## 3 Results
### Competitiveness Evaluation Results of French-Speaking African Countries
The hot climate conditions of the East African Plateau also pose a great challenge to the smooth development of economic and trade activities. For example, Djibouti's inland areas are mainly plateaus and mountains, with very little usable land, and the coastal areas are plains and plateaus. It is hot and rainy all year round. The hot and rainy climate conditions make it difficult for Djibouti to produce grain and vegetables, and food is entirely imported. The comprehensive competitiveness of French-speaking countries in West Africa is relatively low. The reason is that the slave trade in the past affected the process of independent development in West Africa. French-speaking countries in West Africa are largely influenced, controlled, and dominated by France, forming a strong dependence, which makes the economic lifeline of the region controlled by multinational corporations and Western developed countries. For a long time, it has been difficult to transform resource advantages into development advantages [60]. In addition, the economy of the region is mainly based on a small-scale peasant economy, with a weak industrial base and underdeveloped natural resources. For example, Mali is rich in mineral resources and has huge gold reserves, but the country's industry is weak and the political situation is unstable, making it difficult to effectively develop; Guinea is one of the least developed countries announced by the United Nations and cannot be self-sufficient in food; and Niger's large amount of uranium and phosphate mineral resources cannot be effectively converted into economic benefits due to the backward road and railway transportation. The comprehensive competitiveness of French-speaking countries in Central Africa is the lowest among French-speaking countries in Africa. Due to the interweaving of regional tribal and religious conflicts and territorial and border disputes, many countries in the region are politically unstable, with military coups, civil wars, and conflicts occurring one after another, resulting in the region being unable to have a stable economic development environment [61]. For example, since the early 1990s, the national economies of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo have been on the verge of collapse due to years of civil war and regional conflicts. The situation has eased recently,and the economies of the two countries have embarked on a path of rapid development. Among them, the huge oil reserves and mineral resources of the Republic of the Congo have been effectively developed, and economic development has made great progress; in the early 21 st century, due to the continuous political turmoil and war in Central Africa and Chad, production could not proceed normally, and the economic situation continued to deteriorate; although the political situation in Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon is relatively stable, their economic development is too dependent on natural resources and is easily affected by fluctuations in international market prices, resulting in unstable economic situations in the two countries; through the development of oil resources, Equatorial Guinea's per capita income has exceeded USD 20,000 dollars, its infrastructure is relatively backward, and tap water is still not popular in most parts of the capital, which affects the country's competitiveness. Empirical Analysis of Factors Affecting Competitiveness of French-Speaking African Countries Based on Adaptive-LASSO Algorithm  
Using R 4.3.0 software, we conducted an empirical analysis of the factors affecting the competitiveness of French-speaking African countries based on the Adaptive-LASSO algorithm. We screened 30 indicators using the algorithm, standardized the original data, and then substituted them into the Adaptive-LASSO model, eliminating 17 variables with a coefficient of 0 (X14-X30). The selected variables X1-X13 were left. The remaining indicators were simply classified, as shown in Table 5.  
According to the above table, we can find 3 key influencing factors.