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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 June 2000 Issue No. 487 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 June 2000 Issue No. 487
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Focus Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters In the good old tradition
By Gamal NkrumahThe years grind on. First it was Bandung, and the birth of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1955. Then in the 1970s there was the Group of 77, a mottled patchwork of dissimilar and very often disagreeing nations, united only in their determination to make a collective mark in the international economic arena. And now the G-15, a select pack -- made up of Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Zimbabwe -- appointed to lobby on behalf of the G-77 grouping.
It is hard not to think of the G-15 as yet another mill in the mould of NAM and the G-77, to which all that is nostalgic and emotional is grist. Over the years NAM, in the words of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed, slowly fossilised into an obsolete "dinosaur." The Cold War, which gave birth to NAM, ultimately caused the grouping to splinter into rival pro-Soviet and pro-Western factions. To some extent the fragmentation was actually a gain. Member states played one super-power against the other and hoped to gain an advantage -- be it economic, military or political. And the entire concept of Third World solidarity inevitably became something of a practical joke.
The years dragged on, and the notion of the long-suffering, yet resilient and optimistic "South," as the antithesis of the decadent and decaying "North," foundered. The North got richer and richer, and the gap between rich and poor widened perilously; the notion of a persevering South began to wear depressingly thin.
It is within this context that the G-15 was established in 1989 at the end of the Cold War with the collapse of the former Soviet Union. The G-15 emerged in the age of all-pervasive globalisation and incontestable Pax Americana. Small wonder that topping the agenda of the 10th G-15 summit, convened in Cairo on 19 and 20 June, were economic and trade issues pertaining to the pernicious repercussions of globalisation.
By all accounts, the Cairo G-15 summit was no ground-breaking landmark event. But it was a necessary step in the excruciatingly long march toward the "realisation of a fairer new world economic order," as President Hosni Mubarak succinctly put it.
It is all a very different affair from the first time leaders from the newly independent nations of Africa and Asia met in Bandung. Bandung was about national liberation and raising the voice of the formerly colonised peoples in the international arena. The G-15 is essentially about economic emancipation for the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America and the "establishment of a fair international economic system," as the final communiqué made abundantly clear. The G-15's final communiqué expressly stated the determination to see "a more harmonious and prosperous world economy in which the developing countries overcome the challenges of size and opportunities created by globalisation."
The G-15 leaders gathered in Cairo stressed their wish that "the international community [redress] the asymmetries and imbalances in the global economy." Concern was also voiced about the growing protectionist tendencies in the North and the Western governments' ploy of persistently introducing non-trade issues at forums for multilateral trade negotiations.
The G-15 leaders urged the opening up of labour markets in the industrially advanced nations of North America, Europe and Japan, and urged the freer movement of labour between the post-industrialised, highly-industrialised and developing and underdeveloped worlds. Closing the North's doors to the South's labour contrasts sharply with Western attitudes concerning the liberalisation of capital markets.
The G-15 leaders also called for the cancellation of the debts of the world's poorest nations: "We welcome all the initiatives for the Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries [HIPC] launched by the Group of Seven, the World Bank and the IMF. However, the HIPC initiative and the enhancement thereof, with their various conditions, are not sufficient to contribute effectively to national efforts at eradicating poverty." Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo warned that African countries "set aside around 40 per cent of their budgets to service [their debts]."
As a sign of the times, during the fifth meeting of the ministers of trade and economy of the G-15 on 15 June, Egypt's Ambassador Mounir Zahran, the chairman of the Governing Council of the Committee on Investment, Trade and Technology (CITT), urged the promotion of intra-G-15 trade through e-commerce. In an unprecedented move, G-15 economy and trade ministers agreed to create a G-15 electronic trade network. A task force of technical experts from Malaysia and Egypt are to submit a report on the modalities of establishing such a network.
The G-15 summit underscored the critical importance of integrating development strategy in an increasingly interdependent world. It stressed the importance of liberalisation of trade in textiles and agricultural produce. It tried to expunge memories of past failures to better the South's lot. Cynics might dismiss the G-15 summit as just hot air. But its efforts should be examined with every extenuating circumstance before a verdict is issued. In the final analysis, perhaps the G-15 is yet another rendition of Bandung. So be it -- it is all grist to the mill.
