Auteur : ipc
Date : 25 mars 2010
La version française n'est pas disponible.
What are the consequences of the creation of new groupings of emerging economies with a strong emphasis on South-South cooperation? How do we get civil society involved in high level political debates?
The India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Summit will be held in Brasilia, Brazil on the 15th of April. IBSA is a trilateral, developmental initiative between India, Brazil and South Africa to strengthen South-South cooperation and policy dialogue and coordination among these major emerging countries.
The International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) is pleased to announce that it will be hosting the 4th Academic Forum (12th & 13th of April 2010) in Brasilia. The Academic forum is a supplementary environment to the Summit of the Heads of State, widening the discussion by giving voice to specialists, policy advisors, researchers and empowering civil society agents. The outputs of the Forum will be formally reported at the Summit of Heads of State, making the event an extraordinary opportunity to engage in the policy making debate of the global South. A final report is also expected to be prepared and disseminated to a global audience.
IPC-IG believes that the voice of civil society is crucial to this debate, aspiring to expand the dialogue from acting solely as an inter-governmental discussion towards creating an environment for all parties. IPC-IG is therefore helping to facilitate a constructive and open debate for increasing alignment in social development and inclusive growth in high level political talks of the Global South.
We want your voice to be heard, we know that there is much to be said in terms of development in the IBSA countries, and also the impact of their policies for other countries. Where does your voice come in? Join the discussion online!!
You are encouraged to contribute with your thoughts and ideas concerning the following questions around the IBSA Summit and the Academic Forum:
- What is the role of the emerging countries in shaping world politics?
- How can India, Brazil and South Africa strengthen cooperation in key issues on the global agenda?
- How can an enhanced policy dialogue contribute to the promotion of inclusive growth in the South?
- In which ways an improved dialogue among developing countries can contribute to the implementation of effective policies towards the achievement of inclusive growth and human development?
The Academic Forum will serve as a unique opportunity to bring pressing development issues into the highest level policy debate with the aim of giving inputs to the implementation of effective inclusive growth strategies. Panels and presentations will cover a wide array of topics, namely:
- The role of cash transfers
- The role of employment programmes
- Health Innovation, intellectual property rights and access to essential drugs
- The role and potential of IBSA as a plurilateralist arrangement
Your ideas and comments will contribute to the policy dialogue being promoted by the Academic Forum! Join the debate and support IPC-IG promote civil society voices into major political negotiations!
Further literature on this topic:
- "The trillion-dollar club", The Economist, April 15, 2010
- Imprimer
- Flux RSS des commentaires
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Date : 20 avril 2010, 09:32
Dear participants
I saw in our television 4 presidents of Forum .
Russia - Brazil - China and India 4 very big countries in the worlds
I only can't understand how the work of all types of conferences,organizations can be intergrated in to one Government ?
In media of our country, appered the word " Globanization "
Many enterprises put their name : Global in registration system.
The Ministry of Education and Traning organize many meeting for education renovation , it will meet the needs of life and future .
We carry information from out side to our Internet system is one way to get this objective.Hard work this time
Thank you
Date : 16 avril 2010, 10:09
Speech by Dr. Rathin Roy, Director of IPC-IG, on the occasion of the opening session of the Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRIC) Think Tank Summit
Brasilia, 14 April 2010
I am honoured to be invited to this important Summit on the Role of the BRICs in the Post Crisis Global transformation and would like to thank my friend and institutional collaborator Senhor Marcio Pochmann for the gracious invitation.
The famous English poet-playwright William Shakespeare said "Be not afraid of greatness; some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them." The BRIC countries seem to fall into all these categories. Four great nations of the world, straddling three continents, each with proud and specific histories of achievement. And now, following a global economic crisis of epochal dimensions, and the acknowledgement of the possibility of a more inclusive world, the expectations on their collective role run high among the international community. It is the call of the moment that the four countries will play a collective role in shaping our common global destiny.
This Summit could have great resonance on the debates on global economic governance. The first decade of the twenty first century has been marked by the intersection of policy debates that had, previously, been conducted in very separate domains. Traditionally the debate on global economic governance has been situated in the G-8 and in discussions associated with the governance of the Bretton Woods Institutions and the World Trade Organisation. The new responsibilities assumed by the G-20 intergovernmental grouping in this area has led, inevitability, to questions of inclusivity and development acquiring a much higher profile than was previously possible. The resilience of the BRIC countries to the global economic crisis has offered the opportunity to do away with historic dogmas on “best practice” and opened a fertile and productive ground for discussing whether things can indeed be done more inclusively and more consensually. As a macroeconomist, I am personally thrilled to see the unhelpful textbook doxologies of the past twenty years being challenged, modified and discarded in favour of a general acceptance that plural approaches to economic policy making are more fruitful than adherence to simplistic dogma.
But the increased policy space has brought with it new responsibilities. The world will look to the BRIC to propose alternatives to -- rather than simply oppose-- a status quo that all acknowledge to be unsatisfactory, whether on the International division of labour in global trade, the relative voice of different nations in the governance of global economic institutions or on the best way forward to act collectively on the global challenges that face our children in the area of sustainable development.
It is here that this Summit can make an important difference. Each of the BRIC nations has a rich intellectual tradition and is at the cutting edge of policy debate. But the linkages across the BRIC nations continue to be mediated by the institutional apparatus of an earlier age. This has meant that with the best will in the world, attempts at policy coherence are not adequately served by committed ongoing substantive and intellectual inputs to the BRIC as a whole, rather than just its constituents. The result is a constant struggle to find ad hoc bridges of complementarity when addressing the great issues of our time. And this need not, and must not, continue to be the case.
