What I meant was that even if things are in place, and a poor country grows rapidly, most of the people alive in that country today will probably not live long enough to see the country become a developed country. It is a long road.

 During the 1970s there was a concept called dependency theory that said it is best for a poor country to close itself off from global competition and focus on developing its own industries internally. Once these industries have matured, then the country will be better equipped to compete in world markets. This policy turned out to be a big failure. It tended to create weak industries that relied on government subsidies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependency_theory

 Alternatively, the countries that took the opposite approach and jumped into world markets head first were the East Asian countries, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, etc. These countries embraced international markets and worked to make themselves relevant. None of these countries had much to offer in the way of resources. Mostly, they had people. While these countries were all very poor 40 years ago, these countries have made amazing progress and are now at the top of the world economy.

So, it is a long road. But those countries that started on that road 40 or 50 years ago now find themselves joining the developed nations of the world. Those countries that opted for dependency theory and separated themselves from world markets are still not much better off than they were 40 years ago.

Taipei, Taiwan