In the 80's when we moved to the village I grew up in, we didn't have a phone - we had a telegraph address.
In the 90's, to get fresh fruit and cheese, we would drive for 3 hours across sand roads to another country to shop at a supermarket.
In 1998 my village got its first chain restaurant and it was a big deal.
In 2009 I tried to modernise the family business by getting our managers to use email and very few of them could navigate the internet. In 2012, my family's vegetable farming plot was one of many that were claimed by the government to start the BIUST and I couldn't fathom how they would staff it.
And in 2025, the BIUST launched a satellite.
Lots of problems, but certainly progress.
Vietnam and China have very stable (albeit dictatures) governments that invest heavily in education and infrastructure.
Most of Africa, except some places like Botswana is very unstable politically. Plenty of conflicts, insane corruption levels.