The support of the international community is of paramount importance to the development of less-developed parts of the world. Some people believe that funded support is indispensable. However, there is stronger evidence why international funds are not necessary for development, while technical assistance is arguably a more effective way of helping developing countries.
Advocates of granting developing countries financial help may argue that this form of support is essential for constructing infrastructure, a task that often requires a substantial amount of investment. From my perspective, this argument is flawed. Developing countries, as a norm, have to sacrifice many of their national interests to be eligible for international funding. A clear illustration of this is that the Vietnamese government had to remove a quota on Japanese cars in exchange for the Japanese government’s approval of funding for two major agricultural projects in the Red River Delta. As there are many other methods of calling for investment that does not often require countries to forego their interests, such as using the build-operate-transfer model of project financing, I argue that international financial support is unnecessary.
I am firmly convinced that non-financial assistance from the international community has a pivotal role in the developing world. This is because sustainable development necessitates the building of a strong workforce and the acquisition of technology, neither of which can be provided solely by financial help. In reality, many technical assistance forms have been offered to developing countries, including knowledge sharing and the transfer of technological innovations. There are many success stories of less-developed nations receiving this type of support, as can be seen in Indonesia’s classic case of basmati rice production. In the late 1990s, a group of Indian plant geneticists and agricultural specialists was deployed in Indonesia to share their expertise and transfer the mass-production technology of this variety of rice to their Indonesian counterparts. The enormous and long-lasting success of the basmati rice industry in Indonesia in the following two decades has proven that international technical support is essential for lower-income countries to develop sustainably.
From the arguments outlined above, one may conclude it is practical assistance, not financial support, that is crucial for developing nations to thrive in the long term. I predict that practical aid and advice will be at the core of international support in the future.