South South Regional Financial Arrangements

This book shows how regional cooperation and integration have increased massively in scale and scope in recent years, as developing countries seek new ways to shield themselves from economic turbulence and to kick-start their economies in the face of stagnant global demand. The trend is partly a defense mechanism against the limitations of the international financial system, but also reflects a wider search for new and different growth paths more appropriate with developing countries’ increasing economic and political voice. As a consequence, the landscape of financial and monetary mechanisms has changed dramatically, especially in the ten years since the economic crisis of 2007–2008.

This book shows how regional cooperation and integration have increased massively in scale and scope in recent years, as developing countries seek new ways to shield themselves from economic turbulence and to kick-start their economies in the face of stagnant global demand. The trend is partly a defense mechanism against the limitations of the international financial system, but also reflects a wider search for new and different growth paths more appropriate with developing countries' increasing economic and political voice. As a consequence, the landscape of financial and monetary mechanisms has changed dramatically, especially in the ten years since the economic crisis of 2007-2008. Diana Barrowclough is a Senior Economist in the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, Division on Globalization and Development Strategies. Richard Kozul-Wright is Director of the Globalisation and Development Strategies Division in UNCTAD. William N. Kring is the Assistant Director of the Global Development Policy Center, a university-wide center housed at the Frederick S. Pardee School for Global Studies. Kevin P. Gallagher is a Professor of global development policy at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and the Director of the Global Development Policy Center (GDPC). .

Using the experience of postwar Western Europe as a benchmark, José Antonio Ocampo and his colleagues assess how regional financial institutions can help developing countries—often at a disadvantage within the global financial framework— finance their investment needs, counteract the volatility of private capital flows, and make their voices heard. The 1997 Asian financial crisis generated extensive debate on the international financial architecture. Through this discussion, it became clear that services by financial institutions— including adequate mechanisms for preventing and managing financial crises, and instruments for safeguarding global macroeconomic and financial stability—are undersupplied. Furthermore, private international capital markets provide finance to developing countries in a way that effectively reduces the ability of those nations to undertake countercyclical macroeconomic policies. International capital markets ration out many developing countries, particularly the poorest, from private global capital markets. While these deficiencies in the financial architecture are clear, the post-1997 debate has done little to evaluate the role that regional institutions could play in improving global financial arrangements. Regional Financial Cooperation aims to fill that important gap. Contributors include Ernest Aryeetey (Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana), Georges Corm (Saint Joseph University, Beirut), Roy Culpeper (North-South Institute, Ottawa), Ana Teresa Fuzzo de Lima (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex), Stephany Griffith-Jones (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex), Julia Leung (Hong Kong Monetary Authority), José Luis Machinea (ECLAC), Jae Ha Park (Korean Institute of Finance),Yung Chul Park (Korea University), Fernando Prada (FORO Nactional/International, Lima), Guillermo Rozenwurcel (School of Politics and Government, University of San Martin, Argentina), Francisco Sagasti (FORO Nacional/Internacional, Programa Agenda: Peru), Kanit Sangsubhan (Fiscal Policy Research Institute of Thailand), Alfred Steinherr (European Investment Bank, Luxembourg and University of Bozen-Bolzano), Daniel Titelman (ECLAC), and Charles Wyplosz (Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, and Center for Economic Policy Research).

Southern-Led Development Finance examines some of the innovative new south-south financial arrangements and institutions that have emerged in recent years, as countries from the Global South seek to transform their economies and to shield themselves from global economic turbulence. Even before the Covid-19 crisis, it was clear to many that the global economy needed a reset and a massive increase in public investment. In the last decade southern-owned development banks, infrastructure funds, foreign exchange reserve funds and Sovereign Wealth Funds have doubled the amount of long-term finance available to developing countries. Now, as the world considers what a post-Covid-19 future will look like, it is clear that Southern-led institutions will do much of the heavy lifting. This book brings together insights from theory and practice, incorporating the voices of bankers, policymakers and practitioners alongside international academics. It covers the most significant new initiatives stemming from Asia, tried and tested examples in Latin America and in Africa, and the contribution of advanced economies. Whilst the book highlights the potential for Southern-led initiatives to change the global financial landscape profoundly, it also shows their varied impacts and concludes that more is needed for development than just the technical availability of funds. As governments and businesses become frustrated by the traditional North-dominated mechanisms and international financial system, this book argues that southern-led development finance will play an important role in the search for more inclusive, equitable and sustainable patterns of investment, trade and growth in the post-Covid landscape. It will be of interest to practitioners, policy makers, researchers and students working on development and finance everywhere.

