Geographic environment does not affect demand pattern of the people living in the country
China has three of the world’s busiest ports, and so does the US. With ports you can raise money through tolls and shipping services. If you have no access to the coast, not only do you miss out on these services, you have to transport everything by land, which is much more expensive. And what if your neighbours don’t like you? Ice-bound on its northern coastlines, Russian has squabbled for centuries over access to a warm water port, the Crimean War being the most serious. Countries like Afghanistan, Rwanda, Malawi, or Bolivia are all hindered by access to ports. Other countries, like Ethiopia or Lesotho, are not only landlocked, but mountainous as well, making trade even more expensive.
Resources
Thirdly, every country has been dealt a hand in natural resources. It takes infrastructure to capitalise on these, but some places have a distinct advantage over others. Oil is the most obvious. Nobody is any doubt about how Saudi Arabia or UAE make their money. Among other advantages, gold and diamonds have helped South Africa build the most successful economy on the continent. These are all non-renewable resources – once they’re gone, they’re gone, but while stocks last there is wealth to be made.
Besides these there are renewable resources – forests, fish, stocks that, if correctly managed, will refresh themselves. Much South American development has been based on the Amazon rainforest, in natural rubber and then timber.
Finally, there are what are sometimes called ‘flow resources’. These are renewables that need no management, wind, tide and solar resources. The Earth Policy Institute describes the American Great Plains as ‘the Saudi Arabia of wind energy’, while sunshine-rich laces like California, Sicily and Portugal are able to invest in solar power. No natural resource is a license to print money, and there are plenty of poor countries who are rich in resources, but it is a factor.
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