Seminar calls for stronger South-South cooperation

ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a seminar on Tuesday stressed the need for stronger South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation, arguing that it would provide a consolidated foundation for achieving sustainable development goals.

The event, titled “National Seminar on South-South Cooperation: Towards a Sustainable Future”, was organized by the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) in collaboration with the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) of COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT). The seminar was attended by more than 65 people, including diplomats, academicians, scientists, economists, and students, as well as representatives of media and civil society. The inauguration was followed by a technical session comprising of highly informative talks by four eminent speakers.

In his inaugural address, Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) Director General Ambassador (r) Masood Khan called for judicious utilization of both the South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation mechanisms for success of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He remarked on the tendency of the developing countries to become over-dependent on Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the developed nations, and opined that the South should make sincere efforts to fully exploit its indigenous resources for its development.

He referred to Pak-China Economic Corridor as the largest South-South cooperation programmes Pakistan could benefit from. He said that the country should tap the potential of science and technology for accelerated development and fully exploit R&D in emerging technologies, such as biotechnology and nanotechnology. COMSATS, he hoped, would continue to play a transformative role with other UN agencies in meeting the global sustainable development agenda.

Earlier, in his welcome address, COMSATS Executive Director Dr IE Qureshi noted that the sub-theme of this seminar was cautiously chosen to be “towards a sustainable future” in view of the future aspirations for the developing countries set out in the Brundtland Commission Report (1987) and Rio+20 outcome documents, entitled “The Future We Want”. Dr Qureshi said that the seminar is being held at an auspicious occasion when leaders from around the world are meeting at UN Headquarters to adopt the post-2015 Development Agenda. Dr Qureshi noted that the obligations stipulated in the SDGs have more or less been a part and parcel of COMSATS’ programmes owing to the mandate given to the organization on its inception in 1994. He opined that COMSATS is a living example of a long-haul commitment to triangular and South-South cooperation programmes. In his talk, entitled “South-South learning in the context of Sustainable Development”, UNDP Assistant Country Director Shakeel Ahmad noted that South-South Cooperation is becoming more of a necessity than just one of the options for achieving growth and human development in the South. He said that the statistics of developing countries essentially point towards the wealth of knowledge and innovation that the South is accumulating as their economies grow, and also suggest an unequivocal potential and opportunities that the countries of the South and South Asia in particular could explore for achieving SDGs.

The emergence of new economic blocs like BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) accentuates the rise of the South. The technical session of the seminar comprised of four insightful presentations and talks on different aspects of South-South cooperation. Ambassador (r) Sohail Amin, President Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), Islamabad, gave a historic overview of South-South cooperation. Among the major developments in South-South cooperation noted by him were the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1961 and the Group of 77 (G-77) in 1964. He stressed on South-South cooperation as an essential mechanism to support the overall development objectives of the developing countries and to strengthen cooperation among their economic, environmental, cultural and social sectors.

Prof Dr Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of World Meteorological Organization (WMO), discussed key aspects of climate change in the global development framework.

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

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