G77 plus China summit stresses South-South cooperation

The second summit of the Group of 77 (G77) plus China kicked off in Qatari capital of Doha on Wednesday to focus on ways to promote South-South cooperation in addition to South-North ties.

Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan attends the opening session of the second summit of the Group of 77 (G77) and China in Doha, Qatar June 15, 2005.

The two-day summit, also known as the second South Summit, is attended by 32 heads of state, in addition to prime ministers, foreign ministers and senior officials of over 130 member states.

Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan, leading a delegation, attended the meeting. He arrived here Tuesday also on the last leg of his four-nation tour which has taken him to Russia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

The agenda of the summit includes the stance of the G-77 plus China regarding political issues within a developmental framework, mainly Palestine, Iraq and Somalia, as well as means of promoting developmental cooperation among Southern states and ways to deal with poverty and hunger.

The participants will tackle trade among the group, investment, the environment and the role of the UN in terms of development.

In his speech at the inaugural session of the summit, Jamaican Prime Minister Percival Patterson, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the G77, called for boosting development cooperation among member states.

He pointed out that there were two major reasons for the limited success of the G77, namely the failure to provide financial resources to deliver the development objectives and lack of provision of institutional mechanisms at the economic and technical levels.

However, "we have not adequately exploited the potential for cooperation" within the G77, said Patterson, adding the countries of the South should increase economic and technical cooperation.

For his part, host Qatari Amir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al- Thani also called for more efforts to promote South-South cooperation, especially in trade.

Cooperation among developing countries has qualified G77 with their economic weight to be an active partner in the world economic arena, he said.

He added that developing countries are entitled to flexibility that qualifies them to design development strategies that suit them, so that they can adapt to globalization and benefit from it.

The emir also proposed to set up a fund for economic, social, health, poverty and human catastrophes, saying the fund may be called "The South Fund for Development and Human Circumstances" and Qatar will donate 20 million US dollars to the fund.

On Monday, foreign ministers of the G77 plus China endorsed a final statement and a program of action to lay groundwork for the G77 plus China summit.

The statement, expected to be approved by the leaders at the end of the summit on Thursday, also highlights South-South cooperation and the combat against poverty and hunger.

Qatar's Permanent UN Ambassador Naser Abdel-Aziz Al-Nasir revealed that the final statement gives top priority to development-related issues, including South-South cooperation, the combat against poverty and hunger as well as the promotion of education.

"We uphold the principles of sovereignty and sovereign equality of states, territorial integrity and non-intervention in the internal affairs of any state and encourage the settlement of international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner as international peace, security and justice are not endangered," says the statement.

The G77, established in 1964, groups 134 countries and is currently chaired by Jamaica.

According to earlier announcements, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, also current chairman of the Group of eight most industrialized nations (G8), the Luxembourg Prime Minister who is the current president of the European Union (EU) and representatives from 20 regional and international organizations also attend the Doha summit.

On Saturday, G8 finance ministers agreed in London to cancel at least 40 billion dollars in debt owed by the world's 18 poorest countries, including 15 African countries.

Jamaica's Patterson stressed that countries of the G-77 need inter-cooperation as much as they need cooperation with the countries of the North.

South-North partnership negotiations are going in a slow pace, he said, adding that South countries were still unable to obtain modern technology and necessary expertise to upgrade their economies and harness their natural resources.

Globalization and interdependence required a broadened level of consultation and decision-making to formulate international economic policies, he stressed.

Source: Xinhua