yes, tech plays a significant role but never a sole determinant. Humans by nature are survivors and can live without tech. But humans are also adaptors and can assimilate quickly which is why leveraging similar tech from a more advanced country to a less advanced country is not complex in terms of establishing entrepreneurs/creators/makers or educating users. The complexity arises from governments and governing laws.
Ideally aka libertarian views - it would be nice to remove pain points aka gov'ts - but in reality the human dependency for direction is missed out - which is why sometimes the idea of "benevolent dictator" supersedes average political ideologies (but we can all agree dictatorship on its own draws high risk for abuse)
I think the most we would be able to do in this lifetime is to create exposures to people and empower people.
Someone growing up in the 60s in rural Cambodia would not know there is world outside of their country and were massively killed, but kids today with the access of internet, grow up with diff perspective awareness, and are familiar with digital marketing and sales, both of which drives economy.
A few years back I gave a talk in Phnom Penh for some UN entrepreneurship convention and it was my first encounter in realising policies for change was doctored and my purpose there was useless.
So i spent more time around the areas - and just next to the fancy hotels we stayed in, were large groups of homeless people, kids sleeping in the rain. It was one of the most heartbreaking moments for me. Homes were still torn apart from Khmer Rouge days and never fixed.
There remains a large group of handmakers with traditional crafts as main economy driver for the state. There is only so much traditional craft anybody can want, but, if we can extract that element of creativity and entrepreneurship and expose modern tech, then its going to empower them to find ways to creatively build up their economy.
Many a times, its the use cases that carries significant value - and who more can tell you what their communities needs then themselves, especially after being exposed to modern tech.
If this modern tech can somehow bypass crazy governments who have been the biggest pain points over the years, then maybe people have better chances in uplifting themselves.
That's just one example. Every country is different. But empowering the people and exposing them to tech could have similar approaches and might be easier to replicate.
