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Why do some countries stay poor while others manage to escape from

poverty? Illustrate this by making a comparison of the two countries.

In the 21st century due to globalization and digitalization, many countries got tremendous

success. The factors that highly contribute to making nations wealthy are greater leaders, high

education standards, and technological capabilities. Besides this, lack of education, hunger,

conflicts, inequality, and poor infrastructure lead the country toward poor economic health. This

essay will address the economic condition of China and Kenya.

Kenya remained a poor country because it face major challenges including low fiscal

austerity and public investment, weak consumer spending, economic fall due to pandemic, weak

governance, and high corruption. Besides this, China escapes poverty, introduces industries and

sectors including technology, manufacturing agricultural, and services-based sectors. These

factors make the china world's largest importer and exporter. In 2021, China generates 32.6%

GDP from the industrial sector. Moreover, the retail and wholesale industry contributes 9.7% to

the overall GDP of China and the financial sector produces 8% in economic growth (Zuliu &

Mohsin, 2021). As compared to China Kenya is still struggling with famine because high

government taxes and poor infrastructure create challenges for farmers to transport their goods.

These factors lead the steep food prices. Moreover, an exorbitant fee of transportation leads the

entire Kenya population hungry. Overall Africa Kenya is fast growing country but as compared

to China there is a huge economic difference. Pandemic hit the economic growth of Kenya

because the GDP growth of Kenya in 2020 declined to 1.4% which was 5.43% in 2019 (The

Borgen project, 2017). This is because only the agriculture sector contributes to GDP while

industrial and service growth poorly affects economic growth. China moved toward fast
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economic growth after 1980 because it changes the planned economy toward the free market

economy. The main factors that overcome the economic issues and lead the country toward high

growth are a competent labor force, the contribution of females in the industrial sector, a strong

political system, a free-market economy, and economic zones. The statistics showed that about

16% of people have less than 1.90 US dollars per day spending in 2021. It reflects that country

face huge deterioration during a pandemic and the economic condition remained worst.

In 2021 the Kenya government spends heavy investment on the ICT sector to bring

technological innovation during a pandemic. But overall, this spending has no significant impact

on overall economic growth because Kenya has poor infrastructure. Due to poor infrastructure,

the rural pulsation of Kenya fails to access the mobile network, learning facilities, and to access

the innovation hub. These deficiencies lead Kenya toward the poorest country. From 2000-to

2020 about 62.41 million Kenyans have mobile subscriptions (Kenya Economic Outlook, 2022).

As compared to Kenya China is the prime leader of technology in the entire world. There are

emerging technologies in China including electric vehicles, AI, and 5G that lead China toward

robotics. In this way, China sustain and ranked first position in the entire world. In China, there

are national laboratories in the field of modern energy, biomedicine, artificial intelligence,

network communication, micro nanoelectronics, photons, and quantum information. This

laboratory continuously struggles with competent researchers and brings tremendous innovation.

In Kenya poor infrastructure create a barrier for the rural population to struggle and contribute to

national growth.

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics in 2020 launched the comprehensive report about

poverty that among 4492million people 15.9 million faces high poverty level. This is because the

adult of rural areas earn sh3252 while the urban area's adults earn sh5995 on monthly basis (Julia
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Faria, 2021 ). This is because in Kenya there is an unequal distribution of wealth due to poor

governance and cost-sharing policies. Inadequate roads, vulnerability, and gender imbalance also

lead the poor economic health because arise conflicts and a lack of collaboration among the

public.

Besides this, China opens the investment and foreign trade policies after the

implementation of the free market in 1979. After this reform, China becomes the world-leading

and fastest economy that bring tremendous change. According to World Bank, the GDP of China

in 2018 grow by 9.5% reflecting its fastest and most sustainable expansion (International trade

administration, 2021). Chinese highly struggle to bring innovation but 75% of Kenya’s people

depend on agriculture (Paul Wafula, 2021). Moreover, in Kenya, there is an arid climate and

erratic weather that create a barrier to agriculture growth. Poor infrastructure and high

transportation costs also cause growth barriers for the farmers.

The above findings showed that in Kenya due to corruption and lack of government

regulation the unequal distribution of cost occurs. Moreover, there is no proper infrastructure that

promotes operational activities to boost economic growth. In the case of China poverty easily

escapes and challenges are overcome because there are laboratories, technology, efficient

infrastructure that boosts economic development.

References

International trade administration. (2021, September 13). Information, Communications, and

Technology (ICT). Retrieved 2022, from International trade administration:

https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/kenya-information-communications-

and-technology-ict
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Julia Faria. (2021, November 2021). The extreme poverty rate in Kenya from 2017 to 2021.

Retrieved 2022, from Statista: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1227076/extreme-

poverty-rate-in-kenya/

Kenya Economic Outlook. (2022). Recent macroeconomic and financial developments.

Retrieved March 10, 2022, from Kenya Economic Outlook:

https://www.afdb.org/en/countries-east-africa-kenya/kenya-economic-outlook

Paul Wafula. (2021, August 12). Kenya: Sad Reality of 23.4 Million Kenyans Living Below

Poverty Line. Retrieved 2022, from Yalla Africa:

https://allafrica.com/stories/202008120697.html

Paul Wafula. (2028, August 12). Kenya: Sad Reality of 23.4 Million Kenyans Living Below

Poverty Line. Retrieved March 10, 2022, from Yalla Africa:

https://allafrica.com/stories/202008120697.html

The Borgen Project. (2017, August 8). WHY IS KENYA POOR? LOOKING AT POVERTY IN

KENYA. Retrieved March 10, 2022, from The Borgen project:

https://borgenproject.org/why-is-kenya-poor/

Zuliu & Mohsin. (2021). Why Is China Growing So Fast? Retrieved March 10, 2022, from

International Monetary fund:

https://www.imf.org/EXTERNAL/PUBS/FT/ISSUES8/INDEX.HTM