The fact was that no country's economy could maintain high-speed growth forever, and East Africa was no exception. Therefore, during the Fifth Five-Year Plan, it was enough for the East African government to basically accomplish the goals it had set for itself at the outset.
As for the Fifth Five-Year Plan's final results, they depended not only on the government's actions, but also on developments in the domestic and international situation. For a country, the government was undoubtedly the first party responsible, but that did not mean it could truly take everything upon itself.
Of course, such words clearly could not be spoken outright. For a government, maintaining its initiative was equally important; no country could avoid this.
Therefore, Ernst would not tell East African officials that they should accept reality, that the economy was already doing very well, and that nobody needed to blame themselves. The government likewise needed to maintain its initiative.
Thus, when Ernst summarized the Fifth Five-Year Plan, he emphasized, "Although the Fifth Five-Year Plan fell short of our best expectations, these results can barely be considered passable. We must realize that the Empire's development has now reached an important bottleneck."
"Only by breaking through this bottleneck can the Empire's economy transcend the limits of a primary industrial nation. This requires the Empire's industrialization level to rise further, and its urbanization rate to ultimately reach more than 60 percent."
"The Empire's current urbanization rate is only around 40 percent. This means that the Empire still has vast room to rise. Once the Empire's industrialization level reaches Germany's current level, combined with the Empire's immense population and overall scale, East Africa will become one of the world's most important countries."
"However, every step forward from here will become more difficult. Therefore, when formulating economic plans, the government