The World's Poorest Country is Sitting on $24 Trillion

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With GDP per capita of just $2 per day, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the poorest, if not the poorest nation on Earth. However, this does not have to be the case. The country has massive deposits of rare earth minerals including Cobalt, which is an essential input to the production of lithium-ion batteries. The mineral resources are estimated to be worth $24 trillion. So why is the DRC so poor?
0:00 - 2:50 Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
2:51 - 3:54 Brilliant
3:55 - 5:41 The Congo Crisis
5:42 - 9:03 Lack of investment
9:04 - 11:46 Extreme poverty
11:47 - 13:50 Self-sufficiency
13:51 National leaderboard
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The Economic Explained team uses Statista for conducting our research. Check out their KZbin channel: / @statistaofficial
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[@EconomicsExplained]

Keep exploring at brilliant.org/economicsexplained/. Get started for free, and hurry-the first 200 people get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

[@yeetyeet7070]

He is so uneducated, his only hammer is "foreign investment", as if that was even remotely the solution to most problems.

[@joshuataylor3550]

Answer: have it stolen by Belgium.

[@cartier2312]

The many reasons why Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries from being able to take advantage of their own natural wealth is that Africans leaders and Africans presidents need to stop letting people taking advantage of their resources. Africans leaders need to have rules, regulations and laws when it comes to their resources. Have a strong government, leadership, keeping track on export and import of goods and products. Africa is not poor, African countries are not poor it's just the lack of leadership, lack of government and lack of education that makes African countries poor. Plus corruptions , self interest and greed with that in place African countries will remain poor unless the African people united and put a stop to it .

[@kadanikalifankandu6801]

Make a video about Zambia 🇿🇲🇿🇲... It's the DRC's neighbor to the south

[@michaeldew7904]

Not too worried, but your map is old. No South Sudan.

[@orboakin8074]

Another great video, friend. Congo is a sad example of wasted potential borne out of bad external and internal factors. As a African myself (Nigerian) it annoys me when most people only attribute Africa's current problems to "colonialism or racism", effectively removing personal responsibility of us Africans, and ignore more important factors like geography, climate, socioeconomic systems, political unity and leadership. Thanks for focusing on those areas in this video regarding Congo.

[@drakokamikaze8823]

It's mostly external factors

[@joshuataylor3550]

Acknowledging colonialism's effects on the present doesn't mean you can't also work to optimise now. It's not giving up, it's reality.

[@cxngo8124]

Most of the Congolese problems are partially a result of the world wanting to take advantage including the African ones like Rwanda and Uganda.

[@nickmontana9657]

Well said! I have no credibility to speak on the socioeconomic realities of African nations so I wont. However I want to tell you that the way you phrased your comment shows that you have a lot of wisdom so thank you for sharing. I've been trying to better understand geography as it relates to a country's socioeconomic status and it seems to be incredibly influential

[@Tethloach1]

It is about how society develops.

[@YaBoiBaxter2024]

We should take into consideration that the Congo is essentially filled with warlords and so, the government cannot accept responsibility for making deals, as there's barely any of it left.

[@cxngo8124]

Nah the government can do whatever they want. Nobody messes with the president. I know this because my family worked there for over 60 years.

[@LAinLA86]

People dont seem to know Congos first leader was murdered by the US, French and Belgians who then put in Sese Seko who submitted to their financial interests while plundering the country of its wealth and leading to cascading civil wars

[@YaBoiBaxter2024]

@@LAinLA86 Sad

[@YaBoiBaxter2024]

@@cxngo8124 I see. Either way, things are still not getting better.

[@cartier2312]

The many reasons why Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries from being able to take advantage of their own natural wealth is that Africans leaders and Africans presidents need to stop letting people taking advantage of their resources. Africans leaders need to have rules, regulations and laws when it comes to their resources. Have a strong government, leadership, keeping track on export and import of goods and products. Africa is not poor, African countries are not poor it's just the lack of leadership, lack of government and lack of education that makes African countries poor. Plus corruptions , self interest and greed with that in place African countries will remain poor unless the African people united and put a stop to it .

[@MiningTheWorldYT]

To add to your point at 6:46, most of the DRC's mineral wealth is concentrated in Katanga Province, which is so far and disconnected from DRC's ports that it's essentially a landlocked state within a state. Mining companies in Katanga ship through Tanzania, Kenya, Angola, Namibia, Mozambique and even South Africa, journeys which can take weeks and involve multiple border crossings.

[@yougetaspear7799]

And mining Africa would know better obviously

[@icetrip2417]

Dam..

[@moors710]

A friend of mine (we worked as adjunct professors one year at the same institution) who had worked in the copper mines in Congo for six months in the 1980's . He was on loan from the mines in South Africa where he was a mining engineer at the time. His company sent him on loan to the copper mine under a contract with the mine administration. He said it was not very good living conditions. The water was not sanitary and the ability to get goods was limited to whatever the company had in its commissary, and he did not dare leave the mine site.

