China Programme • Volume 12 • Number 22 • 18th June 2008
G77 Meeting Stresses South-South Solidarity
Officials from more than 70 developing countries met in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire last week at the 12th session of the intergovernmental follow-up and coordination committee on economic cooperation among developing countries.
The meeting brought together the members of the G77 plus China, a coalition of developing countries that now includes 130 nations.
In one of the meeting’s most noted pronouncements, President Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d’Ivoire called on the group’s members to create a ‘Bank of the South’ to fight poverty in developing nations. Gbagbo said that he envisions that the bank, which would be funded by a tax on certain developing country exports, would be similar in spirit to the institution of the same name established by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last year. That bank was meant to serve as an alternative to developed country-dominated finance institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
“This is the idea that Chavez has already had, but he has done this for Latin America. We need to extend this across the whole South, with one in Latin America, one in Africa and one in Southeast Asia,” Gbagbo said in an interview broadcast by Radio France International.
“We must tax raw materials…per barrel of crude oil or tonne of cocoa for example, and create a Bank of the South,” he said.
Those present at last week’s meeting also adopted an official ‘platform for development’ of the group’s member nations. According to Ambassador John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda, the platform is intended to serve as “a strategic tool for political guidance, a compass for the South,” especially in regards to building coalitions with nations of the developed world.
Gbagbo further called on the United Nations to establish a global food stabilisation fund to protect against dramatic fluctuations in food prices.
ICTSD reporting. “Commodity tax proposed to fund ‘Bank of the South’,” REUTERS, 11 June 2008; “Gbagbo urges stronger relations between Southern countries,” XINHUA, 11 June 2008; “Southern countries agree to create development fund,” XINHUA, 13 June 2008.