While providing aid is a noble act with an important role for poverty reduction such as building essential infrastructure including roads, schools and hospitals, aid alone cannot help LDC populations escape from crushing poverty. Successful economic development can, but aid cannot create an economy which will sustain LDC populations above poverty lines. In many instances, aid has caused passive reliance on external help, rather than encouraging people to make efforts for the improvement of their own lives.

All of the successfully developed countries after World War II have succeeded in economic development through international trade. For those countries which cannot initiate large scale trade-based development policies at a national level, microtrade provides a feasible alternative path to freedom from absolute poverty. Microtrade requires voluntary assistance which is translated into an economic cost, but the implementation of microtrade with voluntary assistance elements, which still utilizes the market mechanism, will be much better and economically more efficient than just giving aid which often produces no outcome of lasting improvement.

Lastly, it is to be noted that microtrade can be applied not only for the people of LDCs but also for economically disadvantaged groups in developed countries such as Indigenous Persons in Australia. They live in remote communities in isolation and poverty; microtrade can be implemented to improve their lives as well.