[@bvegannow1936]

Convince gov to let everyone that wants use an acre of free tax free good land to grow their own food and live on. End taxes on lower middle class. End farm subsidies.

[@Souledex]

@@bvegannow1936 why end farm subsidies. You don't know much about the issues if you think thats a good idea.

[@bvegannow1936]

@@Souledex do u or someone u kno such as family or someone u live with receive farm subsidies? Quit being a hypocrite. U dont wana be Stollen from and have others steal your money then buy food u dont like with it, when u could have kept your money and buy what u want with it.

[@arandomzoomer4837]

@@Souledexfarm subsidies ruined the American southwest and are the reason why we have these massive droughts

[@DogokonPlays]

I was able to visit DRC for a conference, there are 2 sides there. Rich people live in good conditions in gated areas, and if you go 1 street down, you can see people living in harsh conditions and some teenagers lying on the ground because of "moonshine" etc.

[@InYourDreams-Andia]

Huge wealth gap! . Such a pity, when it could as a country be rich.

[@titanshifter2645]

What's moonshine??

[@stompgrounds]

@@titanshifter2645 liquor

[@Alexeon]

@@titanshifter2645 I'm not sure if it is the same thing, but where I'm at it refers to homemade alcohol for drinking. It can be dangerous if it is made improperly.

[@iamagi]

@@Alexeon no it’s A myth that home made ethanol can be dangerous as in the sense it’s turn into methanol. Methanol is produced using another process. The cases people heard of involves greedy people mixing in methanol. But… Making forum fruits etc can be dangerous due to food poisoning and since the proses takes weeks it can easily be deadly.

[@Verpal]

Living in Hong Kong must be extremely tough, hard to imagine how to forage for food in the concrete post apocalyptic wasteland with the economic rating of 0.

[@MrMiniTako]

Yeah I wondered what up with Hong Kong having a 0. Maybe an error in the graphic they didn't catch?

[@sizanogreen9900]

@@MrMiniTako Nah, the rating is accurate, Hong Kong just completely collapsed, there is anarchy in the streets, nobody is working and money has been abandoned. It is just that the CCP keeps this state of affairs a heavily guarded secret out of embarrasment for how much they f*cked up.

[@Big5ocks]

I believe (and I may be wrong) that HK's rating was deliberately removed since it was (re)annexed/(re)integrated by China a couple of years ago, making the previous rating obsolete.

[@rightwingsafetysquad9872]

I know it's a joke, but most of HK is undeveloped. Environmentalists and big business found some rare agreement, preserving the forests on the south side of the island keeps property prices in the city very high.

[@nekomi_ch]

From Hong Kong here, EE removed it cuz CCP being CCP doing CCP things

[@Astriker100]

Possibly the best example of several important economic concepts at play in the span of a 15 minute video I’ve ever seen. Great content.

[@bolt5564]

I appreciate you putting your sources on screen when you are referring to them. But if you could also put links in the description that would be great.

[@YaBoiBaxter2024]

Speaking of Africa, you should take a look into the East African Federation and its economy and how it'd effect the rest of the region and of Africa itself.

[@cartier2312]

The many reasons why Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries from being able to take advantage of their own natural wealth is that Africans leaders and Africans presidents need to stop letting people taking advantage of their resources. Africans leaders need to have rules, regulations and laws when it comes to their resources. Have a strong government, leadership, keeping track on export and import of goods and products. Africa is not poor, African countries are not poor it's just the lack of leadership, lack of government and lack of education that makes African countries poor. Plus corruptions , self interest and greed with that in place African countries will remain poor unless the African people united and put a stop to it .

[@YaBoiBaxter2024]

@@cartier2312 Unfortunately, due to their borders, demographics and multiple ethnicities, they just can't. Nigeria had gone through a 3 way ethnic war over the Igbo and Yoruba. Let's also not forget the Rwandan genocide, along with the Congo wars.

[@Junior-zf7yy]

@@cartier2312 Yes but a lot of the leaders in these African countries are installed by western countries and companies in order to keep the resources cheap and accessible for themselves. Yes the blame is on African leaders, but the African leaders are there because those who were actually elected and had good interests of the country were assassinated.

[@NazriB]

Lies again? Red Cross SGD

[@YaBoiBaxter2024]

@@NazriB ?

[@joewanyoike2993]

Thanks EE for honouring your pledge to cover more African countries. Special request ; can you do a video on Kenya, I would really look forward to watching it.

[@cartier2312]

The many reasons why Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries from being able to take advantage of their own natural wealth is that Africans leaders and Africans presidents need to stop letting people taking advantage of their resources. Africans leaders need to have rules, regulations and laws when it comes to their resources. Have a strong government, leadership, keeping track on export and import of goods and products. Africa is not poor, African countries are not poor it's just the lack of leadership, lack of government and lack of education that makes African countries poor. Plus corruptions , self interest and greed with that in place African countries will remain poor unless the African people united and put a stop to it .

[@user-gx6dl6lt9c]

@@cartier2312 yes they “only” need strong institutions. Now try to do that in a country full of warlords and all the other issues from the video

[@michaelsmith4904]

Kenya, Kenya, huh? Huh?

