Why developing countries should add value to what they produce.

[karabiber]

Many countries in Africa were colonized. During the colonial period, minerals were mined and shipped. This structure remained largely unchanged after independence. Because both infrastructure and industry remained in the colonial countries. Processing minerals requires high technology, energy infrastructure, skilled labor and huge investment. So everything depends on money. In many African countries, there is not enough capital to make this investment. Multinational mining companies have taken over most of the land. Local governments are dependent on raw material exports due to agreements with these companies. In addition, the persistent problem of instability in Africa prevents breaking this cycle.

[Frankolala]

Majority of countries in Africa are third world countries and the corruption is very high. The government does not want to make value from raw materials because they are benefiting from it one way or the other. For example, when the crude is exported and refined, it comes back to the country and those in charge are the ones that don't want such products to be refined here.

[uneng]

Majority of countries in Africa are third world countries and the corruption is very high. The government does not want to make value from raw materials because they are benefiting from it one way or the other. For example, when the crude is exported and refined, it comes back to the country and those in charge are the ones that don't want such products to be refined here.

Meanwhile, they blame first world countries and imperialism for their own failure. After all, each society has the government it deserves. To blame others for personal failures has never helped anyone to evolve in life, therefore, if third world countries don't change this mindset while addressing their own issues (which is heavily around corruption matter), nothing is going to improve for real.

Skilled and professional individuals will continue migrating to developed countries where their labor force is well paid, remaining for their originary countries the alternative of selling raw materials for cheap price, while importing the manufactured goods paying expensive fees.

[Spinning99]

They absolutely should, just selling raw resources is the worst thing. You get most of the negative effects of mining or exploiting resources, and you get the least amount of profit.

Are you sure if your business can run smooth without get attacked by mafias?

The problem in developing countries are much more complex than just your idea to improve the country, your risk aren't only bankrupt, but you're risking your life too. What you see now is like a system, where there are many people depend on that to feed their families.

If you want to change the system, you have to deal with people who work on the previous system, they will see you as a threat to their life.

It is not just the mafias, but the government itself often acts like mafias. We talk about both local and federal governments. They can be your friend and allow you to operate nicely or even support you, or they can be your enemy and send all kinds of inspections all the time and fine you for things that nobody else gets fined for ever. Usually they ask for money or other stuff to be your friend, so in the end you don't have a choice. Now combine this issue with actual mafia too, from which the government does not protect you and you have a big problem.

[lionheart78]

There is a degree of added value being created in places, but unfortunately Africa has many faults that are yet to be corrected. You need effective transportation networks to move goods around, often these resources have a hard enough time just making it to port. Then you need all the legal structures and related facilities that are trusted (not to take bribes among other things) which are in a weak state in many countries on this continent, otherwise successful businesses can end up getting hijacked and crumble back to nothing. These are just the foundations, if you can work your way to getting those right then you can start to formulate a wider supply chain - advanced tech requires all sorts of components to be sourced and assembled in a cost effective manner, so ideally you have lots of small producers in a tight geographic area for key components and can import the rest.

In short I believe you are implying that Africa needs an uncorrupt government in order to process these added value stuff.  Until the government is clean of these corrupt officials, these so called added value for their products is far from happening.

In order to produce products at the minimum cost, the infrastructure should be at its highest level, enabling the shipment, creation of finish products, and raw materials sources to be purchase at minimal cost.

In summary it's too simple to say that they have the raw ingredients so should be able to create everything. Places like China made huge leaps in just a few decades, but that required a plan with a lot of effort and sacrifice.

Aside from that there is also political influence in any production, like some country even with the capability to produce something, is barred from producing it.  I believe it is the agreement between the government and a powerful country that restricts the freedom of production.

[CageMabok]

Majority of countries in Africa are third world countries and the corruption is very high. The government does not want to make value from raw materials because they are benefiting from it one way or the other. For example, when the crude is exported and refined, it comes back to the country and those in charge are the ones that don't want such products to be refined here.

