So Lorraine emphasized to various departments of the city government: "Keep in mind that service-oriented government is an important development goal of our city of Mombasa. In this increasingly competitive era, a smiling face may give foreigners If a businessman has a good impression, he may directly invest in an industry if he is in a good mood.”
“So, I will include the government’s service attitude in the evaluation of Mombasa city officials to further strengthen supervision and supervision. , and at the same time, we will organize a personnel training next month. If anyone messes with me, I will make you lose your hat. Don’t feel wronged. These are necessary measures for the success of the Greater Mombasa City Plan. Even I will lead by example. .”
(End of this chapter)