Earlier in the day we published a study of the non-governmental organization Oxfam that realizes that the 85 richest people in the world â€" which includes Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft-hold a fortune equivalent to the resources of the poorer half of the world's population, about 3.5 billion people.
However, poverty may be moving towards the end â€" or at least the existence of poor countries. That's the vision of Bill Gates, Melinda & in its annual letter, freshly shed, tries to demystify three ideas linked to the economies of the countries: poor countries are destined to remain poor; foreign aid is a waste; and save lives generate overcrowding.
"We believe the opposite, and we think [these three realities] are transforming the planet for the better. Thus, in two decades will be even better ", can be read in the letter.
According to Bill Gates, who wrote the first debunking idea, "in 2035 there will be almost no poor countries in the world".
"Almost all countries will be in what we now call ' low-middle income ', or even richer. The countries will learn from its neighbors more productive and benefit from innovations like vaccines, better seed and the digital revolution. Their new work forces, encouraged by the expansion of education, will attract new investments, "Gates continued.
According to the World Bank, a poor country has a per capita Gross national product of $ 1,035 or less. There are about €765 ($ 2,425).
Today, according to these parameters, there will be 36 poor countries worldwide: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Kyrgyzstan (pictured), Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Somalia and Myanmar.
In many of these cases, it will not be hard to climb one step in the table. The Kyrgyzstan have just upped their standard of living in 5%, over the next two decades, to leave this group. Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, however, will have many difficulties in leaving the group. Also North Korea, by political issues, countries with civil war or isolated within Africa are unlikely to leave.
Bill Gates is still optimistic. "It will be a memorable event. When I was born, most countries of the world was poor. Over the next two decades, desperately poor countries will be an exception â€" and not the rule. Millions of people out of extreme poverty, and the idea that all this will happen in the course of my life let me on cloud nine, "Gates concluded.
Foto:  FeedtheFuture / Creative Commons
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