ABSTRACT
Political, cultural, economic, and humanitarian objectives are merged with a feeling of mutual interest based on a long association between the European powers and the developing areas over which they have had sovereignty. Private foreign investments, particularly in resource industries, may well yield a net economic advantage as well as a balance of payments gain to the investing country through a combination of high returns and improved terms of trade. Economic development in itself does not create a public order, nor a viable political system. Economic aspirations are a function of per capita outlays for education, literacy, and the disparity between the level of living of the members of a particular subset and a larger group with which the subset has contact. Economic growth as a national policy dates from the late 1940's or early 1950's for most developing countries.
