From 1910 to 1915, East Africa's economic performance was not the slightest bit inferior to that of the preceding decade. During the first two Five-Year Plans, East Africa had decades of accumulated foundations beneath it, allowing it to achieve a long buildup and sudden release. The Third Five-Year Plan, meanwhile, had caught a favorable window of historical opportunity.
With the arrival of 1916, East Africa's "Fourth Five-Year Plan" was officially formulated and implemented. It also specifically addressed certain problems East Africa had encountered after launching the New Economic Policy.
The Fourth Five-Year Plan bore characteristics that were not wholly planned, and its significance was entirely different. To a certain extent, it reflected a transformation in the East African government's economic functions.
Due to the implementation of the New Economic Policy, planning and the market had operated side by side in East Africa during the Third Five-Year Plan period. There was no doubt that such a sudden turn in the economic sphere had exerted a tremendous impact on the national economy.
Yet with the historical opportunity presented by the First World War, the Third Five-Year Plan had still achieved a smooth landing. However, that did not mean the problems it exposed should be deliberately ignored simply because of economic prosperity.
In particular, the lack of macroeconomic regulatory tools for the free market had allowed East Africa's free market to grow like wild grass, exposing a great many social and economic problems.
Thus, the shift from a Five-Year Plan to a Five-Year Program signified a major change in the East African government's model of governance in the economic sphere.
In Ernst's words: "Balancing the unified and coordinated development of planning and the market, while bringing into play the dual strengths of government and market, will be an important feature of East African