Economic Problems

Abstract

One of the most important characteristics of the economies of the developing countries is the predominance of the primary industries of farming, forestry, fishing and mining. Of these activities farming is usually dominant, with a very high percentage of the active population (frequently over 70 per cent) being engaged in some form of agriculture. A few figures, selected more or less at random, will illustrate the dominance of agriculture: Botswana 87 per cent, Chad 91, Malawi 87, Bangladesh 75, India 72, Khmer Republic 76, El Salvador 60, Peru 57, Colombia 50. It is interesting to compare these figures with those of a sample of the developed countries, for example, the United Kingdom 3 per cent, France 12.9, West Germany 7.8, the United States 4.2, and Japan 14.8. Some developing countries rely to a very considerable extent upon mining; for example, in the case of Bolivia the foreign exchange revenue is derived mainly from the export of tin and other non-ferrous metals (84 per cent of export revenue in 1971); in the case of Chile copper is the most important export and source of foreign exchange (about 80 per cent of exports). Mauritania depends almost entirely upon its mineral wealth of iron and copper, which together account for around 90 per cent of its exports; and Iraq where petroleum accounts for about half of the export revenue. Many other developing countries, for example Morocco, Sierra Leone, Malaya, Guyana, also depend to some extent upon their mineral resources for part of their export trade.