The Challenges of Southsouth Cooperation

The process of economic cooperation among developing countries has come along way since the early 1960s . Alongside the movement from the establishment of regional and subregional integration and cooperation groupings to the elaboration of concepts and approaches for global and interregional cooperation (such as, for example, the scheme for a global system of trade preferences among developing countries), there has been an extension of the scope of cooperation, originally focused on trade, to other areas, including monetary and financial matters, production, marketing, and so on . Today, the process of economic cooperation among developing countries occupies an important place in the economic strategies and policies of developing countries and, in recent years, with the marked deterioration in the world economic situation and the weakening of international cooperation for development, it has acquired even greater importance and urgency. Indeed, in view of the prospects for the world economy for the coming years, it has become an imperative if the developing countries are going to be able to envisage the transformation of their economies and the growth rates they need.