[@fajaradi1223]

Kenya West?

[@hildamukami]

@@cartier2312 You are very wrong. Natural wealth or so-called minerals can not feed 1.3B people. Those are resources needed for technology-based economies like in the global north. We don't need leaders or strong governments, in fact, we need less of those because they are prone to corruption to serve neocolonial interests. We are fine. If you are from Africa, you are probably brainwashed to think you are poor and you need western style development. If you are from the west or elsewhere, you have very little understanding of real life on the ground. Of course, we have had difficult times, and we still have, and so does everyone.

[@kartikeydwivedi4774]

Another great video, GDP and purchasing power parity concepts are explained with DRC example, keep adding these valuable concepts in videos 👍

[@lasvegasluca9509]

Every family has that one person who will break the family's financial struggle, I hope you become the one 😊

[@christianajoe8563]

Assets that can make you rich Cry-pto Stocks Real estate

[@samanthadonaldson2246]

​@@christianajoe8563 You're right, it's obvious a lot of people remain poor due to ignorance

[@jeremygood3246]

I'm looking for something to venture into on a short term basis, I have about $6k sitting in my savings

[@ningyen1444]

​@@jeremygood3246I'm enjoying working under a platform that brings good return in my life and I've been making my weekly returns without stress all in cry-pto currency

[@cassiejacobs4197]

Starting early is the best way to getting ahead of build wealth, investing remains the priority

[@aroto]

Thank you for another great video. Even though I don't know anything about economics I can follow and understand these videos pretty easily and learn something new. Keep going with the countries, I love learning about the DRC, Nauru, or other countries I wouldn't bother looking up, but now i know something about them, and through that you also understand economic principles and how the world works in general. Keep it up 💛

[@cartier2312]

The many reasons why Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries from being able to take advantage of their own natural wealth is that Africans leaders and Africans presidents need to stop letting people taking advantage of their resources. Africans leaders need to have rules, regulations and laws when it comes to their resources. Have a strong government, leadership, keeping track on export and import of goods and products. Africa is not poor, African countries are not poor it's just the lack of leadership, lack of government and lack of education that makes African countries poor. Plus corruptions , self interest and greed with that in place African countries will remain poor unless the African people united and put a stop to it .

[@skeetrix5577]

I agree exactly sometimes I get a little lost when he gets into the economic weeds but overall as a geopolitics and history nerd this fits right into areas that are relevant to my interests lol

[@EconomicsExplained]

That's awesome! Thanks.

[@vivafreedom4947]

@@EconomicsExplained *aren't DRC in the pocket of C C P bribes? I think you will find C C P have sent DRC a bill for 24 Trillion (US$) to build infrastructure for C C P to syphon DRC recourses*

[@micaelsantos4922]

Very very interesting, as always. When will we see one of these about Portugal. Once (one of) the richest country in the world and now with one of the highest debt ratio in Europe. So many possibilities but we keep wasting our resources... Let's hope you'll have time for this one. Congrats and continue the great job.

[@salted6422]

Portugal..? More like Poortugal, he he. :^)

[@bruns.like.spoons9251]

This was a particularly fascinating and informational video. I love them all, but this one really opened my eyes to how things work elsewhere in the world. Well done!

[@djibrilyadd4131]

Thanks a lot it's very informative.

[@jfhucka1]

Another thing you didn’t mention is that it is very hard to value bartering. If everyone is bartering their own good they “specialize” in making and they barter with one another then you cannot track economic value in a currency like dollars.

[@mjk9388]

@EconomicsExplained: Can you do a video on what factors have to be in place for a society to be prosperous? Studying that question has been a life long fascination of mine and I think all the viewers of this channel would really love to see your take on that. I know these things are sprinkled throughout most of your videos, but a recap would be really, really awesome.

[@catdogmousecheese]

I know two important factors are stability and growth. As EE mentions in this video, the reason the DRC can't receive any foreign investment is because it doesn't have a stable government so investors aren't confident they can get their money back. Growth is also important; EE has talked before about how stagflation can actually be worse than inflation with Japan's economy being a perfect example.

[@zombieat]

Iq is the best indicator of success. Not education nor the environment.

[@mjk9388]

@@zombieat Makes sense. Is there an article I can read on that?

[@bvegannow1936]

Convince gov to let everyone that wants use an acre of free tax free good land to grow their own food and live on. End taxes on lower middle class. End farm subsidies

[@nickyedc1229]

If I ever get a developing country essay q I'll be using this as a reference! This is a great video well done!

[@DUGHANmotivates]

Informative video 👌🏿

[@PJTierney]

Small editing observation: I see your font has changed from a serif typeface to (what I assume is) DIN. Just wondering why. This isn’t a criticism as I like DIN, but I also quite liked the previous typeface choices as well and was curious about the change 🙂

[@jaredwoock3478]

Great Topic and great over view of important policy challenges that need to be considered. You forgot to mention how Chinese economic/political influence and the need to protect the natural environment (a resource that will still exist after all the minerals are gone) should be considered.

