African Entrepreneurship Record-Chapter 641 - 319: Introduction of Foreign Capital

In September, after the Central Government transferred some construction teams from the south to the Northern Province and the Mogadishu New Port finally began construction, the Northern Province Government officially invited Austrian businessmen interested in agricultural product processing to visit and inspect Mogadishu City through the Heixinggen consortium channels.

"Ladies and gentlemen, our Northern Province has Europe's closest large scale tropical crop planting area. For years, Mogadishu has been the forefront of North East Africa's fruit and vegetable export trade. I believe that with this advantage, if you choose to invest in Mogadishu City, you will certainly gain considerable returns," Clarnis said to the Austrian businessmen at the reception.

"Mr. Mayor, it seems your port has just started constructions recently. Can you guarantee the Mogadishu Port will be operational before we invest?"

"That's not a problem. In two months, during the slack season, we'll recruit a batch of temporary workers from surrounding rural areas to accelerate the construction progress, ensuring the normal completion of Mogadishu New Port by the end of the year."

"However, there are quite a few issues to solve when building a factory in Mogadishu, such as machines needing coal to operate, industrial workers for maintenance, along with transportation, lighting, water supply, and other issues."

"Mr. Claire, we'll set your concerns aside for now, as Mogadishu City has naturally considered these issues. This brings us to our Mogadishu City New District Plan approved by the city government. To accommodate the long-term planning for Mogadishu's New Port, we're intending to build a new main district, modeled after Dar es Salaam City's southern districts, to accommodate the incoming industry while expanding the scale of the existing city," Clarnis replied.

"Are you planning to build a new city? Won't this conflict with your port construction? We don't even know when the port will be completed, so won't the so-called new district just be an empty promise, like a mirage?"

"Don't worry about that, Mr. Claire. Our new district plan will certainly not delay you from making money. You can start building the factories, and Mogadishu City will prioritize infrastructure like water supply, power plants, and roads. Of course, water and electricity will be charged, but if anyone is interested, they can also invest. As for manpower, East Africa is a country of immigrants. With support from the Central Government, we can quickly fill the shortage of manpower in Mogadishu City."

Although the scale of immigration in East Africa is not as large as before, that is only relative to the whole country. The East African Government can easily allocate enough resources for Mogadishu City to prosper.

"How will Mogadishu City solve the problem of industrial workers? Workers don't just emerge from farmland fully equipped."

"This problem is even easier to solve. We in East Africa implement compulsory education, and Mogadishu City has a large number of students, traditionally arranged to farm post-graduation. If you invest in building factories here, it just so happens we can address the employment of these middle-school graduates."

The overall education in East Africa is excessive, especially among middle-school students. East Africa's industry can't accommodate such a large number, so many students return to farming. This, however, is not without benefits — farmers also need knowledge replenishment. In this way, East African farmers' knowledge and insight can more easily adapt to mechanized, scientific cultivation and other new agricultural concepts.

"How many students can you provide?" The Austrians had no specific concept of East Africa's compulsory education, as East Africa is not an open country. Outsiders have little knowledge of East Africa.

"Last year, Mogadishu City's middle-school graduates totaled more than three hundred, with only over a hundred entering factories. The rest are available for you, and this is just Mogadishu City. The entire Northern Province should have around four thousand middle-school students."

"Do you have so many middle-school students in East Africa?"

"Certainly, but it's not as you might think. East Africa's schools differ significantly from Europe. Our students have fewer class hours, fewer courses, and more relaxed management, so it's likely their knowledge at equivalent educational levels may not meet standards. However, they hold middle-school qualifications, which definitely know more than German elementary school graduates," Clarnis said.

This is akin to the strategy of Tian Ji's horse racing: compared with similarly leveled European students, East African students certainly have noticeable deficiencies on average, but if we compare middle-school students to European elementary students, the situation flips.

Moreover, East Africa's exaggerated middle-school prevalence means there are quite many middle-school students, making this very attractive.

"If that's the case, it's acceptable. But can we visit local schools for an inspection?"

Although Clarnis's proposition was compelling, it's known that having middle-school qualifications in Europe equates to being talented, typically progressing from factory work to management positions. Seeing is believing; hearing is deceiving, so Austrian businessmen remained cautious, unsure of East Africa's educational level.

"Certainly, no problem. I'm aware this isn't very convincing for you, but the fact remains: East Africa's education promotion efforts are among the world's greatest. However, the educational quality is very uneven due to East Africa's insufficient teaching resources. Yet, as East Africa accumulates talent, this problem will diminish until it equals European middle-school level," Clarnis said.

Although East Africa generally has low educational standards, selecting the best ensures that talented individuals hold teaching positions; graduates of high-achieving teaching schools assume these roles. With continuous accumulation, East Africa will eventually overcome its shortcomings in teaching resources.

However, Clarnis also understands the Austrians. Given the Austria-Hungary Empire's situation, promoting universal primary education is already quite stretching, let alone large-scale middle-school education.

Currently, European middle schools have significant value; beyond regular courses, subjects like painting, music, religion, Latin language, and other foreign languages are extensively covered, unlike East Africa's curriculum limited to German, math, political history, geography, physics, chemistry, biology, and physical education.

Thus, East African middle schools and Austrian perceptions of middle schools diverge greatly, even considered entirely different entities. Nonetheless, this places higher demands on European students' competency.

Ernst has no doubt that European middle-school students far exceed even 21st-century university graduates in quality, with 19th-century European university students epitomizing elite status.

Amid Austrian businessmen's skepticism, the next day, Mogadishu City arranged their visit to the city's sole middle school — Mogadishu First Middle School.

It was here that Austrian businessmen finally understood the essence of East African middle schools, which are "substandard" middle schools with a strong bias toward science student cultivation.

Placing them in Europe certainly wouldn't qualify as "talent," since without art appreciation skills, how can they be counted as "middle-school students?"

Nevertheless, they are quite satisfied, considering they come to invest in factories rather than seek artists, and "substandard" middle schools are still middle schools. Their academic content surpasses German regular primary schools, leading some Austrian businessmen to contemplate bringing in "cheap" middle-school students from East Africa to work in Austria, for the quantity quenches the thirst!