Press Release: Silencing the message or the messenger …. or both?
Statement by former staff members of UNCTAD
On 11 April 2012, two former senior UNCTAD officers held a press conference at the Club Suisse de la Presse, Geneva, Switzerland. They presented a statement signed by almost 50 former senior UNCTAD officers and staff that expressed deep concern and alarm regarding the pressure placed on UNCTAD and the Group of 77 by major developed countries in the preparations for UNCTAD XIII. The statement had been delivered that day to H.E. Mr. Anthony Mothae Maruping of the Kingdom of Lesotho as the President of UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Board and the Chair of the UNCTAD XIII Preparatory Committee.
At that press conference, Dr. Y?lmaz Akyüz, former Director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies of UNCTAD, and Mr. John Burley, former Director of the Division for Services Infrastructure and Trade Efficiency of UNCTAD, stressed the major role that UNCTAD had played in providing analyses and insights on global macroeconomic issues that are heterodox and independent.
Press Release: Climate Regime On The Brink: South Centre press briefing at UNFCCC session
This is a note distributed at South Centre press conference during UNFCCC session by Martin Khor, Executive Director, South Centre.
"We agreed in Bali in Dec 2007 to build a much stronger international climate regime to better cope with recent alarming analysis of the disastrous effects of climate change. But instead of achieving this new regime, we now see quite unbelievably an attempt to dismantle even the weaker regime that we now have. Instead of a legally binding system to lock in adequte emissions cuts to 2020 for developed countries collectively and individually -- which is what was agreed to -- there is now the most likkely prospect of a "voluntary pledge" system in which developed countries merely state what they can do, without a formal system of assessing the adequacy of each country's target or the adequacy of the collective effort. This will itself be a disincentive for developing countries, when they see those who are supposed to lead the process, falter instead"...
Press Release:
LAUNCHING OF SOUTH CENTRE REPORT ON THE EVE OF THE G-20 SUMMIT: "Why the IMF and the International Monetary System Need More Than Cosmetic Reform"
The South Centre launched new Research Paper entitled "Why the IMF and the International Monetary System Need More Than Cosmetic Reform." It is authored by the South Centre's Chief Economist, Dr. Yilmaz Akyuz. The paper is being released on the eve of the G20 summit being held on 11-12 November 2010 in Seoul, Korea.
The issuance of this report by the South Centre is highly timely as issues relating to the governance of the international monetary and financial system will be discussed in the upcoming summit on 11-12 November 2010 of the G-20 in Seoul, Korea.
The report argues that the G20 agenda misses some of the key issues that need to be dealt with in order to effectively reform the international monetary system so as to avert future global financial crises. The missing issues include enforceable exchange rate and adjustment obligations, orderly sovereign debt workout mechanisms and the reform of the international reserves system.
The paper also points out that there are no effective rules to control the unstable global financial market, no multilateral discipline over misguided monetary and exchange rate policies, and national policy makers are preoccupied with resolving crises by supporting those responsible for these crises rather than introducing measures to prevent future crises. This may sow the seeds for future problems.
Press Release: South Centre Proposes Policies Towards Sustainable Global Economic Recovery
The South Centre has published a paper analysing current weaknesses and imbalances in the global economy and in the major countries. It also makes proposals on what needs to be done to achieve a global economic recovery.
The paper “Global economic prospects: The recession may be over but where next?” is written by the Centre’s Special Economic Advisor Y?lmaz Akyüz (formerly Director of UNCTAD’s Division on Globalisation and Development Strategies).
The paper throws interesting light on the global economic imbalances, the situation in the major countries, and what needs to be done, especially in terms of these countries’ macro-economic policies.
According to the South Centre, the global economy is weak because there is insufficient effective demand globally, and this is a major obstacle to a sustained economic recovery. For the global economy to recover, there has to be a boost to global demand, while at the same time securing financial stability.The paper examines how the major economies – the United States, Germany, Japan and China – are contributing to global demand, what their weakness are and what policies they should take.