[@wfc303]

lol, i come across your channel due to your job posted in upwork but fortunately find channel insightful, can't stop my self to subscribe it

[@mohanytube]

Good explanation 👍 thanks

[@chrish9698]

Fantastic video and a sad reminder of what might have been for a country with such a tragic history.

[@jernejkolar5028]

Can you make a video explaining small economies (population wise) like Estonia, Slovenia, Latvia...?

[@darkflighter100]

This is a great video to share with my GCSE Geography pupils. Thank you!

[@GalacticNovaOverlord]

Not that much. Completely ignores western imperialism

[@Visiontech]

Yes and I've read other comments but this is another great video!!!

[@jannyboe9365]

Congo had a difficult start as a nation. Different industries had interrests in the country and wanted to keep or even expand their influence. So they created rebellions, military coups etc. Resulting in a corrupt elite total negligent of the country and the people. This will require some very morally strong people to pull Congo out of the mire. I hope they will emerge one day.

[@lolilollolilol7773]

There was one: Patrice Lumumba. Of course, Belgium and the USA had him assassinated to install Mobutu.

[@HCforLife1]

You highlighted the biggest issue of many African nations. Not exploitation by the West - as we usually talk about soulless corporations who want to make the best deal possible. The real issues are poor education (economic reasons obviously), African warlords, coups, instability, crime, and the biggest of them all: corruption. People in Africa need to understand that whenever their leaders blame the West they just channel people's interest as far as possible from them.

[@Oldheadontheblock]

​@@lolilollolilol7773and who assassinated him? Congolese people. Until we stop blaming outsiders for our greed nothing will change.

[@Kiara-xh3he]

Ummmmmmm Belgium actually apologized abs stated they killed Lumumba lol they did so in 2002

[@theconqueringram5295]

I've been researching the DRC for years, trying to figure out it's economics, make sense of its issues and hopefully find a light at the end of the tunnel. This video does make figuring the country's economic conditions easier.

[@Re_RAM]

What kind of research have you been doing? What resources are you using?

[@skycaptain95]

You've been researching for years and knew less than this video? What a waste of time

[@bvegannow1936]

Convince gov to let everyone that wants use an acre of free tax free good land to grow their own food and live on. End taxes on lower middle class. End farm subsidies

[@Re_RAM]

@@bvegannow1936 Free tax and free land is a subsidy.

[@bvegannow1936]

@@Re_RAM a subsidy typically means tax money or a tax funded benifit given to someone. Being allowed to use Free tax free land is not tax funded.

[@armandbarbe1812]

Excellent story! Thank you.

[@Sdqv2003]

Great video! Thanks to Economics Explained. I hope someday there will be a video about Uzbekistan, my motherland.

[@frankunderbush]

I think it would be a lot more useful to compare GDP per capita at PPP. That's a better comparison of how well a nation is doing at an individual level. (Still has a lot of the issues as nominal GDP per capita but much more "fair" or "realistic")

[@josephchettupuzha8689]

All commodities are globally priced. If you don’t pay decent salaries, PPP will skyrocket.

[@ElonHusky]

@@josephchettupuzha8689 Ivideyum malayali ?

[@princezuko6804]

@@josephchettupuzha8689 a whole lot of commodities used by a common man for day to day life is "not globally priced*, in a way ppp can provide the most realistic comparison.

[@alioshax7797]

@@josephchettupuzha8689 Food, water, health are not globally priced, not even close. In these kind of countries, the price of food matters more than the price of the latest occulus rift.

[@akhigbekelvin9163]

This was an eye opener...have you done one for Nigeria?

[@execgroupceo]

Amazing opportunity to have the ability to access this type of information.

[@AlexKaduk]

Love this channel. And yes, the resources curse.

[@mann8098]

Amazing content. Would love to see an Economics Explained about Guatemala.

[@cartier2312]

The many reasons why Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries from being able to take advantage of their own natural wealth is that Africans leaders and Africans presidents need to stop letting people taking advantage of their resources. Africans leaders need to have rules, regulations and laws when it comes to their resources. Have a strong government, leadership, keeping track on export and import of goods and products. Africa is not poor, African countries are not poor it's just the lack of leadership, lack of government and lack of education that makes African countries poor. Plus corruptions , self interest and greed with that in place African countries will remain poor unless the African people united and put a stop to it .

[@micha-fc8lg]

great video!

[@matiasmendes8528]

awesome video. Talking about wasted potential, could you do a video on the possibility/impacts of the newly proposed Sur currency, between argentina and brazil? Would be awesome

[@Owlery]

hong konger here. I love how we went from 8.8 to 0 on the economics explained leader board haha

[@soulbreather12]

Why did that happen?

[@slyseal2091]

@@soulbreather12 Im guessing either because they're no longer sovereign from china and thus existing measurements aren't precise anymore.

