3 ms·

I am from Azerbaijan, and I can say that having natural resources doesn't make a country rich. In fact, resource-rich countries usually end up poor.

• charlesdm 9y ago
  The only reason why the country isn't rich is because all the gains from those natural resources are being siphoned off to fund the lifestyle(s) of corrupt public officials. Nothing more, nothing less.
  • throwaway2048 9y ago
    Not only corrupt public officials, they end up in the coffers of large corporations too.
• jacquesm 9y ago
  This actually has a name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse
  • valeh 9y ago
    It happens when a country doesn't have enough developed institutions, and finds out that they have natural resources. Having money in the country gives comfort and freedom to public officials, and they try to stop the development of those institutions or completely destroy them. As a result, it leads to lack of democracy which itself leads to lack of economical growth. In case of Azerbaijan, the country started to export its petrol just right after getting its independence from the Soviet Union. At that time it was a new country, and didn't have any proper institution. In general, it is an unfortunate situation which is extremely hard to fix.
• int_19h 9y ago
  Azerbaijan seems to have done a better job utilizing their resources to boost the economy than most other ex-Soviet countries (including Russia, even), just looking at its economic growth since independence.