Better sharing of development ideas among southern nations stressed

Bangladesh has made a strong call for better sharing of ideas and Information on development successes among the Southern nations at the first High Level Meeting of the Global Partnership that ended in Mexico on Wednesday.

Finance Minister Mr. AMA Muhith who was leading the Bangladesh delegation at the global congregation on development cooperation, highlighted the benefits that South-South Cooperation can bring in the field of trade, investment, labour migration and knowledge sharing.

Over 1500 participants from over 130 countries came together at the two day long Summit on April 15 and 16 to discuss the progress made so far in development co-operation and to anchor the Global Partnership in a post-2015 development framework, according to a press release.

Led by the Finance Minister, the Bangladesh delegation also included Cabinet Secretary Mr. M Musharraf Hossain Bhuyan, ERD Secretary Mr. M Mejbahuddin and the Member of the Parliament Mr. Kazi Nabil Ahmed.

Governments, businesses, private foundations and civil societies came up with a joint Communiqué and 28 new initiatives during the High-Level Meeting to push forward effective development co-operation worldwide.

The Bangladesh Finance Minister also made a strong case for domestic resource mobilization for development during the High-Level Meeting. Showcasing the example of Bangladesh, he informed that the tax/GDP ratio in Bangladesh had gone up from 10.5 % in 2009 to 13.5% in 2014.

Earlier on Tuesday (April 15), Finance Minster Mr. AMA Muhith held a bilateral meeting with the UNDP Administrator Ms. Helen Clark where they discussed the Bangladesh Government's plan to establish an 'International Institute on Southern Innovation' in Dhaka.

During the meeting, they also discussed the economic growth prospects of Bangladesh while also exchanging views on the government's plan to develop a road map for increasing administrative devolution in the country.

Cabinet Secretary Mr. M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and ERD Secretary Mr. Mohammad Mejbahuddin were also present during this bilateral meeting.  

The two day long High Level Meeting was formally inaugurated on April 15 through a formal opening ceremony which was attended among others by Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Angel Gurría and President of Mexico Peña Nieto.

The meeting included five plenary sessions and 28 focus sessions on a range of critical themes for development.

This is the first High Level Meeting organized by the Global Partnership for effective Development Cooperation or GPEDC. Launched in Busan, South Korea in December 2011, GPEDC helps nations, businesses and organisations work better together to end poverty.  

Bangladesh also made strong interventions regarding the aid transparency issues in the Mexico HLM, pleading for donors to be transparent on the aid they invest in development countries.

Cabinet Secretary Mr. M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan who was a panelist of the Focus Session on 'Managing Diversity for Effective Development Cooperation', said that despite some progress in this regard, development aid in Bangladesh is still significantly fragmented in terms of sectors and the number of donors involved.