Press release: South Centre Cautions African Countries when Approaching Economic Partnership Agreements
The way EPA has been conceived, based on the requirement for reciprocal market opening with the European Union (EU), is likely to bring more losses than gains for Africa. The gains are not much, as the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which make up 34 out of 47 African countries negotiating the EPAs, can avail of the Everything But Arms (EBA) preferential scheme of the EU. And the value of the preferences African countries will reap from an EPA will essentially become nil in about 5 to 10 years. It is of vital importance for developing and the least developed countries, that the options for industrialisation for future generations are not foreclosed.
Press Release: The Palestine-Israel Question: The two-state illusion
One casualty of the conflict in Gaza will be the two state solution. The most bizarre irony of present history in the making is that as a direct result of Israeli war against the population of Gaza the present proposed “solution” to the Palestine-Israel question based on the theory of two state has now suffered possibly a fatal blow.
The reasons why a two state solution is now not going to work can be grouped under three main heading.
1. Increasing recognition that the two state solution is a fraud: it is part of US-EU global geopolitical and energy-security strategy presented as a “Palestine problem”.
2. Increasing questioning of the legitimacy of the creation of Israel in 1947.
3. Increasing recognition by Palestinians that the future is ultimately on their side, and they can afford to wait.
So when the US and the European Union advocate a “two state solution” to the “problem of Palestine” they are in actual fact only serving their own interests.
Press Release: The G-20 Declaration on Financial Crisis, Need for a Better Response
South Centre argues that it is imperative that the South decouples itself from the crisis-prone system of the North. This is particularly urgent in the present phase of financialised capitalism when financial markets are privileged over production; when house mortgages, consumer spending, the commodity market, the oil market, the food market, etc. are all subject to asset securitization and speculation in the uncontrollable futures market; and when profit maximization by mostly Western banks and corporations, sometimes in collaboration with Southern large corporations, have disembowelled and weakened the resilience of smaller enterprises in the South and thrown them out of their domestic markets.
Press release: South Centre calls for Revamping the Global Financial Architecture
The financial crisis has shown how dysfunctional the current international financial architecture is to manage the global economy of today, with its myriad of interconnections through which financial turmoil spreads across the world and with its revealed and significant regulatory deficit. In the 1980s, the debt crisis in Latin America, Africa and other parts of the developing world, and in the late 1990s the succession of the Asian, Russian and Latin American crises, had already revealed that something was deeply wrong with that architecture. The industrial world did not understand the need for serious rethinking of the governance of global finance.The fact that this time developed countries are at the center of the storm may now lead them into action.
Press Release : Washington to Beijing via Doha: Time for a New Bretton Woods Conference
The South has not been immune to the financial meltdown of the developed North, but the South’s partial decoupling from the North has somewhat lessened the impact. Yet, the existing Bretton Woods institutions continue to favour “globalisation” rather than decoupling.
Press Release: Global Financial Meltdown: the West and the Rest
The debt-financed US-led global economy is crumbling. What lessons can the leaders of the South learn from the present meltdown of the Western capitalist system?
Press Release: Appointment of new executive director of the south centre
The Board of the South Centre met in Geneva from 6-7 August 2008 for its 21st meeting and appointed Mr. Martin Khor as the new Executive Director of the Centre.
Mr. Martin KHOR will take office as of 1st March 2009 at the end of tenure of the current Executive Director, Dr. Yash TANDON.
Mr. Khor, a national of Malaysia, is the Director of Third World Network, a network of several NGOs in different parts of the developing world.
Press Release: TRIPS-Plus-Plus, “SECURE” gives rise to serious concerns from the South
Fast-paced and far-reaching developments are underway at the Brusselsbased World Customs Organization (WCO) to adopt the Provisional Standards
Employed by Customs for Uniform Rights Enforcement (SECURE) at their upcoming Annual Council Meeting from 26-28 June 2008. SECURE aims to
broaden the powers of Customs Administrations by extending the mandate of border guards empowering them to become intellectual property (IP) watchdogs, beyond the remit of the TRIPS or the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
According to Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the South Centre, the Geneva-based Intergovernmental Thinktank of the developing countries, “This is an ambitious attempt by a few developed countries and corporate rightholders to promote "TRIPS Plus-Plus" agenda through the backdoor”.
Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the South Centre delivered his statement "Towards National and Collective Self Reliance of the South" at the General Debate of the Twelfth Session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD-XII) on 23rd April at Accra, Ghana.
