Muhith links cooperation in areas of tech, resources to regional dev

Finance Minister AMA Muhith said Sunday regional development could be sped up, if human and natural resources of a country were utilised in combination with another country's technological knowledge.
As the geo-physiological difference among the southern countries was reducing day by day, the technological knowledge of those developed countries in the region was needed to be shared with other under-developed countries, he added.
The Finance Minister was speaking as chief guest at a workshop on 'Effective South-South and Triangular Cooperation and Knowledge Sharing' held at the National Economic Council (NEC) in the city.  
The Economic Relations Division (ERD) organised the national consultation workshop. State Minister for Finance MA Mannan MP and UNDP country director in Bangladesh Pauline Tamesis attended the opening session as special guests. ERD Secretary Mohammad Mejbahuddin chaired the opening session.
South-South cooperation, triangular cooperation and knowledge sharing is one of the five themes to be discussed in the upcoming high-level meeting on global partnership to be held in Mexico in April next.
Economist Dr. Kazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmed, Dr Zafar Ahmed Khan, secretary of the ministry of expatriates' welfare and overseas employment, Dr. Shamsul Alam, member of Planning Commission and Arastoo Khan, additional secretary of the ERD, also spoke on the occasion.
UNB adds: Noting that the South-South cooperation advanced a great deal in the planning process, Finance Minister Muhith said the development partners could contribute richly in overcoming the real problem of coordination among the concerned countries to have a successful South-South cooperation.
"The real problem of South-South cooperation is of course coordination… I believe that the development partners can contribute richly in this regard. I think that's where we should look forward for further cooperation and effective management," he said.
Mr Muhith also said that necessary political will for advancement of the development policy was essential as without it none could move anywhere.
Underscoring the need for forging partnership, he said it was now universally accepted that to achieve successes nationwide, there was a need to involve every parties including private sector and civil society.
The Finance Minister said: "The South-South cooperation today is an accepted phenomenon as there is no hesitation from the part of the development partners to this end."
The South-South cooperation, he said, advanced a great deal in the planning process in working out plans for any particular sector while the multilateral banks contributed quite substantially to triangular cooperation.
Mr Muhith also noted: "knowledge sharing today is at a very high level" more because of the technological developments as well as more efforts for knowledge sharing as it was the ICT which made all these differences.
Lastly, he said that South-South cooperation was very effective, knowledge sharing was essential while North-South cooperation should not be forgotten and prominence should also be given to it.
State Minister for Finance MA Mannan said that since Bangladesh had been planning to become a middle income country by 2021, its cooperation with the neighbouring countries of the South and development partners in the North was vital.
"We believe in South-South cooperation for better synergies, and we need to increase the effectiveness of both aid and trade in delivering the goals of development in the South," he added.
Referring to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's vision to become a developed country by 2041, the State Minister said that achieving the target was possible if there was political stability and a realistic foreign policy.
ERD secretary Mohammad Mejbahuddin said that political challenges were impeding the trade relations in many aspects. There was a need to ensure that different kinds of cooperation were delivered in a synergic manner to ensure national development.
He also underscored the need for addressing some issues like strengthening institutional framework for South-South cooperation; enhancing the capacity to articulate the needs of the beneficiary countries; resource sharing arrangements; political commitment; broad-based partnership; and involvement of the private sector and civil society alongside government.
Recommendations from the workshop are expected to provide inputs for the upcoming high level meeting in Mexico as well as for the foreign assistance policy of Bangladesh that is now under formulation.