If only the countries themselves could refine the oil within their own countries without having to send it to other countries, perhaps most of the problems in African countries could be easily resolved, as long as the corruption wasn't so widespread. Because the large revenues from oil resources won't be enough to help if the government still shows signs of corruption and doesn't care about its own people and economy. And I'm also puzzled as to why the majority of African countries are still like this in this modern era, when many countries have improved from bad things to become better in the present.

[peter0425]

Africa a continent full of natural and mineral resources has been known only to be exporting raw minerals resources into the rest of the world without adding value to what they produce and so they buy what they give out cheap to the rest of the world in a costly price because when it gets back to Africa what they give out unrefined without thinking about adding value to what they produce becomes ten times the amount of what they sold it

The thing is the government must have a difficult time balancing how the local producers are having to promote all array of products ino their citizens in a cheap price. Like the most ideal thing is to raise the salary of everyone but lessen the living fee costs.z Though if everyone is earning a lot, then the priced wouldn’t appear expensive.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

Africa a continent full of natural and mineral resources has been known only to be exporting raw minerals resources into the rest of the world without adding value to what they produce and so they buy what they give out cheap to the rest of the world in a costly price because when it gets back to Africa what they give out unrefined without thinking about adding value to what they produce becomes ten times the amount of what they sold it

Hardwork beats talent when there's no efforts from the talent to develop what they have. The western world knows they don't have the raw material and the only way of getting it is by finding out how to refine it and that's why they aren't ready to teach the developing world how they refine the raw material. They prefer to buy the raw materials and refine it themselves. The refining process aren't that easy and for those that try to act independent, they get outcasted. We can try to do things on our own but we still need the western world because they're the producers of all the machines being used for the mining and refining process. It isn't a fair world but we have to look for means to get a higher share of the pie and not acting like cowards.

[Findingnemo]

Apart from the lack of infrastructure, the government just enjoying the tax money for the expoting of goods and then they import as finished product back into the country because people is going to be affected due to this double taxation not the government so need someone to see the burden for the people and also help with the attractive policies to bring more investment form other countries to build the refinieries inside the country itself.

[kotajikikox]

The fact that those countries supply raw materials to developed countries is necessary for the system to keep running. Because as long as those countries are exploited, developed countries can live in prosperity. Cocoa workers do not even earn as much as the price of one chocolate bar per day.

Are you saying that in a system there will always be the ones being exploited and ones exploiting them? The ones exploiting and benefiting of course wouldn’t care but those being exploited they should find a way to at least make their hardwork actually mean something and let them live with better benefits and opportunities.

[justdimin]

This is an old discussion especially for Africa and it is highly overdue. The sole reasons why African leaders are not even interested in exporting finished products is definitely laxity and corruption, they want as fast money as they can lay their hands on to be able to recoup the investment they made during elections which is usually monetized. The election budget of one of the political party of my country the last time we had a general elections was over $1b, money they definitely borrowed overseas to fund the elections to be repaid with natural resources. This was part of the reason they made some economic blunders foisted on them by IMF, and have crashed our economy thereby sending people to poverty.

As long as Africa continue to practice democracy, forget about development and industrialization because the Chinese mistake cannot be allowed to happen in Africa. In other words, our elections will continue to be manipulated and the worst of Africans chosen to lead them to death and there is hardly anything anybody can do about it.

When you have a problem with today, you do not invest for tomorrow. Just as an example, we are seeing these days Mr. Beast, a youtuber, trying to collect a lot of money, to build wells and other similar stuff to provide clean water to Africans all over. That means, there are people with no access to clean water in Africa.

If you have a trouble with something as simple as clean water, do you really think that you can make investments for the future? You need money right away, to fix todays issues first. And obviously they are not ruled good, even in democratic parts of Africa they are not, and of course corruption does exists.

But can you say it's greatly ruled in EU? USA? China? USA is going down the drain by everyday by Trump, EU is doing worse on almost every policy, China is a dictatorship. Like all other places are bad too. Only difference is, Africa was pillaged, and USA wasn't.

