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South-South Cooperation Needs Programmed Actions: G-77 Chairman
Group of 77 (G-77) Chairman Chief Arthur C.I. Mbanefo Tuesday, December 12, stressed the need for the South-South cooperation to move from action plans to programmed actions.
The lack of effective actions has diminished the impact and effectiveness of the South-South cooperation in strengthening economic development in developing countries and to face challenges of globalization, he said at a seminar on " Globalization and South-South Cooperation" here Tuesday.
Mbafeno suggested the three-day seminar deliberate certain areas such as expansion of South-South trade and investment, strengthening of cooperation in monetary and financial fields through the establishment of a Trade Development Bank, enhancing capacity-building and human resources development and exchange of experiences on proper healthcare delivery, to rekindle the spirit of collective self-reliance of the South.
He said that at the South Summit in Havana, leaders of all the developing countries recognized that the South-South cooperation was an essential mechanism for promoting sustained economic growth and sustainable development.
The leaders also recognized that regional cooperation and integration was the most meaningful approach for the South to face challenges of globalization and take full advantage of its opportunities, he said.
Challenging the participants at the seminar to come up with practical proposals that would help jump-start the stalled engine of the South-South cooperation, he said the first important step towards the direction was analyzing the global forces reshaping the world with a Southern perspective.
He said that throughout the developing countries, there is perceived anxiety over how best they can reap the benefits of globalization and they all want to know how the challenges of globalization will affect individuals, businesses and governments.
There is a need to guide the developing countries to reap the benefit from the rapid globalization characterized by the continuing advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs), which play a critical role in the new global economy but without solidarity, equity and reciprocity, he said, adding many countries of the South could not reap the benefits of the new ICTs.
The seminar is jointly organized by the G-77 and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and supported by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia.
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