‘No poor countries by 2035’: Bill Gates annual letter says extreme poverty and child mortality could be virtually wiped out in next two decades

[Geee]

UK Independent:

Bill Gates has said there will be “almost no poor countries by 2035”, and that child mortality rates in the poorest nations will plummet to the same levels as in the US and UK in 1980.

 

The world’s richest man made the prediction in the Gates Foundation’s annual letter, in which he and his wife, Melinda, sought to dispel three common “myths” surrounding the issues of world poverty.

 

The foundation, which is expected to have given away the entire Gates fortune of around $67 billion (£40 billion) by the time the couple have been dead for 20 years, has published a letter for each of the last five years detailing global philanthropic progress.

 

Speaking to Forbes Magazine’s editor Randall Lane, Mr Gates said there will soon come a point where “you’ll have to give a reason why a country is poor”. He said that while it is difficult to make predictions for nations where politics hinders progress (naming North Korea as an example), for almost everyone else there are “good examples to learn from”.

 

Tackling the first myth, Mr Gates wrote: “Poor countries are not doomed to stay poor.