[@foorack]

@@slyseal2091 It's not about the preciseness of measurements. By that measure over a dozen of countries would drop out as well. But it's rather that Hong Kong was "reintegrated" into China in 2020, removing it's status as an independent economic zone. Hong Kong therefore now belongs as much on the list as Paris or Stockholm does, i.e. not at all. EE left it on the list as a political protest.

[@useodyseeorbitchute9450]

Sorry, after lifting restrictions you all died of Covid thus 0.0.

[@EEVblog]

Nice work. Is there a link to the economic leader board somewhere, like a public spreadsheet?

[@UpliftedCapybara]

I’d like to see that too.

[@LawrenceTimme]

Hi Dave!

[@1d1ss3nt6]

thank you for these amazing videos! can you do lebanon next?

[@maxpro751]

Lebanon is a failing economy.

[@guzzis3]

It would be great to be able to see the EE leaderboard on a website somewhere. It's impossible to see it in the videos. What little is shown is covered by an ad for another video!

[@Avaricumstudios]

Btw You should do an economic analysis of the proposed East African Federation /East African community which consists of - Kenya - Uganda - Tanzania - Rwanda - Burundi - DRC - S.Sudan

[@shizbisquit]

I think the accidental special value of this is that it also describes the issue with developed nations like the United States where entire swaths of the population are so destitute that they have to resort to relying on themselves and each other rather than being part of the greater national economy. A lot of money velocity is vanishing in a lot of places because people just can't afford to pay for what they don't know how to do themselves. It's like the accidental blurse of the rise of cottage industry as a means of subsistence rather than having hobbies for fun and having a job that pays for that, their lifestyle choices, and their livelihood. Upper middle class spends enough to offset the loss in business from the bottom half of the u.s. as well somehow, which is crazy to think about.

[@kuzayetezra5566]

Thank you for spreading your research across the globe. to some countries of the African region, I wish you extend this same kind gesture to Nigeria...

[@AGrace-tw6ku]

The fact that we get free videos on KZbin by economics Explained is truly a gift. 👍❤🎉

[@enlivenrex9997]

The way your video introduced this story actually reminded me of Avatar 1 and Pandora and the unobtanium deposits in the area the natives considered as sacred grounds and the challenge was how to obtain it. Quite tellingly, Cameron had named it unobtanium thereby implying how unattainable its pursuit would get. I feel this story would have a similar trajectory. As for Avatar 2, I haven't watched it yet, so don't know how far the story progressed from that point.

[@gergelyovics]

I really like your Videos and following you for a while . May I ask you to analyze Hungary? ;)

[@Noah-Wyche]

Oh momma, just found this channel and I can already tell I’m about to fall down another rabbit hole

[@ethribin4188]

2:45 Where Is Switzerland? >:c This is the third video missing Switzerland from the economic leaderboard. Despite it being 3rd place! At least according to the video where EE places it on the board.

[@cxngo8124]

I spend 15 years of my life living in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi. I'm 19 years old. My family had been there for 60 years, and my dad is going back Thursday for a mining project. Btw this was written before watching.

[@klawiehr]

What was your daily life like?

[@BatsiraiMusuka]

@@klawiehr probably has a decent life…not too much hardships. I’m guessing…but I’ll wait to hear their reply.

[@andrewradford3953]

Well presented and interesting. Where is the Congo on the countries that won't let you travel to them leader board?

[@adhirbose9910]

I like the way you have kept the pommies last on your EE leaderboard. And to rub further salt into the wound, you put the collies one spot above them!

[@namyx_71]

Ah yes, the resource curse

[@YaBoiBaxter2024]

One of God's greatest

[@lewishein1337]

More like the "Europe stole all your resources in the 19th century" curse

[@joseposadas5934]

Just feeded by corruption and a little help from developed country governament looking aside when their companys feed that

[@trooper6982]

@@The18x18x 70-80 is more like your IQ than people in Sub- Saharan Africa. The Reason they are backward is because of lack of quality educational facilities. Give them a good education and I believe most of them can destroy you at cognitive tasks.

[@DirtyEdon]

@@The18x18x yeah who knew poor education, instability and poor nutrition will lead to LOWER IQ.

[@luishernandezblonde]

I wonder we should do a similar video about Myanmar. Myanmar is resource rich, extremely rich, but like DRC, is also a wasted potential.

[@JonsVlogz]

Worked for a company whom tried to start operations in the Congo. After a few months they had to leave - there’s virtually no property rights and business is largely done through word of mouth. They found the rent for their warehouses would double every week with no explanation and no legal resource available. Sad reality of rule of law being a basic requirement for any successful FDI

[@weirdshibainu]

Absolutely true. Corruption and lack of a stable legal system kills any hope of investment. The same thing happened to foreign investors in Russia in the 90s after the fall of the Soviet Union, including the threat or use of physical violence by the Russian "partners" who even if the foreign investor could get to court, the Russian Courts would rule in the Russian partners favor.

[@KeoughSchwantiger]

Your vidoeo is the best

[@zaneeverett5960]

Do Cambodia soon. It has a similar story to DRC starting in 1975, but the outcome has been drastically different with consistent 7+% growth for 15 years excluding the Covid years. Even during Covid, Cambodia didn’t contract.

