ABSTRACT
Economic development is promoted by a complex of interacting but poorly understood forces. It has not reached the level of diversification, particularly through manufacturing industry, which requires large energy inputs. The sharp rises in oil prices of 1973 and 1979 increased the incomes available to the oil exporters, transforming the major producers overnight into capital surplus countries well able to embark upon ambitious programmes of social and economic development. Population, in various ways, begins to look very much the key factor in economic development. The structural changes necessary to national economic development are not being achieved. In particular, the planners should be aware of the spatial dimension to economic development. Finally, attention should be given to indigenous forces of change and to domestic assets, such as population, rather than to the uncertain panaceas of imported solutions, technology and investment. Military and political dimensions serve to underline the complexity of economic development and the interdependency of stimulating or retarding forces.
