Today, almost 3 billion people live in a society whose economy is hindered by wide-ranging factors and encourages widespread poverty, low education levels, and corruption. Though there is a wealth of analytical literature on the topic of developing economics, studying a specific region that contains a diverse subset of economic situations allows one to compare and contrast factors and methods that contribute and alleviate economic depression. This project will look for similarities in factors between several countries in Southeast Asia and compare the methods used to improve the economy.