AASU ON THE INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION
In its resolution 66/550, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared September 12 as the International Day for South-South Cooperation. The Day, initially marked on 19th December, was changed to 12th September to coincide with the day in 1978 when the United Nations Conference on Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries adopted the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries.
In his statement to mark the Day in 2012, the Secretary General of the United Nation Mr. Ban Ki-Moon said that: "South-South cooperation has the potential to balance growth and equity on a global scale. Even in the midst of severe economic, social and political instabilities, South-South cooperation has continued to drive buoyant trade and financial flows in recent years."
The United Nations by declaring a Day to promote South-South Cooperation was not searching an alternative but instead an accompaniment to North-South Cooperation. Developing countries, having a lot in common, are operating in a relatively even ground to enable them to complement each other by putting and sharing their resources. In any case the international community can only support but not be substitute for the developing countries in their developmental efforts.
In recent times South-South Cooperation has been growing rapidly with the emergence of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in particular China investing far more than the western countries in developing countries particularly in Africa. In the scheme of all cooperation Africa is, unfortunately, still lagging and remaining mainly as a provider of raw material i.e. oil and primary commodity. Africa's share of world trade is just about 2%.
Though there has been some progress on non-traditional exports; much of the growth in Africa is due to the boom of oil and commodity prices. It is estimated that 4 of the top 5 African exports of goods in 2005 were oil exporters. Only 13 African countries have been able to increase diversification of exports between 2000 and 2005- all other countries either stagnated or receded and less than 30% of the exports of sub-Saharan Africa comprise manufactured products, compared to an average of 70% for all developing countries
The intra-regional trade flows among African countries are low than in other regions, accounting for less than 10% of the continent's total external trade figure (compared to nearly 20% for the Western Hemisphere and over 40% for Asia).
AASU calls on African leaders to deepen the intra-African trade by fast-tracking the integration of African countries, removing all impediments to the free movement of people and goods;
We demand the reinforcement of the powers of the African Union making it the sole representative and voice of the people of the continent.