Chapter 1540 - 52: Warning (2)

Chapter 1540: Chapter 52: Warning (2)

The establishment of the Industrial Standards Committee did play a tremendous role in early East African industry, setting manufacturing standards for many East African industrial products.

This meant that in the planned economy Era, the reputation of East African goods was quite good, especially in industrial sectors where East Africa was relatively strong; however, up to that point, the East African Industrial Standards Committee mainly dealt with East African state-owned enterprises.

After all, the rise of the market economy in East Africa has not been around for many years, and after 1910, the East African Industrial Standards Committee also quieted down for a period of time.

So Delaine said, "However, over the past decade or so, in order to encourage the development of private enterprises, the state relaxed market regulation, but that does not mean this situation will continue indefinitely."

"In these past ten-plus years, due to a lack of regulation, a large number of counterfeit and substandard goods have appeared on the market, seriously damaging the reputation of ’Made in East Africa’."

"Especially with some export products, because manufacturing processes failed to meet standards, or due to short weight, underfilled quantities, and similar problems, it has caused irreparable losses to East African exports."

"Your products involve exported industrial goods; some manufacturers use components supplied by you. While that has solved cost issues to a certain extent, it has also led to problems with product quality."

Gorishon responded to Investigator Delaine, "That shouldn’t be our problem, should it? After all, doing business is about willing buyers and willing sellers. Some manufacturers place orders with us, and we simply do things according to their requirements."

"After all, if our products didn’t meet their standards, they could simply choose not to place orders with my factory. So the prices they pay and the demands they themselves set, which fail to meet the national standards—on that front, you should be going after those manufacturers, not our factory!"

From Gorishon’s words, it sounded as if Gorishon Electrical Factory was being wrongly accused, but Delaine was not buying it.

He said to Gorishon, "Mr. Gorishon, don’t play dumb when you know exactly what’s going on. The production process your factory uses dates back more than ten years; it has already been explicitly listed in East Africa as an obsolete process to be phased out."

"We already reminded you three years ago that you should adopt the newly issued national production processes and manufacture related products according to the latest national standards."

"But in order to cut costs, you failed to update your production equipment in a timely manner and, despite our repeated written reminders, continued producing with outdated processes. That is already wrong in itself."

"After all, the process used in your factory is highly polluting to water sources. We received complaints long ago. Under the new process, not only can you improve production efficiency and product quality, you can also reduce pollution."

"So this is a case of knowingly violating the rules; don’t pretend to be innocent in front of me. A large portion of your factory’s products flow into the South American and European markets, and they have indeed created a negative impact on ’Made in East Africa’."

Gorishon said, "Then what about those downstream manufacturers? Our products aren’t directly for household use; they’re just primary processed goods and don’t enter the market directly. So if any rectification is needed, it should start with the downstream factories."

On this point, Delaine explained, "If this were before 1920, we naturally wouldn’t cling to this issue. But after 1920, new national standards were formulated, and with the requirements in the Fifth Five-Year Plan, we have to promote high-quality development of industry nationwide."

"In the past, our department mainly dealt with state-owned enterprises. In recent years, we have begun to involve some large private factories that have already reached a certain scale, and your enterprise is one of them."

"To put it bluntly, there are still many small workshops in Cabinda, which are very hard to regulate, so we can only address the problem at its source."

"Your factory is one of the key suppliers to many small home-appliance workshops, so in order to raise the overall level of East African manufacturing, this time we are prioritizing inspections of enterprises above a designated scale."

"As for some of your clients, they won’t escape either; it’s only a matter of time. As our department expands again, our regulatory grip on the market will only grow stronger."

Delaine spoke bluntly. At least at this stage, East African Government oversight of the market is focused mainly on industrial enterprises of the scale of Gorishon Electrical Factory and above.

In the past, in order to boost the development of East Africa’s market economy, the East African market regulation authorities were almost invisible. Now, the East African Government believes that after more than ten years of development, East Africa has cultivated a large number of capable private enterprises, and these private enterprises naturally should also be brought under national supervision.

Over the past decade-plus, the share of the East African state-owned economy has shrunk from more than seventy percent to just over forty percent. This alone shows how wildly the private economy in East Africa has grown in that period.

And this kind of unchecked growth has also brought a slew of problems, especially knockoffs and shoddy, crudely made products, but the most serious issue among them is product counterfeiting.

These have not only harmed East African consumers at home, but have also had an extremely adverse impact on the reputation of East African export goods; and once credibility collapses, it is obviously detrimental to the long-term, healthy development of East African industry.

Delaine said to Gorishon, "In the coming years, the state’s regulation of the market will only grow stricter, not just in terms of product quality, but also regarding production equipment and technological upgrades, business operations, financial conditions, workers’ welfare and benefits, and so on."