What are the reasons for the economic backwardness of African countries?

Africa is still the poorest region in the world. The root of the problem is various, but the low level of science and technology is undoubtedly one of the important factors. African economies are highly dependent on the export of low value-added primary products. One of the reasons is that many African countries are backward in science and technology, and their processing capacity is not strong, and the proportion and degree of product processing are not high. For example, because most African local mining enterprises do not have deep processing capacity and only export primary products with low added value, although the export volume of African mineral products is huge, their contribution to the local economy is very limited. Due to backward grain production technology and primitive production methods, Africa is the region with the lowest grain yield per unit area in the world. Some experts pointed out that Africa needs biotechnology very much, because biotechnology can improve the yield and nutritional content of African food, thus solving the problem of hunger and malnutrition of Africans. In the information age, some common communication and information products are still luxuries in sub-Saharan Africa, and some villages are still "isolated". In this area, there are only 3 1.6 telephones and 9.2 computers per thousand people. Due to the weak infrastructure and lack of hardware and equipment, the internet access cost in this area is much higher than that in other parts of the world, almost 10 times that in the United States. Although Africa put forward an ambitious information society plan in 1996, due to various objective conditions, the development level of information technology in Africa still lags behind other parts of the world. Brain drain affects the progress of science and technology, and there are many reasons for the backwardness of science and technology in Africa. Serious brain drain and insufficient investment in research and development funds are two main aspects. At present, the number of African scientists and engineers accounts for only 0.36% of the world total. However, on average, more than 20,000 college graduates from Africa go to developed countries in Europe and America every year, and many of them are "gone forever". Up to now, more than 600,000 African technicians have worked in developed countries, including scientists, doctors and engineers, of whom more than 40,000 have doctorates. Every African scientific and technological talent who immigrates to developed countries in Europe and America takes away about184,000 US dollars in training expenses on average, which is enough to feed 500 farmers in the least developed countries in Africa for one year. At the same time, in order to make up for the shortage of talents, African countries have to hire foreign experts with high salaries, and the annual expenditure paid to foreign experts is as high as more than 4 billion US dollars, which alone consumes one-third of the foreign aid funds that Africa receives every year. Low income and insufficient funds for scientific research are the main reasons for brain drain in Africa. The primary task of most African countries is to solve the problem of feeding their citizens, and the funds for scientific and technological development and attracting talents are very limited. The investment in science and technology in Africa except South Africa only accounts for 0.2% of the gross national product. The brain drain has weakened Africa's economic development momentum and competitiveness, and the wisdom of Africans has not been fully applied to Africa's economic development. Many African researchers are working for European and American pharmaceutical companies, but many people in Africa die every day because of lack of medical care and medicine; While some African countries are racking their brains to design small hydropower stations, Chek Diala, a famous scientist from Mali, West Africa, is already participating in the US Mars exploration program. Relying on science and technology to lead Africa out of poverty After reflecting on the current situation that backward science and technology restricts the pace of economic development in Africa, African leaders realize that the realization of poverty alleviation goals will depend largely on scientific and technological progress. To this end, they suggested that every African country should devote 1% of GDP to the development of science and technology. In addition, they also suggested setting up a special R&D fund to finance scientific research projects that are valuable for poverty reduction in Africa. African leaders also decided to strengthen the training of scientific and technological talents and set a training goal of 200 scientists per million people. The state will provide special funds for young researchers and reward those who have made important scientific research achievements in basic science and applied science. African countries will establish laboratories that meet international standards, improve scientific research conditions and environment, and reduce brain drain; Encourage young people, especially young women, to learn and master scientific knowledge and reserve follow-up forces for Africa's development; Increase scientific research funds and strengthen the protection of scientific and technological patents. African leaders called on developed countries to reduce technology transfer fees, strengthen scientific and technological cooperation for sustainable development and provide technical conditions for poor countries to get rid of poverty. They believe that the bottleneck that restricts African developing countries from adopting advanced technologies from developed countries is the intellectual property policies of developed countries. The high technology transfer fee makes it almost impossible for African developing countries to adopt the advanced technology of western developed countries. Western countries should adjust their technology transfer policies so that science and technology can really contribute to human development.