Traffic streamed endlessly along Mombasa's city roads. Though they had already witnessed such a spectacular sight in Dar es Salaam, the Soviet delegation was still deeply shaken.
They also noticed that luxury cars were far more common on Mombasa's streets than in Dar es Salaam.
In truth, the Soviets had little concept of luxury cars themselves, because automobiles, whether expensive or cheap, were rare commodities in the Soviet Union.
Analyzing the gap between the two countries, Karimov said, "Although our Soviet Union also has an automobile industry, the disparity between us and East Africa is far too great. The number of cars in Mombasa alone could probably easily surpass that of our entire country."
Faced with Karimov's sigh, the comrades from the Soviet Ministry of Industry were rather familiar with their country's industrial data.
Sheldar from the Ministry of Industry said, "I know a little about our country's automobile industry. At present, the total number of vehicles in our country is under forty thousand, while annual output is even less than two hundred."
"In fact, as early as 1902, our country had already produced its first domestically made gasoline automobile. It was manufactured by the Frese factory in Saint Petersburg, now Leningrad, but that car could be said to have been handcrafted and could not be mass-produced."
"Later, around 1909, the Russian-Baltic Carriage Factory became our country's first true automobile manufacturer, but even at its peak, its output was only six hundred vehicles."
"That output was only built up through orders from the Imperial Russian government during the World War, when the military needed vehicles. Our automobiles still mainly relied on imports."
"Although related industries had already appeared in our country during the Imperial Russian era, the overwhelming majority of components depended entirely on imports, such as engines, bearings, tires,