[@cartier2312]

The many reasons why Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries from being able to take advantage of their own natural wealth is that Africans leaders and Africans presidents need to stop letting people taking advantage of their resources. Africans leaders need to have rules, regulations and laws when it comes to their resources. Have a strong government, leadership, keeping track on export and import of goods and products. Africa is not poor, African countries are not poor it's just the lack of leadership, lack of government and lack of education that makes African countries poor. Plus corruptions , self interest and greed with that in place African countries will remain poor unless the African people united and put a stop to it .

[@shauncameron8390]

China.

[@fajaradi1223]

@@cartier2312 One other reason is Europe. Smart and hardworking peoples from Cambodia can't just leave their country, and find a better living abroad. Most of them pretty much stuck on their homeland. This is kinda good for the country itself. Preventing severe brain drain that often happens in Africa.

[@felixsubakti6907]

@Zaydan Alfariz not southeast Asia, but ASEAN(the gang). It's easier to work on your issues when you are in a literal support group full of friendly misfits

[@weirdshibainu]

@@fajaradi1223 Additionally, while there are ethnic differences in Cambodia, tribal differences in Africa are rampant, numerous and sometimes violent.

[@PPAChao]

“Independence was undoubtedly a positive step for the country” “The country (…) almost immediately fell into economic chaos as civil systems collapsed.” I see.

[@LawrenceTimme]

British empire 2.0 required.

[@Erwin1293-]

The country’s leader was murdered by the USA and they then put a puppet who let them exploit the Congo in power which let to the civil war state

[@izaccy]

There is no real independence as explained later on proxy wars and funding from US and their rivals. Any Congolese Govt. that is capable of self-sufficiency is eliminated remember there is 24 trillion reasons why powerful countries want to install their own puppet government in Congo. Remember this, how come a poor country where people can barely afford anything, have massive amounts of never ending weapons and bombs to destroy each other with ?

[@skyolson3905]

First-rate presentation, A+!

[@EconomicsExplained]

Niceee

[@xx-vq9jw]

I think you should redo the Mexico episode or do a small video about it just to see how it is on the national leaderboard

[@ahmedelnokrashi8324]

I hope we can get a video on Egypt as well in the near future,it would be interesting to see an outsider view of my country out of conventional media.

[@chrisz7494]

Patrick Boyle did a comprehensive video on Egypt recently. You should check it out

[@janejan9728]

BBC did a hit piece on Egypt today because your policies towards gays aren't woke enough. Take that as a compliment. They only whine about wokeness when they don't have anything else to complain about.

[@shrayesraman5192]

Egypt, the oldest of civilizations. A once proud land run by a horrible government. Only thing keeping them from becoming a failed state is US foreign aid. All the military ships get first dibs on the canal.

[@EconomicsExplained]

We'll keep it in mind!

[@Avaricumstudios]

The problem with being a Belgian colony is that Belgium unlike Britain didn't even have enough people to run a colony and establish a functioning administration in a country as vast as Congo ,

[@glendisshiko8182]

They only gave Congo to Belgium because they didn't want the german empire to have it. If the germans had Congo, then things would have been better

[@puraLusa]

The problem is belgium. They were horrible violent colonizers. 16 graduates, an abuse. Have problem in number of people, than hire and educate the locals which belgium didn't do. It was exploitation in exchange of nothing. Pure robary. Its that simple, and now this is the consequence.

[@commando2113]

@@glendisshiko8182 f they did not gave it to belgium but to the king of the belgian's it was his own private state and not from belgium . belgium gaind it when they took it away from the king in 1908 and named it the belgian congo .

[@shauncameron8390]

@@glendisshiko8182 Namibia would like a word with you on that.

[@jonathanmorrison2391]

Could you do a video on Jamaica? I believe it would provide a very interesting country for research and presentation that is already well known around the world

[@pauloakwood9208]

Wait. In the last seconds of this video you showed Hong Kong as lower than the DRC on your economics leader board. Is that what you meant? How did that happen?

[@thedamnedatheist]

The Congo had a chance, after Independence when Katanga declared itself an independent state. But as you said, it was used as a proxy battle ground.

[@darkgalaxy5548]

Respectfully, I'll disagree about Zaire being a proxy battleground. Mabutu Sese Seko was a master at playing both ends against the middle. He manage to receive (extort?) large foreign aid donations from US, Belgium, France, China, & even made cozy deals with South Africa. When the cold war ended, so did his rule.

[@martinzugschwert2747]

A great new book on the slave labor in the Congo is "Cobalt Red". Highly recommend it

[@vonlogan1]

Do Lao PDR next please!

[@xoxo9movie9xoxo]

Still waiting for a video about Malaysia!

[@babushka10]

Can you cover Nepal's economy?

[@polaris1985]

its always begging India for money, why is it even a county? Nepals wash my car and clean the floors in my house in Delhi.

[@thesherbet]

Would be interesting to see the difference that different foreign intervention methods make, for example the aid sent by the west compared to the "investment" from china. I get the impression people in these countries want jobs not hand-outs but it'd be good to look what what kind of differences that actually makes.

