The Reason Why the Developing countries are not developing - Essay Example

The question that puzzles the minds of many economists, politicians and the general population pertains to why the developing countries are not developing. This is due to the fact that they have remained underdeveloped for more than a century and very few show signs of becoming industrialized or developed in the near future. The objective of this paper is to explore why and what measures make a country be categorized as a developing country. It will also discuss why there is the lack of development in these countries.

The development of a nation is usually measured with statistical indexes such as life expectancy, income per capita, gross domestic product (GDP), and literacy rate among others.2 A Human Development Indicator for the above statistics has been developed by the United Nations to measure the human development levels for countries where reliable data can be found. Based on these statistics, a country is categorized as developing when it has not yet achieved a considerable degree of industrialization relative to their population, and with low standards of living.

These countries are also categorized as developing countries since they have low literacy levels, low income per capita, and short life expectancy. Why Developing Countries Are Still Not Developed Several reasons have been established as the leading factors contributing to underdevelopment in developing countries, first being lack of infrastructure. Most of these developing countries have not yet taken the initiative of investing enough to construct the infrastructure that boosts the efficiency of both capital inputs and labor.

3 The main reason is that it is generally costly to install an infrastructure as it requires a large capital expenditure. However, since most of these countries are still poor, they are not in a position to invest much in the infrastructure. Infrastructure is important for the development of a nation. For example, hospitals are necessary to maintain the health of the working population. Roads are also important to promote trade and attract investments in a country. Lack of good highways usually increases the cost of transport, thus hampering trade.

Good housing as an infrastructure is also necessary to shelter the working population. Moreover, growth of urban areas is dependent on investment in infrastructure. However, all these infrastructural facilities being either unavailable or poor is what hamper development in developing countries; this is evident in countries such as Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Syria among others. Lack of skills has also been singled out as a factor contributing to underdevelopment in developing countries.4 Development of a country is highly dependent on the literacy level of the population and the ability to embrace the use of technology.

This is what has made countries such as the United States, Britain, Germany, and France to become fully developed. China is also a new country that was a decade ago considered as a developing country has embraced the use of technology. This has moved it from a developing country to an industrial one. However, most developing countries lack the skills and the proper education to enable its population to employ the use of techno