[shield132]

Africa a continent full of natural and mineral resources has been known only to be exporting raw minerals resources into the rest of the world without adding value to what they produce and so they buy what they give out cheap to the rest of the world in a costly price because when it gets back to Africa what they give out unrefined without thinking about adding value to what they produce becomes ten times the amount of what they sold it


Talk of oils and gas that is abundant in West and Southern Africa which includes counties like Nigeria, chad etc which has no refineries and still depends on processed import of petroleum products like PMS, cooking gas  and with rear earth minerals like lithium cobalt,  copper, diamond, gold, graphite, ilmenite, iron ore, kaolin, kyanite, lignite, limestone, manganese, monazite, quartz, rutile, salt, tin, and uranium in countries like Angola, Burundi, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Sao Tomé and Principe. at much more higher price than the once that they sold it out it's a sign that developing countries needs to add value to what they produce because adding value is the Gulf that exists between developing and the developed world

Until developing countries stops exporting raw minerals and import processed products at a more costly rate which is the order of the day that most of
African countries do they can't be talking about competing with the rest of the world because the world is a competitive place and until a country starts adding value to what they have such country will still be consuming and remains dependent on the rest of the world adding value in terms of production and processing of the natural and mineral resources through building of factories and industrialization which will lead to mass production and such countries becomes self sufficient developing countries will always depends on the rest of the world to survive.

They should build factories to process raw materials into something good. Sadly, this problem also exists in my country, we import things and export processed goods because we don't build factories and don't produce anything, we completely depend on imports. The situation is terrible in my country, especially in agriculture sector. We produce few foods but their quality is high. One of the government official told me that we sell local fruit and vegetables in the EU and import low quality product from Turkey because it gives us a significantly good profit. I asked him, Isn't it better to invest in the local agriculture market and produce high-quality food for our population? He basically told me that the profit matters more than the health of our people.

[Salahmu]

That's the disadvantage of ignorance, what someone thinks cannot be use for an important thing could actually be a very important thing when the person that knows the right use for for it sees it, although I don't see much that Africans are exporting to another countries but instead they are actually the ones that brought to Africa but however alot of things they're bringing is something the african countries would have produced by themselves because there is no difficulty in that but all they only need is the person that has the knowledge of it, one thing that affects a lot of mindset in Africa is that they believe anything that is not from there make is the original than something that doesn't come from there region. This mindset is not only in the DNA of some Africans countries but some others across are applicable.

[abhiseshakana]

Global inequality persists, with developed countries at the center of the global value chain, while developing countries are on the periphery. African countries struggle to escape the resource curse. Abundant natural resources discourage countries from developing other sectors, ultimately leading to structural dependency. If commodity prices fall, the economies of raw material-producing countries are immediately impacted.

The colonial economic structure was designed to allow colonies to produce only raw materials (coffee, rubber, spices, metal ores, oil), which were then processed in their parent countries. After independence, their infrastructure, technology, and trade systems remained based on outdated patterns, with an economic culture that tended to continue patterns that had proven to generate foreign exchange, making it difficult to transition to the manufacturing industry.

Many African countries, if they wish to transition to the manufacturing industry, are hampered by technological limitations. Turning iron ore into cars or bauxite into computer chips requires high technology, research, and trained human resources, which are often limited. This is further compounded by limited initial capital.

Factories processing finished goods require significant investment, while access to international financing is often prohibitive for developing countries due to high risk premiums, compounded by dependence on foreign exchange. Direct investment, where downstream industries often only grow with the presence of foreign investors. The problem is, investors prefer to relocate factories to countries with political stability, mature infrastructure, and large markets.

[Accardo]

People in the third world were lucky enough to dominate a mineral filled land, and felt comfortable with it, what they're doing with the developed nations is division of labor, or trade by barter. They can't have all the resources including how to refine it, if they do, then the other nations won't have anything else to do with refining the minerals in Africa, but to buy, which will help the continent financially. However, if such power is handed out to Africans, the first world nation literally will get ruined. For instance, see what's with France and Burkina Faso, not that they could refine, but they just changed hands, and you could see how France was struggling to get their position back with the nation.

[Asiska02]

Are you sure if your business can run smooth without get attacked by mafias?

