Interview: South-south cooperation key in fostering int'l development: senior FAO official

South-South Cooperation (SSC),shorthand for collaboration between developing or poor countries,is a bigger part of the international development tool box thanever before, Jong-Jin Kim, the director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) South-South and ResourceMobilization Division, said in an exclusive interview withXinhua.

The number of development projectsinvolving two or more developing or poor countries, or developingcountries collaborating to leverage finance from industrializedcountries, is gaining momentum, the South Korea-born economistbelieves.

"This is becoming a major change inthe international development landscape," Kim said.

For generations, most bigdevelopment initiatives depended on North-South cooperation,whether through loans or grants, technology transfers, trainingprograms, direct investments or other means.

Kim said that while those kinds ofdevelopment strategies are still important, they are many examplesof developing and poor countries helping themselves.

"There are many examples wherethere is a kind of experience or expertise developed in one countryis very relevant given the circumstances in another," hestated.

The economist pointed to onespecific example involving a new project between China and Nigeriato make his point. Here, China is providing agricultural productiontechnology to Nigerian farmers in a position to quickly scale upproduction.

"It is so successful that whileChina provided the financing for the pilot project Nigeria iscoming up with the finance to make it continue," Kim said.

He notes that China, which has beenan active participant in FAO South-South Cooperation projectsdating back nearly 20 years, has deployed more than 1,000 expertsin 25 countries and regions. That is more than half of all FAOSouth-South experts.

"FAO is proud of the solid SSCpartnership through which China is sharing its developmentexperiences, innovations, technologies with other countries in theglobal South. This partnership has led to major results at alllevels," Kim said.

But even when there is a largecountry involved, like China, together with much smaller ones likesmall island states, Kim said FAO discourages use of the term"donor" or "recipient" countries.

"We like to look at these projectsas win-win situations," Kim said. "So rather than say a certaincountry is a recipient country we say they are a 'host' country forthat project."

Despite its successes, Kim saidchallenges remained for the further growth of South-SouthCooperation. He said that while China and other large economies intransition like Brazil and India are playing a big role, he wouldlike to see other middle-income countries get more involved.Additionally, he said, financial limits still loom large.

But despite the challenges, Kimpredicted a bright future for the number and effectiveness ofSouth-South projects going forward.

"Even traditional donor countrieslike the members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment (OECD) see value in these kinds of projects and thathas led to what we call 'triangular cooperation' between twodeveloping countries and an industrialized country," Kim said.

"I am quite sure we will seeSouth-South Cooperation projects gaining more attention in thefuture," he added. Endit