[@hildamukami]

To be honest with you, western aid or China investment makes a very merger difference in our continent. The biggest misconception is that we need to develop the western way. In most cases, these intervention ends up messing up our systems and destabilizing us.

[@neeneko]

They are functionally equivalent, they simply go to differnt groups and have differnt domestic justifications.

[@thotmorgana]

As far as I have understood it, there is data that the more 'help' is send to countries in Africa, the worse the country and the living conditions of its people will do. While the countries that said no to all development help seem to perform the best now while being worst off before. If you would follow the data it would be best for Africa to stop helping it all together even if that seems harsh. Trying to help Africa is literally making it poorer, more violent, more corrupt and worse off.

[@thesherbet]

@@thotmorgana but could it also be argued that the countries that refused help were the ones in the best position to advance without it and so it becomes a bit of a moot point.

[@ojberrettaberretta5314]

the eu sends not just investements,they send also tax payer money to help develope china ....yup

[@riwajchalise8317]

Can you do one on nepal?! I will help you in research and data collection!

[@prince_ofori]

Thanks EE for covering more African countries. Can you do an analysis on Ghana's economy? How amidst a long streak of currency depreciation the current president is using national resource to build an overpriced cathedral (because he promised God he would) "for tourism"? How we have abundant electricity and can sell some to neighbouring countries but still ration it for Ghanaians? How the Ghanaian cedi became the world's worst performing currency against the dollar? How we gained independence a little before Singapore did but are still a developing country even though we have abundant natural and human resources? And a 1v1 between Kwame Nkrumah and Lee Kuan Yew that led to the difference in social and economic development between Ghana and Singapore?

[@markmendez1014]

This one felt rushed and missed some important things like how the assassination of Congo’s first primary minister changed the country forever.

[@cxngo8124]

And the war in kivu

[@cxngo8124]

@@eugenehlabangwane4183 yeah there is alot of controversy around it.

[@maualecortes]

So is DRC is the multiverse of Wakanda

[@satyambhartee3189]

Now that takes me back to class second or third

[@jacobriis7859]

Check out the proposed Grand Inga Dam in Congo. It would be the world's largest power station in the world when built. There are proposed power-lines to the mining industry, to South Africa which has big electric power problems. Nigeria is also interested to buy power from the proposed dam.

[@PownzerX]

Man hong kong must have it rough with a 0.0

[@demven04]

Thanks for covering Africa! It’s often a forgotten land.

[@oksaturn2928]

having vast resources and knowing how to manage vast recourses are very different tasks

[@SerienMetroidC]

can you do a vid of the army and the rebels?

[@alexanderx33]

Did he just say $50 for lunch in the UK is LUCKY? Surely he's exaggerating

[@lewisandjessrock]

Yeah I noticed that, chatting shite

[@FamousWolfe]

11:20 he said a "decent meal", in other words, not fast food etc. Have you seen prices at restaurants today? You're looking at $20+ per person, and that's at places like Applebees or Outback Steakhouse whose food is...just okay. If you want actual quality food, you'd need to pay about double that, so I could imagine across the pond 50 Euros would be the equivalent.

[@andrewdunbar828]

@@FamousWolfe I'm sure he was talking about Australia and Switzerland, not the UK. You can get a decent meal easily for $20 to $25 in Australia and if you know where to look you can get a decent lunch for $10 to $14. I've never spent $50 on a meal in Australia even when I had a fancy job. I'd like to know how fancy and how big the 50 cent meal he's comparing to is. The one he showed at that point looked good enough for me but probably not $50 AUD fancy. I believe Australia is still cheaper than Switzerland though.

[@kadimamuamba]

Being Congolese, very well explained. A sad sorry for the world especially Africa.

[@ongoi2]

You have low IQ, you dont deserve your own land, you only know how to dance, while the whole world is robbing you

[@DavidGomes-ml7dg]

Could you please do Trinidad and Tobago or the Caribbean

[@ahmadsaeid]

can you do Egypt next? weird things are going on there economically atm.

[@heyheyhey7757]

Wait! why is Hong kong 0.0?

[@andreworam2844]

One of the main issues is geography; the DRC has a virtual lack of any navigable waterways and very little ocean access; it also has a harsh climate. These factors are always good predictors of bad economies.

[@timothyharshaw2347]

You aren't entirely wrong but strong arguments could be made that Saudi Arabia, Australia and others have arguably shitty environments yet are considered wealthy

[@anoobyproaz5616]

@@timothyharshaw2347 Both Saudi Arabia and Australia have good ocean access.

[@johngeier8692]

Tropical rainforest climate is the best for agricultural yields. The fundamentals of a modern civil society were not in place at the time of independence. The hasty decolonisation of Africa after WW2 was a disaster. The UN is now pushing the delusional insanity of Net Zero.

[@fnansjy456]

I'm pretty sure the Congo is navigable

[@drunkensailor112]

@@timothyharshaw2347 Botswana is a much better example. Unfertile, sparcely populated. No rivers and entirely landlocked and it's the richest country in africa.