Dr. Tandon listed six major challenges where UNCTAD should direct its energies and future efforts and made two specific recommendations to the organization, including the recognition of the role of innovation and access to knowledge and the need to strengthen the negotiating capacity of developing countries.
New Voting Formula at IMF Falls Short of Bringing Genuine Change
Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the South Centre, a Geneva-based intergovernmental think tank for developing countries, said that "the proposed changes with respect to votes in the IMF as a result of a new voting formula – while positive in recognizing the need for such changes – do not however go far enough to remedy the governance imbalance in the IMF. What is being proposed is too little and preserves developed country control over the IMF. To be genuine about sharing governance power in terms of votes, the increase should be much more.”
The Governing Board of the South Centre Completed its Meeting in Geneva Today
The Board reviewed the past performance, present activities and future challenges of the institution, and believes that the Centre has made excellent progress in its work programmes and in particular Trade for Development, Innovation and Access to Knowledge and Global Governance for Development, supported by its strengthened outreach activities.
The Nineteenth Meeting of the South Centre Board was held from 3 to 5 October 2007
Under the Chairmanship of President Mr. Benjamin W. Mkapa, the Board reviewed the past performance, present activities and future challenges of the institution. The Board believes that the Centre has made excellent progress in its work programme, in particular Trade for Development, Innovation and Access to Knowledge and Global Governance for Development.
South Centre Organizes High-Level Seminar on “Debt and Trade: Making Linkages for the Promotion of Development
South Centre, UNCTAD, the Center of Concern/CIDSE and the Equatorial Guinea Investment Group are co-organizing a seminar on "Debt and Trade: Making Linkages for the Promotion of Development" at Palais des Nations, Geneva on 13 - 14 September 2007.
This seminar is the second in a series designed to address issues and options for bringing a more holistic vision of the trade and finance inter-linkages into the actual negotiations in trade and financial fora, as well as into the design of domestic policies. It will provide resources for operationalizing the mandate to address “the consistency and coherence of the financial, monetary and trading system” formulated at the Monterrey Consensus (2002), the concept of policy space embedded in the Sao Paulo Consensus (UNCTAD XI, 2004), and the Millenium Development Goals.
South Centre – United Nations University Joint Session on Innovations and Technology Transfer
South Centre organised a session on "Innovations and Technology Transfer" at the United Nations University- WIDER Conference on Southern Engines of Global Growth: China, India, Brazil and South Africa (CIBS) in Helsinki, Finland on 7 September 2007.
The session was chaired by Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director of South Centre, and Dr. Guanghua Wan, Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER. Presentations were made on "Patent Application as Indicator of the Geography of Innovation Activities: Problem and Perspectives " by Dr. Xuan Li, Lead Economist, South Centre and on "Breaking the Deadlock on Climate Change Related Technology Transfer" by Vikas Nath, South Centre.
Statement by H.E. President Benjamin W. Mkapa , Chairman of the Board of the South Centre
The decision of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Managing Director, Rodrigo de Rato, to resign in October 2007 opens up an opportunity for change to occur in the selection process for his successor. The opportunity for change in the governance of the Bretton Woods Institutions that was missed by the recently continued practice of selecting the World Bank President on the basis of a nomination by the United States must not be missed by the IMF in its selection of the next IMF Managing Director.
The G-8 Continues to Be Long on Rhetoric and Short on Action
The statement made by former President of Tanzania and current Chairman of the South Centre Board, Benjamin W. Mkapa criticizes the G-8’s agreement on climate change reached on June 7, 2007.
“The economic and ecological fate of an increasingly interdependent global community of peoples, most of the in the developing countries, living together on a climatically fast-warming planet, cannot and must not be decided by policies agreed upon and “coordinated” by an exclusive club of heads of developed countries such as the G-8.”
President Mkapa New Chairman of South Centre Board
President Mkapa was elected by acclamation for a regular term of 3 years as the new Chairman by the Council of Representatives, which consists of representatives of the 51 developing country Member States of the Centre, at their meeting held here last evening.
“This decision of yours is a great honour and an enormous privilege to me, for I know I am being asked to walk in the footsteps of great personalities who have assumed this Chair in the South Centre in the last ten years,” President Mkapa told the Council of Representatives.
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