Chapter 1085: Chapter 94: Seven Major Urban Agglomerations
Steel production is an important factor used by East Africa to measure the level of national industrial development, so it is always placed at the forefront of national industrial development meetings.
The potential of East Africa’s steel industry remains enormous, mainly due to the advancement of two five-year plans, which have elevated the country’s own industrial level, increasing the gap in the steel industry.
Therefore, during the three-five plan, significantly increasing East Africa’s steel production remains an important task for the East African government.
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Following the analysis of the steel industry, the East African government did not continue to summarize other industries but first provided an overview of the national regional economy and industrial development.
Sivert said, "Currently, our country has formed three major industrial clusters: the East, the Central, and the West. These three industrial clusters have allowed our country’s industry to develop rapidly, forming three industrial zones that are in no way inferior to those of other countries."
Among East Africa’s three major industrial clusters, even the weakest Western cluster has already developed significantly through two five-year plans, and it is considered a well-developed industrial area even among the great powers.
Besides, industrial development in southern East Africa is also commendable, but the southern industry is concentrated along the coast in New Hamburg Port City and Maputo City, with weaker inland industry and urban development.
Thus, the Southern industrial cluster can only be considered half-developed, resulting in East Africa essentially forming three and a half major industrial clusters. Using the equator as a boundary, East Africa’s economy clearly exhibits the characteristic of being strong in the south and weak in the north.
"We currently divide the country into seven major metropolitan areas based on actual conditions. These seven metropolitan areas are primarily based on inter-regional industrial development levels and are not strongly interconnected. After rough calculations and renderings, we defined the seven most powerful contiguous urban areas nationwide as the seven major metropolitan areas: the Rhein Metropolitan Area, the Bohemia and Lorraine Metropolitan Area, the East Coast Metropolitan Area, the West Coast Metropolitan Area, the Lake Malawi Metropolitan Area, the Southern Metropolitan Area, and the Great Lake Metropolitan Area."
The very names of the seven metropolitan areas indicate that they are informal concepts used temporarily by the East African government for reference in national economic and industrial development.
Even internally, these seven metropolitan areas may not have profound policy and economic connections. The East African government simply linked geographically close and economically similarly developed areas to form the so-called seven major metropolitan areas on the map.
Sivert introduced the map: "The Rhein Metropolitan Area, centered on Rhein City and New Frankfurt City, includes important cities such as Kabwe, Lusaka, Kitwe, and Lubumbashi, covering core industries like non-ferrous metal smelting, electricity, automobile manufacturing, steel, precision instrument manufacturing, and railroads."
The Rhein Metropolitan Area, also known as the Capital Metropolitan Area, is a dual-core structure. Although Rhein City stands out as the capital of East Africa, economically, it is mainly centered on New Frankfurt City, which has borne the economic, transportation, and industrial management functions of Rhein City from the beginning.
"The Bohemia and Lorraine Metropolitan Area, centered on Harare City and Bulawayo City, includes cities like Tatu, Kuilo, and Rope. Aside from Harare and Bulawayo, it is dominated by many small and medium-sized industrial and mining cities, covering industries such as extraction, steel, non-ferrous metal smelting, large-scale machinery manufacturing, textiles, and electricity."
"The East Coast Metropolitan Area, centered on Dar es Salaam City and Mombasa City, includes important cities like Nairobi City, Bagamoyo, and First Town City. Its total economic output is among the top nationwide, second only to the Bohemia and Lorraine Metropolitan Area, especially in terms of import and export trade, covering industries such as chemicals, steel, textiles, and electricity."
"The West Coast Metropolitan Area, centered on Cabinda City and Luanda City, includes cities like Kinshasa City, Lobito City, Benguela City, and Alexandria Port City. Leveraging our trade with Atlantic countries, it has rapidly developed and currently ranks fourth."
"The Lake Malawi Metropolitan Area, centered on Mbeya City and Tete City, has seen Tete City maintain rapid development in recent years. Although there remains a significant gap compared to Mbeya City, due to geographic reasons, Mbeya City is at the northernmost end of Lake Malawi, while Tete City is at the southern end. The two complement each other highly, ranking second nationwide in heavy industry share, with steel production currently ranking second nationwide."
"The Southern Metropolitan Area, centered on New Hamburg Port City and Maputo City, is the area where the Zulu and Boer people were originally distributed. It is the most resource-rich region in our country and is prominent in industries such as steel, shipbuilding, and electricity."
"The Great Lake Metropolitan Area does not have any distinct core cities. The most developed cities in the area are Kisumu City, Mwanza City, and Kampala City. It is the weakest in strength among the seven major metropolitan areas, with the most prominent water transportation advantage nationwide and the largest agricultural processing industry scale in the country."
The concept of seven major metropolitan areas is a summary of the industrial development during the two-five plan, representing the seven most concentrated and developed industrial regions in East Africa, signifying that East Africa’s industry has formed a massive and relatively concentrated scale.
Moreover, many of the seven major metropolitan areas are predominantly dual-core, the most typical being Dar es Salaam City and Mombasa City in the East Coast Metropolitan Area, and Harare City and Bulawayo City in the Bohemia and Lorraine Metropolitan Area.
"The seven major metropolitan areas reflect the overall distribution of our country’s industry, accounting for over seventy percent of our industrial production."
"However, this also brings uncertainty to our country’s future industrial and urban development. The current high concentration of industrial production could easily lead to disparities in national economic development levels, but industrial agglomeration has also contributed to the development of our industry."
As soon as Sivert finished speaking, it sparked reflection among everyone. The boundary between the agglomeration and dispersion of East African industries is not clear. The effects of industrial agglomeration are indeed evident, but the second five-year plan is noticeably more balanced compared to the first five-year plan.
It was even more so before the first five-year plan when East and Central East dominated a large portion of the industry and economy. Now, due to the industrial development of the western and southern regions, East African regions are evidently more balanced compared to before the first five-year plan.
Ernst expressed his views, "The speed of our country’s industrial development indicates that the current path is not problematic. As for the relationship between pursuing speed and balance, it requires a dynamic perspective."
"Currently, our industry primarily aims to pursue stock because the primary issue we need to consider is competition with other great powers around the world. Therefore, concentrating efforts on major tasks, improving production efficiency, and reducing costs are more important for us. Only after firmly grasping the market should we shift our focus elsewhere."
"This is akin to a person needing to be fed before pursuing anything else. Currently, our national strength cannot support balanced development across the country, and even if we wanted to achieve balanced development, it would be unrealistic. We can only achieve relative balance."
"The emergence of the seven major metropolitan areas indicates that during the past decade, our industrial development trend in these seven regions, which have combined advantages in resources, population, transportation, and markets, has risen unexpectedly in the national economy, rather than by chance."
"Our country is currently facing a major period of transformation in the world pattern. The international situation is becoming increasingly volatile, especially with growing conflicts among European countries, which also represent our opportunity in East Africa. To gain an advantage in the next few years, we must first ensure the expansion of the domestic industrial scale before considering other issues."
Without the development under the two five-year plans, East Africa could not have formed the current seven major metropolitan areas. At least in the west, Mozambique, and other areas where East African governance was established later, without policy bias, it would have been impossible to reach the same level as other places within a short period.
If industrial development is inadequate, it would be impossible to form large metropolitan areas. Although there is still a lot of room for industrial strength improvement in these metropolitan areas today, it also indicates the first two five-year plans in East Africa were qualified.
