What are the factors that led to contemporary differences in development between countries?

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What are the factors that led to the contemporary differences in development

Newly industrialised country’s or NICs are those formerly  LEDC’s that  have industrialized rapidly in the last 20 years  by exporting manufactured goods to richer countries  and reinvesting the profits in their economy . The most common of these NICS are found in South East Asia and include but are not limited to South Korea , Taiwan ,Singapore and Hong Kong . Other NIC’s are as a result of the discovery of Oil . These oil rich countries are mostly found in the middle east and include The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Much like the Asian NICS these oil rich countries have used  the profits  from the vast expanses of oil at their disposal to develop their countries and their economy .

NICs have developed due to a solid combination of Social , economic  , political and physical factors working in their favour , the opposite could be said of LEDC’s like Haiti which are very poorly developed . Beginning with political factors , the downfall for most LEDC’s is the  abundance of corruption in their governments . Most of their leaders  are too concerned with lining their own pockets than developing the nation which usually leaves the nation under-developed  while their leaders live very lavish lifestyles .This is the case with Haiti one of the poorest countries in the world .Haiti was under a dictatorship  since its independence  and instead  of flourishing under new leadership it withered as  Francois Duvalier ran the country with an iron fist  while stealing from the country . Haiti like most LEDC’s in their position  had bad relations with the MEDC’s  leading to lack of investment in the country  which is the opposite of South Korea  an example of clever governance .South Korea  is an example of an NIC that has used its excellent links with MEDC’s like the USA to good use by encouraging foreign investment in the country  and by using Aid money to invest  in state owned companies .  South Korea  also encouraged  large TNCs to settle in the company and they helped develop it as they provide  employment for the masses  and usually assist  by providing housing  and healthcare for their employees .  Politics good or bad  is very important in the development or lack of development in a country  and politics directly affects the economy of a country .

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South Korea’s economy is booming thanks to a combination of  high taxes on foreign goods  and  a large ready made workforce . South Korea’s taxes on imported goods forced consumers to look to Korean made goods before foreign goods . This creates jobs and Korean companies are able to flourish without much competition from foreign companies .The government also invested heavily in research and the development of hi-tech goods which has made South Korea one of the top manufacturers and exporters of such goods . TNCs like Sony from Japan have also been attracted to the low wages and low ...

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