If Japan as a nation is not threatened by a serious flood that could sink the country would they have come up with an innovative idea of building a large water reservoir to prevent floods.
If humans find it easy to move from one place to another would they have come up with several innovations that will lead to production of cars and air planes
If calculating large numbers were easy would there be innovation that would lead to the discovery of computer
Most times I can't help but wonder why some countries with large natural endowment always have the biggest issues. The presence of Problems lead to finding solutions therefore does it mean that absence of problems makes people sit down and fold their hands.
If you are looking for an example of people or a nation so blessed that you could call them "heaven on earth," yet whose realities are no different from those in hell, look no further than Nigeria.
Do Nigeria have the population? Yes. The most populated country in Africa and top ten In the world
Do Nigeria the necessary things to generate Energy? Of course they have lots of sun for even a clean energy generation
Do Nigeria have Oil? It's basically an oil economy they have lots of it.
Do Nigeria have Gas? Yes, plenty of it.
Do Nigeria have fertile land for agriculture? Yes and vast land
What about Fresh water? Yes, they possess that as well.
But what about Minerals? Yes
What about Gold? Of course
Also do they have uranium? Yes they have those too.
So the big question is why would a country richly blessed with such natural resources have a high level of unemployment, poor GDP growth, high inflation and high corruption.
Maybe it is because important institutions are filled with charlatans and boastful individuals who lack the capacity to create wealth. Over dependency on resources causes huge neglect on other sectors like education and technology which can hinder long term growth
Success of any country can be attributed to the quality of their leadership.