"Mm, it seems that as factory director, you understand the situation inside the plant. This is an age of science and technology. What East Africa lacks are educated people, so we must listen more to the experts. But there is a saying: believing every word in a book is worse than having no books at all. Theoretical research will inevitably clash with reality, so East African factories must combine theory with practice and keep their feet on the ground while focusing on production."
What Constantin excelled at was still military affairs. He knew little about enterprise management, especially state-owned enterprises like those in East Africa, so he did not give blind commands and could only offer a few words of encouragement.
Of course, that was what Constantin thought. In reality, influenced by East Africa's broader environment, he had encountered similar enterprises before. Prussia, with its strong big-government tradition, had quite a few state-run factories, especially military-industrial enterprises. The most typical example was the nationalization of railways.
It was merely that East Africa had an excessive number of state-owned enterprises. East Africa also had many private businesses. In the east, quite a few German merchants had invested in enterprises, but East Africa's strict management meant that the amount of investment was not particularly large.
These private enterprises accounted for only a small share of the East African economy, but they could not simply be treated as nonexistent. Moreover, if these merchants accepted East Africa's many rules and regulations, it showed that they genuinely wanted to devote themselves wholeheartedly to industry. East Africa did not discriminate against merchants; it merely imposed somewhat more restrictions. As long as lawful merchants were willing to accept East Africa's rules, East Africa still welcomed them.
Hearing Constantin's words, the director of the Harare Tobacco Factory was