South African ‘Oliver Tambo: Gold' Honour for South Centre Board Member Chief Emeka Anyaoku

Chief Emeka Anyaoku, the distinguished Board Member of the South Centre has been conferred with South Africa's highest national honour for non-South Africans, the Order of Supreme Companions of O.R. Tambo: Gold.

The honour was conferred on Chief Anyaoku by South African President Thabo Mbeki in on 22nd April 2008 in a special ceremony in Pretoria, South Africa.

South Centre and its staff members extend their heartfelt congratulations to Chief Anyaoku on this honour.

The Third South Intellectual Platform (SIP) Retreat Convenes

The third South Intellectual Platform (SIP) Retreat was organized at the Chateau de Bossey - Ecunemical Institute, Switzerland on 17 Feburary 2008. The Retreat provided an opportunity for the Chairperson, the Board Members of the South Centre, and some of invited guests to brainstorm on issues of relevance to the South. Discussions focused on new and re-emerging challenges for the South; the changing dynamics of South-South cooperation - including how to balance the interests of small and big economies; engaging media, NGOs and private sector from the South; and on emergence of South Centre as a knowledge centre.

All the sessions were chaired by Mr. Benjamin Mkapa, the former President of Tanzania and the Chairperson of the South Centre and by Professor Norman Girvan.

The South Intellectual Platform (SIP) is an initiative of the South Centre to reflect on the new issues and challenges for the South which have emerged since the work of the South Commission over 15 years earlier. The first SIP workshop was held on 10-11 July 2006.

Chairman Mkapa and Board of the South Centre issue a Press Release

The governing Board of the South Centre completed its meeting in Geneva today. The South Centre is the think-tank of the developing countries, G-77 and China, on global strategic and development issues.

The Board is chaired by Mr. Benjamin W. Mkapa, the former President of Tanzania and members include Professor Norman Girvan (former Secretary- General of the Association of Caribbean States, Jamaica), Chief Emeka Anyaoku (former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Nigeria), Professor Deepak Nayyar (former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India and former Vice Chancellor of University of Delhi, India), Mr. Li Zhaoxing (former Minister of Foreign Affairs, China), Professor José Antonio Ocampo (former UN Under-Secretary General, Colombia), Mr. Al Zalzalah (former Minister of Commerce, Kuwait), and Mr. Bagher Asadi (former Ambassador of Iran to the UN, Iran).

The Board reviewed the past performance, present activities and future challenges of the institution, and believes that the Centre has made excellent progress in its work programmes and in particular Trade for Development, Innovation and Access to Knowledge and Global Governance for Development, supported by its strengthened outreach activities. For more details, see http://www.southcentre.org/

Board Members of South Centre convene for the Twentieth Meeting of the Board

The Twentieth Meeting of the Board of the South Centre is being held in Geneva from 14 to 16 February 2008 under the Chairmanship of Mr. Benjamin W. Mkapa, the former President of Tanzania and the Chairperson of the Board of the South Centre. Two new members were welcomed into the Board, Mr. Yousef Al ZALZALAH (Kuwait) and Mr. Li ZHAOXING (China).

Statement by a Group of Concerned Caribbean Citizens Calling for Full and Public Review of the Cariforum- EC Economic Partnership Agreement

Dr. Norman Girvan, Board Member of the South Centre draws attention to the statement made by a group of concerned Caribbean citizens who are calling for a full and public review of the Cariforum- EC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

The statement is available at: http://www.normangirvan.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/statement-by-concerned-caribbean-citizens.pdf

More commentaries on the Cariforum -EC EPA by a range of intellectuals are available at:

http://www.normangirvan.info/

South Centre comments on the Innovation and Intellectual Property in the Cariforum EPA

The Cariforum-EC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) is more than just a trade agreement: its scope embraces many subjects that have up to now been solely or mainly within national and regional jurisdiction.

The Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme (IAKP), South Centre has shared its comments on the sections on innovation and intellectual property within the Cariforum EPA. Chapter 2 of Title IV of the draft EPA text covers issues linked with key aspects of socio-economic development of the Cariforum states (CF). One can easily assess the different levels of engagement of the parties under Section 1 and section 2. Section one largely provides for non-binding commitment, declaratory statements, and matters that will be defined during implementation. Section two largely establishes binding TRIPS-plus standards that should be implemented by the parties. If Section 1 is assumed to be of interest for CF, then what they are getting from the EPA will be largely promises that may faces the inherent difficulty of determining its scope and the kind of measures that can be considered as adequate implementation of the commitments. The implementation of Section 2 is straightforward- involving the introduction of domestic laws to implement the section that can be easily verified and assessed.

Read the entire comments at
http://www.normangirvan.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/comment-on-ip-chapter.pdf

Implications of the Cariforum-EC EPA by Norman Girvan

The Cariforum-EC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) is more than just a trade agreement: its scope embraces many subjects that have up to now been solely or mainly within national and regional jurisdiction. As a legally binding international instrument it embodies a far higher degree of supranational governance than that of Caricom. It will, inevitably, condition the scope and content of future agreements made between Caricom and other major trading partners and the region’s stance in WTO negotiations.

Read the complete article authored by Dr. Norman Girvan, Member of the Board, South Centre at:
http://www.normangirvan.info/implications-of-the-cariforum-ec-epa-norman-girvan/

South Centre Bids Farewell to Ambassador Ma Yuzhen

South Centre bids farewell to Ambassador Ma Yuzhen who is relinquishing his position as Board Member of the South Centre. Mr. Ma served in this capacity for the last six years. The Chairman Mr. Benjamin Mkapa, the Members of the Board, and the staff of the South Centre deeply appreciate the guidance and support Mr. Ma has provided to the Centre. Mr Ma has been a strong proponent of South-South cooperation which contributed to steady development of the South Centre over the years.

Mr. Ma is a well-known senior diplomat in China. He has spent half of his career dealing with foreign affairs-related media affairs, a task requiring a comprehensive knowledge of international affairs and China’s foreign policy. Being one of the officers in charge of foreign affairs-related media affairs during the period of the late leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai - as Deputy Director of Information, Department of Foreign Ministry (1969-1980) - he was personally involved in the press arrangements for such important events as the 1972 visit to China of the then U.S. President Nixon. Mr. Ma was Director-General of the Information Department and concurrently Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1984-1988). He served as Senior Advisor on Foreign Policy to Chinese leaders and as their spokesman.

Eighth Meeting of the Council of Representatives of South Centre Convenes in Geneva

The Eighth Meeting of the Council of Representatives of South Centre convened in Geneva on 4 October 2007.

The meeting of the Council followed the Nineteenth meeting of the Members of the Board of the South Centre under the Chairmanship of Mr. Benjamin Mkapa, the former President of Tanzania.

South Centre participates in OECD Forum on Ownership in Practice

Yash Tandon, the Executive Director of South Centre will be speaking at the OECD Forum on Ownership in Practice in Paris on September 27, 2007. He will be making a presentation at the opening session of the forum on "The two dimensions of ownership" on behalf of Dr. Norman Girvan, Board Member of the South Centre.

The OECD Global Forum on Development, of which this Workshop is a part, is an informal dialogue space for complex issues. Akey objective of the workshop is to discuss what ownership means in practice, ocusing on concrete examples from developing countries.

More information at: http://www.oecd.org/document/21/0,3343,en_21571361_37824719_38977173_1_1_1_1,00.html

9th Annual SALISES Conference: Honouring Norman Girvan

The 9th Annual Conference of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) is being organized this year in honour of Dr. Norman Girvan. Dr. Girvan is Member of the Board of South Centre.

"Reinventing the Political Economy Tradition of the Caribbean" is the theme of the conference scheduled to take place on March 26–28, 2008. Through the Conference SALISES proposes to take the work of Norman Girvan and his generation of intellectual thinkers as a point of departure for rethinking the political economy of the Caribbean. Norman Girvan holds pride of place because of the breadth and originality of his work, as well as his association with SALISES. He remains one of a small group of academics from that period who continue an intellectual engagement with the current international paradigm, seeking to find spaces for the articulation of the development challenges of countries of the South, particularly the Caribbean region and its small states. Read full text