South-South cooperation and State-building in LDCs

Geneva, 17 Nov (Kanaga Raja) -- The most effective way for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to enhance the development impact and realize the development opportunities of South-South cooperation is to build a catalytic developmental State tailored to LDC circumstances.

This is one of the main recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in its Least Developed Countries Report 2011, released on 17 November.

According to the report, South-South cooperation has features that make it more likely to support and encourage such State-building than the current traditional forms of development cooperation. It is thus possible to create a positive interaction between building developmental States in LDCs and South-South cooperation.

The report finds that while developed economies remain very important partners for the LDCs, South-South relations already play an important role in the LDCs' integration into the world economy, and are likely to intensify further in the future.

"In the context of growing economic ties within the South, the key issue for the LDCs is the extent to which this dynamism can serve as a springboard for developing their productive capacities and fostering structural transformation, intended not only as the quantitative expansion of production, but also as its qualitative upgrading towards higher value-added and more knowledge-intensive activities."

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