The problem in developing countries are much more complex than just your idea to improve the country, your risk aren't only bankrupt, but you're risking your life too. What you see now is like a system, where there are many people depend on that to feed their families.

If you want to change the system, you have to deal with people who work on the previous system, they will see you as a threat to their life.

Even if there are mafias in places like this which make it not easy for Africans to dominate based on what they produce and have in reserve in their countries, they still need to be united and deal with their internal crises which is mostly corruption and bribery. You can’t see a country that has sold their dignity for a few dollars which can’t be compared to what they can produce in the global market to the most developed countries, they will definitely not see any progress in their countries.

The enemy outside can’t defeat you internally except there is an enemy within disguised as part of you. If the world is run with mafias that can’t be touched, you guys should unite and create your own mafia and see how the others react to it when they begin to see you as a formidable threat they can’t deal with like they use to in the past. Those countries untied to achieve this global recognition, so Africans uniting is the best way to also add value to what they produce and have significant say in the global financial markets.

[AmoreJaz]

Apart from the lack of infrastructure, the government just enjoying the tax money for the expoting of goods and then they import as finished product back into the country because people is going to be affected due to this double taxation not the government so need someone to see the burden for the people and also help with the attractive policies to bring more investment form other countries to build the refinieries inside the country itself.

I believe this is happening not only in Africa but other Asian countries as well. As they are rich in natural resources like minerals and they don't have the technology to refine it, hence, they need to send it to other countries which are capable of refining it. And when it gets back, the price is already expensive and that's the sad part of it. Those who are producing such minerals are the ones paying for it. In short, the country which is producing such valuable minerals should develop their technology in refining those minerals to more valuable finished products. Because in most cases, they are behind with the technology, hence, they need to send to countries with advanced technologies or capable of further refining it.

[Stepstowealth]

Until developing countries stops exporting raw minerals and import processed products at a more costly rate which is the order of the day that most of
African countries do they can't be talking about competing with the rest of the world.

It is corruption that is making African countries still depend heavily on importation of finished produce that they can even produce locally and then exportation of their raw materials to other countries. One major reason for this is because the people in charge which I mean the leaders have huge businesses built around these imported products so in order to keep it steady they need to ensure that the industries in their countries never work. It is an intentional act sabotaging the economy of their own country. There will come a time though where things will change in the continent.

[Josefjix]

Are you sure if your business can run smooth without get attacked by mafias?

The problem in developing countries are much more complex than just your idea to improve the country, your risk aren't only bankrupt, but you're risking your life too. What you see now is like a system, where there are many people depend on that to feed their families.

If you want to change the system, you have to deal with people who work on the previous system, they will see you as a threat to their life.

Building business works on the protocol of connecting with the old system while bringing newly developed products or whatever, it is more deep than I can fully explain, the Mafias are targeting what seems to break the sitted system and if anything comes up without their consent, that's their concern, they tends to put more eye glasses into it, destroy it before it destroy them.

There is nothing public or government connected that's not of the Mafia, so they hate contrary set-up.

[coupable]

Many countries in Africa were colonized. During the colonial period, minerals were mined and shipped. This structure remained largely unchanged after independence. Because both infrastructure and industry remained in the colonial countries. Processing minerals requires high technology, energy infrastructure, skilled labor and huge investment. So everything depends on money. In many African countries, there is not enough capital to make this investment. Multinational mining companies have taken over most of the land. Local governments are dependent on raw material exports due to agreements with these companies. In addition, the persistent problem of instability in Africa prevents breaking this cycle.

Rhis is correct. You know during WWII, the whole african continent was colonised by powers already fighting against each other in Europe. After the war end, the cost of colonialism becames more expensive as those powers already weakened by the war so they changed the type of colonialism; instead of investing in army and arms, why not giving the power to proxies who will send country resources to Europe, and convince them that they are winners who deserve independance. Thus is what happened in exact and the colonialism is still remaining even more violent that direct colonialism. Countries like Iran and China who woke up from this illusion and try to build its power are fought from all those colonial powers as we see today.