Economic cooperation for countries in the South of the globe

The countries in the Asia Pacific region which are marked as the countries in the South of the globe are striving to end poverty and hunger to achieve sustainable development and promote faster economic growth with equity. The UN adopted eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with 21 targets and sixty indicators for the period from 1990 to 2015. Several countries are evaluating their respective performances. In September, 2015 the UN adopted its post-2015 development agenda which is incorporated in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by the year 2030. The SDGs have to be achieved in the context of complex relationship between the state and the market within the economy and also the relationship with other countries located in both North and South of the globe.
The Heads of State and Government and the representatives who gathered in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia in July 2015, reaffirmed that a global framework for financing development in the poor countries has to be formulated with strong political commitment. The South-South and Triangular cooperation is needed to encourage global partnership and solidarity to transform the conditions of the least developed countries (LDCs), land-locked developing countries (LLDC) and small island developing states (SIDS). A vast majority of the world's poor live in Asia. A substantial number of poor people also live in the Pacific island countries termed as SIDS. The emergence of globalisation has increased the openness of the world economy, which has resulted in greater cooperation among  nations, donors, international financial institutions, multinational corporations, private entrepreneurs and non-government organisations. The countries, however, have not benefited uniformly; some even suffered negative "backwash effect" of global development. The countries of south are specifically lagging behind; except few big ones like China, India, Brazil, and South Africa.
Since the LDC category was initiated, only four countries have graduated to the developing country status. The first country to graduate from the LDC status was Botswana in 1994. The second country was Cape Verde, in 2007. The Maldives graduated to the developing country status on 1 January 2011, while Samoa graduated in 2014. It is anticipated that Equatorial Guinea and Vanuatu will be the next countries to be promoted from the LDC status. At the UN's fourth conference on LDCs held in May 2011, delegates endorsed a goal targeting the promotion of at least half the current LDC countries within the next ten years.
There are three countries which presently meet the criterion for the LDC status, but have declined to be included in the index, questioning the validity or accuracy of the UN data: Ghana, Papua New Guinea, and Zimbabwe.
The post-2015 development agenda for the less developed countries needs to recognise the complex relationship between the state and the market, the nature of which is mostly complementary. Moreover, it is important to recognise the changing role of both the state and the market depending on time and specific country situation and the need to adapt to one another. The success in the past has come in countries which succeeded in bringing the right blend of the roles of the state and the market, especially in ensuring investments in infrastructure and social sectors and promoting employment-generation and inclusive growth and development. There should be a clear message that achieving the MDGs and delivering on the post-MDG agenda is not optional, since the agenda involves an essential investment for a safer, more human and prosperous world. The goals are not just an 'aid obligation' but the basis for political and economic strategies that will benefit all the world's citizens, and not just the least fortunate.
In addition, the post-2015 agenda should include some explicit accountability mechanisms for the relevant stakeholders. Within the agenda, specific goals should form part of a conceptual framework for development for the post-2015 period. The above requires considerable thought and appropriate responses which meet the political and technical needs of the multiple actors in global development.
Drivers of South-South Cooperation (SSC) that developing countries have found to have long-lasting benefits and deserve further attention include:
l Health: Cooperation in public health increases the collective ability of southern countries to fight inequality and to promote highest attainable level of health for all. In the midst of different crises, the South has seen tremendous success in combating a number of infectious diseases.
l Education: The developing nations have worked hard to provide education and skills to their respective work-forces.
l Policy: Effective policy frameworks in countries that have efficient governance and functioning economies could share their experiences with other developing countries whose weak policy-making structures and inefficient and often corrupt governments hamper their development.
l Science & technology: Developing countries are rapidly moving ahead to create hubs of knowledge based on bright and educated people and are looking for ways to exchange relevant technology across the South.
l Institutional capacity: The developing nations often have world class institutions owing to immense experience; numerous ways to develop institutional capacities have been tried and tested in the South.
l Interdependency: The South realises that the interdependency between individuals and their communities can go a long way in overcoming their development challenges.
l Outlook towards globalisation: Many developing countries have been able to derive benefits from globalisation. South South Cooperation (SSC) and Triangular Development Cooperation (TDC) provide a platform to exchange experiences and foster innovative developmental strategies.
l Support of the North: Shared goals (such as human development, security, peace etc.) can be achieved effectively if SSC can be supplemented in cooperation with the North.