[@SingularityLabsAI]

I have been watching your country specific videos for a while. I feel you should cover some general concepts and trends of economies as well. For example I have been studying the great divergence and the great convergence for a while. Given that today majority of world's GDP is services based and not so much on natural resource based . In an internet enabled world why can't any service be sourced from any country at 1/100 th the cost, which should eventually result in all countries reach a global equilibrium of GDP per capita.What prevents economies like Congo and Monaco to converge to a common point. I would appreciate if you can make a video on great convergence. Why doesn't it happen faster despite being service driven world and why do we even see some degree of divergence even today.

[@filipelimartins]

that's really interesting

[@Accessless]

10:26 Did anyone else jump when that "potato" twitched?

[@markusmeldre]

The paradox of mineral wealth

[@boosterh1113]

Not even. The DRC is too plagued by instability to even get to the level of the resource trap. The resource trap would actually be an improvement on their current situation.

[@j4genius961]

@@anon_148 But you can since you're so brave😊

[@cartier2312]

The many reasons why Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries from being able to take advantage of their own natural wealth is that Africans leaders and Africans presidents need to stop letting people taking advantage of their resources. Africans leaders need to have rules, regulations and laws when it comes to their resources. Have a strong government, leadership, keeping track on export and import of goods and products. Africa is not poor, African countries are not poor it's just the lack of leadership, lack of government and lack of education that makes African countries poor. Plus corruptions , self interest and greed with that in place African countries will remain poor unless the African people united and put a stop to it .

[@j4genius961]

@@cartier2312 That's easier said than done when you know you'll get killed if you don't agree to these terrible terms

[@j4genius961]

@@anon_148 In your mind maybe😊

[@jaybee4577]

Despite DR Congo being an extremely poor country, I have never heard of large scale famines happening in the country when compared to other countries in the world. I think there is more to a country than just gdp. I think people especially economists underestimate the value of Informal economies in developing countries especially in Africa. I think political instability and geography is the main problem facing DR Congo.

[@outerik90]

Informal economies can only go so far.

[@_Pangloss]

You never hear about the famines because the media hasn't a single reason to report on them

[@bayersbluebayoubioweapon8477]

There unfortunately have been famines, North Kivu for one

[@buttonasas]

I haven't heard of famines in wealthiest/highest economic score nations but I do agree about informal economies not being reflected properly in statistics.

[@cxngo8124]

No the main problem is the western world. The war in Kivu is over minerals. 50% of Rwandan mineral exports are stolen from the Kivu area. The world can then buy these mineral at a cheaper price.

[@AlanLamb11]

Have to look up the Cyprus video now- only one near the bottom of the leaderboard I have no idea why.

[@Rudy0stefmeister]

When you said lucky to get lunch for less than $50 I though what??! But then I remember you live in Sydney lol

[@ranjithpowell6791]

International institutions may not have invested in DRC but China certainly is. I think China will develop DRC where international institutions have failed so comprehensively to the point of irrelevance.

[@chrissmith3587]

Chinas got its own problem, it’s own debts are so massive they don’t know how much they owe The money from China will not be secure

[@Mark_Bridges]

That is only worthwhile if China's investments benefit the DRC. Most countries are discovering China's investments only benefit China, or perhaps China and a few corrupt officials in the DRC.

[@burnsyy9119]

China will extract the wealth and nothing more. That's if they're even able to get a foothold in a country with warlords.

[@mimistar1427]

It is very sad what has happened to Congo. However, all the lamenting about its untapped potential by foreign investors/companies is just equally sad. We have numerous examples of foreign companies coming in taking the lion's share of a poor country's resources/profits, throwing some money to corrupt government officials to get a freeride, and nothing is passed on or invested into the country for the benefit of average employee or citizen of the nation. Thanks to foreign companies the country is marginally better off, but still dirt poor!

[@craigmclaughlin9593]

You're right, it's unequal. But the only thing worse than being exploited is not being exploited at all

[@huiwang2957]

As empresas brancas nem consertam as estradas, parece que só os chineses fazem as estradas?

[@Bob-lr2xp]

Joe Rogan had a guest who went into great detail about the brutal working conditions of the cobalt mines in eastern congo. Many of the miners were forced to work there by gunpoint and machete point.

[@gitapaudel2357]

Plz make video explaining about Nepal's Economy!!!

[@doggee09]

Thank Grt Video We as indians can I also apply some of the rules to our national states 🇮🇳😇

[@cartier2312]

The many reasons why Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries from being able to take advantage of their own natural wealth is that Africans leaders and Africans presidents need to stop letting people taking advantage of their resources. Africans leaders need to have rules, regulations and laws when it comes to their resources. Have a strong government, leadership, keeping track on export and import of goods and products. Africa is not poor, African countries are not poor it's just the lack of leadership, lack of government and lack of education that makes African countries poor. Plus corruptions , self interest and greed with that in place African countries will remain poor unless the African people united and put a stop to it .