Global South gets together to build stronger ties

He noted that most of Kenya’s exports are to the Comesa region.

South-South cooperation has led to a seven per cent per annum increase in combined annual African exports to India and China, to a current level of $40 billion.

Total outgoing flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) from developing nations hit a record $253 billion in 2007 constituting one-eighth of the world total.

More than 40 per cent of the developing countries FDI is invested in economically vulnerable least developing countries (LDCs).

Developing countries have become increasingly important sources of development assistance to the extent that if pledges are met, total flows could reach $15 billion by 2010.

The conference will have two round tables with the first dwelling on how developing and industrialized countries can collaborate as well as how the private sector and the nongovernmental organisations can come in and assist.

The second round table will be on the UN’s role in the South-South cooperation.

There will be also a caucus of 49 developing countries – most of them in Africa – which will come up with a list of priorities such as the MDGs.

The UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said in a report of the performance of the SU/SSC that success stories in South-South cooperation were however tempered by the difficult and destabilising trends such as the reversal in economic fortunes in many countries in 2008-9 period.

This, he said, made it difficult to attain MDGs, and led to an increase in the number of malnourished to exceed one billion and the ominous impact of climate change.