SSC can take place on a bilateral, regional, sub-regional or inter-regional basis and can involve two or more developing countries. Despite the fact that SSC can be more sustainable than traditional North-South cooperation allowing better adaptation to the country situation, in practice there is still no shared understanding on the very nature and goals of SSC. This is true on the basis of the various and sometimes divergent "interpretations" on SSC given by both emerging economies and developed countries. Some argue that South-South Cooperation should not be seen as a substitute for, rather a complement to North-South cooperation. While others argue that the two models can't be placed on an equal footing. Triangular Development Cooperation (TDC) involves two or more developing countries in collaboration with a third party, typically a developed country government or organisation, contributing to the exchanges with its own knowledge and resources.
To promote SSC and TDC in the Asia-Pacific region the following areas should be given priorities:
1. Domestic resource mobilisation: Broadening tax bases, enhancing efficiency of the tax collecting authority, ensuring transparency, reducing discretionary power of tax officials. However, strategy for domestic financing should be determined by the national governments. It should be pointed out that domestic resource mobilisation should not be taken as the pretext by the developing countries to reduce the relevance of official development assistance (ODA).
2. Strengthening regulatory regime and creating enabling environment for private sector investment including FDI: Laws related to land registration, contract enforcement, to be made more relevant in the present context.
3. Strengthening the financial sector: Banks, non-bank financial institutions, insurance companies, capital market, should promote private sector investment, financial inclusion and gender equality.
4. Roles of policies: Along with fiscal and monetary policies, other policies like industrial policy, export policy, financial inclusion policy that hold out the promise of ensuring sustainable and inclusive growth should be introduced by the governments concerned.
5. Stronger and better-coordinated South-South cooperation in dealing with security issues has the potential to dramatically reduce international and civil conflicts, especially if drug trafficking and the global black market are collectively targeted for elimination.
6. South-South cooperation that aims to address humanitarian and social ills in Latin America and the Caribbean may be emulated to accelerate economic growth pursued with prudential measures to reduce inequalities, prevent social unrest and promote social cohesion.
7. As individual organisations of the United Nations adopt strategic approaches to South-South and triangular cooperation in their policies and programmes, additional measures should be taken enabling agencies with similar expertise to pool or systematise their support to efforts of developing countries in priority areas such as the enhancement of productive capacities and the establishment of regional and global value chains that are essential to job creation and poverty eradication.
8. The most radical implications of information and communications technologies have not been realised yet, especially in enabling new financing, management and marketing arrangements that will render obsolete the hierarchical, top-down organisation of corporations. The ability to target niche markets cheaply will make artisanal and/or rural production competitive, if the capacity to use off-grid renewable energy, another affordable technology is better utilised for small-scale, high-quality industrial production in rural areas across the South.
9. The numerous contributions of the private sector and civil society to South-South and triangular cooperation should be better harnessed through stronger public-private partnerships that are systematically forged to address priority development needs through investments in science, technology and innovation as well as in other fields where non-State actors have high levels of expertise and resources.
10. The export sector of developing countries can increasingly participate in global value chains (GVC) which will spread benefits within and across countries. Programmes for increasing  GVC can be tied with post-2015 SDGs
The foremost requirement is the realisation of the centrality of the role of countries of the North, multilateral and bilateral agencies and international financial institutions. This coupled with the increasing awareness for South South and Triangular cooperation will facilitate mobilisation of more resources from existing and innovative funding sources. More effective and viable framework (s) for achieving broad-based cooperation has to be instituted where the roles of the public sector, private sector and non-government civil society organisations have to be clearly delineated.
Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed is former Governor of Bangladesh Bank (Central Bank) and Professor at BRAC University.
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