Advantages And Disadvantages Of South-South Cooperation

According to the World Bank, from 1993 to 1998, poverty rate has reduced by 14 percent in developing countries, similar to about 107 million people. This may result from receiving foreign investment that plays an important role in local economy growth. For example, the proportion of population living in poverty in India decreased by half in the two decades, from the 1970s to 1990s, while the number of Chinese in poverty declined by approximately 210 million during twenty-one years, from 1978 to 1999 (Healey 2008). In other words, the standard of living is improving due to the benefits of international economic activities.

Yet for these countries, world trade in reality plays a major role. In many Sub-Saharan countries, foreign trade (measured in terms of imports and exports) represents more than fifty percent of their GDPs. This is due to a lack of infrastructure and machinery to process the available raw materials which leaves countries overdependent on imports, not adequately balanced by corresponding exports. This dependence on finished imports would be curtailed if these nations had enough capital to purchase machinery to process their raw-materials and sell the finished product locally or export them. However, in order to obtain enough capital to fulfill such drastic projects, they need outside help in the form of private investors.

Over the past decades Latin American countries have been in transition and relatively high growth rates were observed. Constant economic reforms led to a reduction in poverty in some regions with some exceptions. Latin American countries face many challenges but also they are niches of opportunity. Across regions a high sense of inequality and low penetration of technology are among the most recognizable challenges. In this regard, FDI works as the main engine for Latin American countries and has been increasing steadily over the recent years.

There have been many studies taking place over foreign aid and sub-Saharan Africa since foreign aid initially began after World War 2. Many authors today have begun to ask the question, “Is Africa Different?” (Asiedu 2002). The Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) in the past decade has grown exponentially to 61 percent from the previous 24 percent in 1990. Africa, while seeing a significant increase in amount of investment, still has not seen anywhere near the level of investment that other

In addition it is worth considering that emerging economies having been attracting increasingly more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) having accounted for 52% of global FDI inflows according to recent data. Looking closer at the FDI spread based on regional allocation it is worth noting that Nigeria received the greatest proportion of FDI in Africa, Indonesia in South-Eastern Asia, Mexico in Central America and Turkey in West Asia. This demonstrates the investment potential within the MINT

This phenomenal change in the international environment in which business is conducted has resulted in increased levels of foreign direct investment by companies from developed countries in lesser developed economies such as the Third World as economic benefits were sought through the globalization of production as well as markets. (Hill 2011, p.5)

The developmental gap between advanced northern countries and developing southern countries has endured for centuries. The gaps’ primary cause is a lack of strong stable institutions in developing countries. The institutional failure is due, at least in part, to colonialism, which allowed for uneven northern development predicated upon southern subjugation and abuse. Within enslaved colonies, the colonizers installed poor institutions that would impact the country 's ability to later function as a sovereign nation. Following the end of the colonial era, the developed North would supply policy recommendations or requirements along side aid to help the South develop. These policies lacked provisions to improve institutions within developing countries, proving to be monumental barriers for the South to “catch up” to the North. In addition, modern protectionist flare-ups have stalled global trade reverting back to bilateral or regional trade agreements that are more harmful for developing countries. Bad institutions coupled with a lack of trade and investment pose as a further hindrance to development.

“South Asia has the potential to accelerate growth and reduce poverty by exploiting four underutilized spatial features of the region: geography, transportation, factor mobility, and scale economies. Regional cooperation can facilitate this process (Sadiq Ahmed and Ejaz Ghani, 2010)”. Discuss using your own arguments how regional cooperation can facilitate South Asia’s accelerated growth and reduced poverty.

Lesser develop countries are known for have a largest poverty in their country and to lack on technology advancement. Therefore, one solution that has come up from the United Nation has be an economy focus plan toward poverty and push technology as a non-concern to them. In do so most lesser developed countries will get official development assistance where development partners will help them by solely making foreign direct investment and liberalizing their trade and fiscal policies but this is not good enough as the article, Break the Vicious Circle, goes to state that “solely focusing on the economic dimension does not suffice in order to achieve sustainable development” (Sütçü); therefore, this official development assistance should make more of a balance between economic and technology to better assist lesser develop countries and

This study thus asks whether the South–South experiment as articulated by Brazil poses a new model of international development cooperation that de facto constitutes something different (White 2013) from and qualitatively better (Burges 2012) than the inherently vertical and inequality-reinforcing (Six 2009) paradigm put forth by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC)-dominated, conditionality-based regime. While the possibility that the very same asymmetries might be repeated among Southern countries has been raised before (Cesarino 2012; Mawdsley 2011), no satisfactory answer has yet been found. Crucially, empirically-grounded research on Brazil’s South–South agenda is relatively scarce in terms of how it has been constructed and is operating.

When we go to a shop, we see that there are a lot of things that were produced for example in China. Cheap labour, natural resources and political regime make that the world economy is being more influenced by Third World countries. It is crucial to write, that rich countries should star helping poor countries in their economic development. Nevertheless, developing countries ought to be willing to cooperate with advanced countries.

Do you regard South Africa as a hegemon in its relations with the rest of SADC region? Relate your answer from a specific ideological perspective AND identify the applicable International Relations theory present in your answer.

South-South cooperation plays an important part in the development of less developed countries and regional economic integration. One the one hand, it boosts economic growth and obtains global sources. On the other hand,, it means the development options and economic links are diversified as well as expanded. In this process, it provides more equitable and democratic forms of global interdependence (Ajay Tejasvi, 2007).

In the light of current global economic surroundings, which have been noticeably affected by the process of globalization, the interdependence of underdeveloped countries is underscored. Regional collaboration is indeed increasing at backwards area. South-South cooperation eventually promotes the process of regional integration.

All SAARC members apart from sharing same history have some other shared interests and problems. Locating in South Asia which is world’s most densely populated and one fertile region, these countries have common tradition, dress, food, culture and political aspects. And most importantly these eight countries share common problems and issues like poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, natural disasters, internal conflicts, industrial and technological backwardness, low GDP and poor socio-economic condition and efforts for uplifting living standards. Apart from working together to track and solve these problems together, these nations also desire of promoting peace, stability, amity and progress in the region through strict adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter and Non-Alignment, particularly respect for principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrally, national independence, non-use of force and non-interference of internal affairs of other states and peaceful settlement of all disputes.