LDCs must tap new economic order
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Development experts at an international dialogue called Friday for devising strategies to embrace the emerging "East-West order" by shedding the old North-South order.
They also urged the poor countries to boost cooperation among themselves to graduate out of the LDC (least-developed countries) trap as Botswana and Cape Verde did.
Speaking at the concluding session, foreign secretary (FS) Mohammed Mijarul Quayes said poor countries should foster a new global partnership and boost cooperation among themselves to benefit from the new world order.
"Global peace and security cannot be achieved, keeping one-fifth of the world's population aloof," Mr Quayes said.
He said the main concern is whether developed and least-developed countries (LDCs) acknowledge the ownership of development strategies to be formulated in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
His concerns came at the concluding ceremony of a 3-day international dialogue on exploring the new global partnership for the LDCs in the city.
The foreign secretary underscored the need for a proper mechanism to monitor the development of poor countries every two years instead of existing 10 years.
"The LDCs require a lot of fund and it is a matter of big concern where the money will come from?" he said, adding, "It should be targeted funding to get meaningful results."
Mr Quayes said there is a significant development in the global trade issue and public-private partnership (PPP) can be an effective tool for the infrastructure development in poor countries.
Debapriya Bhattacharya, a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said political commitment from the governments of poor and rich countries is important for the development of LDCs.
"No matter how good the recommendations and strategies are, it will be meaningless if the governments do not take ownership of them," he said.
"We will keenly observe how many heads of governments from LDCs and the developed world attend the fourth conference in Istanbul," Mr Bhattachariya said, adding "France can play an important role in bringing G-20 into the summit."
He said regional cooperation will be a new issue that will be discussed in the fourth LDC conference and China, Brazil and India can emerge as major partners in the meeting.
CPD chairman Professor Rehman Sobhan said the world is changing rapidly and the new dynamics is not North-South relations, rather it is East-West relations.
"Asia and Africa are becoming closer in terms of trade and investment as huge amount of Chinese and Indian investments is pouring into Africa and trade between the continents is growing like anything," he said.
The 'South-South' flows saw trade between the countries of Africa and Asia-Pacific baloon from a 7.8 per cent share of total global trade in 1990, to 19 per cent in 2008, a twenty-fold increase in absolute terms, while global trade quadrupled.
They also urged the poor countries to boost cooperation among themselves to graduate out of the LDC (least-developed countries) trap as Botswana and Cape Verde did.
Speaking at the concluding session, foreign secretary (FS) Mohammed Mijarul Quayes said poor countries should foster a new global partnership and boost cooperation among themselves to benefit from the new world order.
"Global peace and security cannot be achieved, keeping one-fifth of the world's population aloof," Mr Quayes said.
He said the main concern is whether developed and least-developed countries (LDCs) acknowledge the ownership of development strategies to be formulated in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
His concerns came at the concluding ceremony of a 3-day international dialogue on exploring the new global partnership for the LDCs in the city.
The foreign secretary underscored the need for a proper mechanism to monitor the development of poor countries every two years instead of existing 10 years.
"The LDCs require a lot of fund and it is a matter of big concern where the money will come from?" he said, adding, "It should be targeted funding to get meaningful results."
Mr Quayes said there is a significant development in the global trade issue and public-private partnership (PPP) can be an effective tool for the infrastructure development in poor countries.
Debapriya Bhattacharya, a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said political commitment from the governments of poor and rich countries is important for the development of LDCs.
"No matter how good the recommendations and strategies are, it will be meaningless if the governments do not take ownership of them," he said.
"We will keenly observe how many heads of governments from LDCs and the developed world attend the fourth conference in Istanbul," Mr Bhattachariya said, adding "France can play an important role in bringing G-20 into the summit."
He said regional cooperation will be a new issue that will be discussed in the fourth LDC conference and China, Brazil and India can emerge as major partners in the meeting.
CPD chairman Professor Rehman Sobhan said the world is changing rapidly and the new dynamics is not North-South relations, rather it is East-West relations.
"Asia and Africa are becoming closer in terms of trade and investment as huge amount of Chinese and Indian investments is pouring into Africa and trade between the continents is growing like anything," he said.
The 'South-South' flows saw trade between the countries of Africa and Asia-Pacific baloon from a 7.8 per cent share of total global trade in 1990, to 19 per cent in 2008, a twenty-fold increase in absolute terms, while global trade quadrupled.