Momen emphasises importance of South-South Cooperation

Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen underscored the importance of South-South Cooperation (SSC) in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in developing countries.

"I may recall here that Bangladesh highlighted the importance of SSC in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda even before its adoption in the High Level Meeting on South-South and Triangular Cooperation in the post Development Agenda: Financing for Development in the South and Technology Transfer' that it hosted in Dhaka in May 2015," said the foreign minister, according to a press release issued by the Foreign Ministry in this regard.

Momen shared the thoughts and plans of Bangladesh to promote SSC while delivering country statement at the plenary meeting of the Second UN High-Level Conference on South-South Cooperation in Buenos Aires, Argentina yesterday.

He also presented the proposal of establishing a forum of Development, Finance, Economic and Foreign Ministers of the South to discuss, dialogue, and explore the potentials as well as the critical issues of the South in the context of achieving the SDGs.

Additionally, Momen also announced that Bangladesh is planning to set up a "South-South Knowledge and Innovation Centre" which would provide a platform to itself and other countries to co-create solutions addressing challenges they face in advancing technology transformation, particularly emanating from Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and to share their innovative practices and identify experiences among themselves which could be transferred, replicated and scaled up.

Bangladesh has been elected as one of the Vice Presidents of the Conference, said a Foreign Ministry press release today.

In his country statement, the foreign Minister shared some thoughts and plans of Bangladesh to promote SSC including proposal to establish a forum of Development, Finance, Economic  and Foreign Ministers of the South to discuss, dialogue, and explore the potentials as well as the critical issues of the South in the context of achieving the SDGs.

He also announced that Bangladesh is planning to set up a "South-South Knowledge and Innovation Centre" which would provide a platform to it and other countries to co-create solutions addressing challenges they face in advancing technology transformation, particularly emanating from 4IR, share their innovative practices and identify experiences which could be transferred, replicated and scaled up.

Mentioning that the Diaspora of the South, which possesses a wealth of knowledge and experience, is expanding across the globe, the FM stressed upon that SSC should provide them a platform to work closely in their countries of origin and play a more meaningful role in their development.

He said Bangladesh is now implementing the national development Vision 2021 to see ourselves as a middle-income country and Vision 2041 to transform the country into a 'Sonar Bangla". "We are in the process of graduation from the LDC category and we are conscious that this transition would make us face a new set of development challenges as a middle-income country."

Bangladesh Foreign Minister informed the audience that Bangladesh has included SSC in its National Policy for Development Cooperation such as in various programmes and platforms under the Access to Information (A2I).