Chapter 1201 Economic System Advantages
Currently, 28% of the electricity supply in East Africa comes from hydropower. This proportion is quite huge. After all, the proportion of hydropower in the previous Far Eastern Empire was less than 100%. of twenty.
However, the development of hydropower resources in East Africa is not sufficient, and there is still huge room for growth. The reason for such a large proportion of hydropower development in East Africa, in addition to natural advantages, is also closely related to the national conditions of East Africa.
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 reduce the amount of water in the rainy season. The water is intercepted to ensure water supply for industry and agriculture.
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 also It's 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, the current electricity supply in East Africa is Thermal power still has an absolute advantage, up to about 70%, and due to regional energy characteristics, different fuels are used as the basis for power generation. For example, southern East Africa uses coal, while some northern areas use oil or natural gas. In addition to hydropower, the west also uses a large amount of oil for power generation. The fuel used by the plant. "
"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 that has Countries with electricity penetration rates exceeding 50%.”
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 advancement, East Africa already had independent hydropower and thermal power generation knowledge at that time property rights, achieving 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 highest electricity penetration rate in the world. In the lowest areas, even 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 is also An important reason why East Africa's Third Five-Year Plan faces a 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, production lines in East Africa could be quickly rolled out, turning these infrastructures into catalysts for production, and at the same time relying on the international market vacated during World War I to absorb the losses in East Africa during the first two five-year plans. construction results.
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 were on almost all night, and the whole city looked like day even at night. ”
“Every household in Dar es Salaam is connected to electricity. Many East African families have a considerable number of home appliances. Take the Oriental Hotel where we are located as an example, including lights, telephones, radios, and phonographs. Everything is ready, the development of Western countries is terrible now!”
“Is this so-called electrification? We haven’t even caught up with the cars of the steam era, but now we are left behind by Western society! Big cut.”
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 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 technological level was far behind that of European and American countries, but precisely because of its economic system advantages, East Africa caught up and became a leader in some fields."
"Among them, electricity and internal combustion engines are The two most typical cases are that 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.”
In fact, it should be said that East African electric power technology is the leader. It comes from the Hechingen Consortium. The Hechingen Consortium should be regarded as one of the earliest capital groups involved in investment in the electric power field. It has made important contributions to the early stage of power construction in East Africa. Of course, Wang Hailong does not know much about this.
“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 on doing big things, through full support of the government, and unified coordination of resource allocation. , the scale of East Africa's power industry has expanded rapidly, and has finally achieved the effect of breaking through the surface, driving the development of other industries in the country."
General Manager Zhang said: "It is better to concentrate on doing big things, this sentence is the East African economy. The true essence of development, after all, East Africa has rapidly emerged as a powerful industrial country in just a few decades, and there is indeed a reason for this. ”
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 that of the East African government. According to psychological expectations, the urbanization rate of the entire East Africa 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 in its own country.
During the Third Five-Year Plan period, East Africa’s urbanization rate has increased significantly, even exceeding the growth rate of the first two five-year plans. However, it is undeniable that in comparison with other industrial powers, East Africa’s urbanization rate It 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 also It is about ten percentage points higher than that in East Africa.
(End of this chapter)