The publication, prepared as a contribution to the BAPA+40 Conference delves into what the future of South-South cooperation holds for developing countries, and how it can be reenergized and revitalized as a unique area of development cooperation. Given the trajectory of South-South cooperation over the last 40 years, the way forward needs to be traced, particularly in important areas of work like regional cooperation and digital industrialization. Section 1 of the report looks at the evidence behind the so-called “rise of the South” to document the qualitative and quantitative changes observed in South-South cooperation over the past four decades, highlighting that, while South-South cooperation has intensified, its impact remains uneven and incomplete. Section 2 looks at South-South cooperation’s link to the means of implementation for the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly with respect to trade and development issues, drawing on an example addressing Sustainable Development Goal 7, to highlight how South-South cooperation can provide critical solutions to the South’s development challenges. Section 3 examines policy options in a number of domains that can help improve South-South cooperation, drawing from a wide range of UNCTAD experience. Section 4 looks at the new landscape of Southern development finance actors and how developing countries can draw on this new emerging source of South-South cooperation to finance connectivity, structural transformation and industrialization. Section 5 explores key and emerging areas for South-South cooperation, including regional cooperation, building productive capacity and responsible investment. Section 6 looks at best practices in South-South cooperation drawn from UNCTAD technical cooperation experiences. Section 7 looks at the role that South-South cooperation can play in light of new technologies, in particular related to so-called "Fourth Industrial Revolution" technologies.

This insightful Companion provides an in-depth, systematic analysis of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), an economic union of several post-Soviet Eurasian states.

Using the experience of postwar Western Europe as a benchmark, Jos Antonio Ocampo and his colleagues assess how regional financial institutions can help developing countries--often at a disadvantage within the global financial framework-- finance their investment needs, counteract the volatility of private capital flows, and make their voices heard. The 1997 Asian financial crisis generated extensive debate on the international financial architecture. Through this discussion, it became clear that services by financial institutions-- including adequate mechanisms for preventing and managing financial crises, and instruments for safeguarding global macroeconomic and financial stability--are undersupplied. Furthermore, private international capital markets provide finance to developing countries in a way that effectively reduces the ability of those nations to undertake countercyclical macroeconomic policies. International capital markets ration out many developing countries, particularly the poorest, from private global capital markets. While these deficiencies in the financial architecture are clear, the post-1997 debate has done little to evaluate the role that regional institutions could play in improving global financial arrangements. Regional Financial Cooperation aims to fill that important gap. Contributors include Ernest Aryeetey (Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana), Georges Corm (Saint Joseph University, Beirut), Roy Culpeper (North-South Institute, Ottawa), Ana Teresa Fuzzo de Lima (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex), Stephany Griffith-Jones (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex), Julia Leung (Hong Kong Monetary Authority), Jos Luis Machinea (ECLAC), Jae Ha Park (Korean Institute of Finance), Yung Chul Park (Korea University), Fernando Prada (FORO Nactional/International, Lima), Guillermo Rozenwurcel (School of Politics and Government, University of San Martin, Argentina), Francisco Sagasti (FORO Nacional/Internacional, Programa Agenda: Peru), Kanit Sangsubhan (Fiscal Policy Research Institute of Thailand), Alfred Steinherr (European Investment Bank, Luxembourg and University of Bozen-Bolzano), Daniel Titelman (ECLAC), and Charles Wyplosz (Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, and Center for Economic Policy Research).

This book argues for a new conceptual framework that analytically distinguishes between North-South monetary co-ordination, which involves an international key currency, and South-South arrangements between economies all marked by external indebtedness and the resulting macroeconomic instabilities ('original sin'). In this light, the book analyzes different types of monetary co-ordination, ranging from ad hoc exchange rate policy agreements to projects of a common supranational currency, and it examines selected regional cases in Eastern Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia.