"During the forty years after 1960, the Asian tigers and China grew annually between 5.2 and 5.8 per cent per capita. Botswana, on the other hand, grew by an incredible 6.4 per cent on average – more than ten times faster than the world average. Since 1985, extreme poverty has declined from 42 to 15 per cent, compared with 40 per cent in Africa as a whole. Some would object that this is only because Botswana has diamonds. But valuable natural resources are more the rule than the exception in Africa, and are often something that creates conflict and stagnation. What distinguishes Botswana in the region is not the resources but the fact that it did not nationalize them. Instead it privatized them, and after independence from Britain in 1966 it created a stable regulatory framework that attracted foreign investment."