USIA, Economic Perspectives, August 1996 - Introduction Electronic Journals of the U.S. Information Agency, Vol. In the past 15 years, many of the developing countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere have made great advances. Other developing countries have built internationally competitive sectors that are attracting private capital even though large parts of their economies and their populations have made much less progress. Yet others seem caught in underdevelopment. Saddled with debts accumulated during the 1980s, the foreign assistance they receive seems to help only at the margins.
Private capital shows no interest.
Among these are increasing per capita incomes, rising education levels, improving health conditions, more efficient government administration, and the establishment of industries that reduce dependence on the export of raw commodities. A significant portion of the assistance, of course, was given for political reasons. This issue of Economic Perspectives examines development and foreign assistance, presenting the views of U.S. policy-makers and others on the requirements for development and the present and future of assistance to developing and transitional economies. Economic Perspectives USIA Electronic Journals, Vol. 1, No. 11, August 1996.