It is in this context that this Summit will, I hope, rise to the challenge of building a BRIC policy dialogue that offers substantive and evidence based support to the political alignment. In my view, the other challenge which requires intellectual support is to retain the deep historic engagement with the global South that the BRIC countries have fostered across their recent history. BRIC summits will always be front page news; but will they make a difference to the lives of those who have been deprived voice in our global community? From the vantage of the global South there is a fork in the road. Will the rise of the emerging economies, portend just a broadening of the ”great game”, with the only result being a little more elbow room for developing nations in their engagement with the G20 economies? Or will the BRIC lead, in capitalizing on the historic opportunity to forge a new and more inclusive paradigm that secures faster and more sustainable development for all global citizens?
Facilitating Policy dialogue is an important mandate of the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth. a joint venture between the United Nations Development Programme and the Government of Brazil working in wider partnership with governments institutions and public intellectuals across the global South and particularly the BRIC nations. Our vision is to act as a convening think tank that can make a significant difference in our common endeavour to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development objectives. In close collaboration with IPEA, we are committed to supporting your efforts to make a difference. I look forward to an enjoyable and productive dialogue.
Date : 12 avril 2010, 01:38
Speech by Dr. Rathin Roy, Director of IPC-IG, on the occasion of the opening session of the India-Brazil-South (IBSA) Academic Forum: A Policy Dialogue
Brasilia, 12 April 2010
It is a privilege for me to welcome you all to The Academic Forum of the Fourth India Brazil South Africa Dialogue Process.
The strength and resilience of the IBSA initiative is marked by recalling its genesis, here in Brasilia. On June 6 2003, the Foreign Ministers of the three countries met here. At this meeting the launch of the IBSA Dialogue Forum was formalized through the adoption of the "Brasilia Declaration." Seven years down the road, this gathering, once again in Brasilia, marks the definitive success of a vision, an ideal that few would have thought possible in our contemporary, often cynical, times.
The idea of IBSA is unique, not just in its transcontinental scope, or in its bringing together three major democracies of the global South, but also in being, from its very inception, a dialogue process that extends beyond the usual narrow confines of intergovernmental parley. Like the many streams that feed the mighty rivers of the three nations, the IBSA process builds upon dialogue between public intellectuals, social activists, parliamentarians, entrepreneurs and mediapersons. At the plenary session, I will be privileged to convey the key messages from this important forum as our collective contributions to the process this year.
Facilitating Policy dialogue is an important mandate of the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth. The Centre is a joint venture between the United Nations Development Programme and the Government of Brazil working in wider partnership with government’s institutions and public intellectuals across the global South --- and importantly, and as a matter of priority --, with the IBSA nations. Our vision is to act as a convening think tank, to highlight, foster and build work programmes owned and delivered within the global South that can make a significant difference in our common endeavour to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development objectives.
The recent global economic crisis has poignantly shown the global community that inclusive growth is a necessity and not a luxury. Many scholars from India Brazil and South Africa have established the link between the relative resilience of the IBSA countries to global exogenous shocks and the explicit attention paid to inclusive growth in the contemporary development strategies of these countries. The IBSA countries have, each in their own way, made significant advances in this direction; they have shown that inclusive growth is possible, that poverty reduction and human development need not await generations of narrowly focused growth maximization.
We will, in this forum, be looking at these successful experiences of all the IBSA countries in fostering inclusive growth. The aim is to develop work programmes that help deliver a portfolio of policies and actions targeted at enhancing the inclusivity of economic growth. This, we hope, will feed into the development processes not only of the IBSA countries but also help deliver better development results across the global South.
I have alluded to the national dimensions of inclusive growth; however there is also an important global dimension, namely that economic and political playing fields need to be leveled so that inclusivity happens globally as well as within nations. I think you will all agree that the widening of the mandate of the G-20 is only a first and partial step in this direction. It is here that IBSA can also play an important exemplary role. It is now apparent that strategic thinking on foreign policy will have to take account of the growing role of the emerging economies in shaping the future architecture of global economic governance and development cooperation. It is vital to recognize, in this context, that the perspective of the IBSA countries is rooted in a deep historical engagement with the global South; this portends a huge opportunity to forge a new and more inclusive paradigm that secures faster and more sustainable human development for all global citizens. Our session on plurilateralism will, I am confident, break important new ground in this direction and foster a productive work programme on this important issue.
For the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth, the IBSA Academic forum marks the start of a continued and systematic engagement with the IBSA trilateral process. We commit to bring the best we have to the service of this process, which we regard as being at the core of the Centre’s mandate. I thank you for your solidarity and look forward to an enjoyable and productive dialogue.
Date : 10 avril 2010, 00:07
Dear All,
The Academic Forum will strive to facilitate an exchange between researchers and policy makers in the three countries on their social development strategies and to identify potential themes for a collaborative applied policy research programme involving Indian, Brazilian and South African researchers, which can also potentially contribute to the IBSA working group on Social Development. Specifically concerning social protection we will discuss the different modalities of cash transfer programmes that exist in the three IBSA countries. The Brazilian and South African constitutions have enshrined social assistance as a right. Social transfers - mostly means-tested - have been stepped up in both countries and include the Old Age Pension, Disability Grant, Child Support Grant, Foster Care Grant and Care Dependency Grant programmes in South Africa and the universal non-contributory rural pension, old age and disability benefit (BPC) and the conditional cash transfer programme, Bolsa Familia, in Brazil.
The social grants/transfers have had measurable impacts on poverty and on social development investments – e.g. schooling, health, nutrition - in South Africa although the impact on inequality appears to be a more complex phenomenon to disentangle. While there has been a rapid expansion in spending on social assistance over the last decade with a notable increase in the number of beneficiaries, there is still exclusion of some of the poorest segments of society from the coverage of the programmes, particularly, in the case of the child support grant mostly due to a lack of correct documentation on the part of the beneficiaries. Solutions to address issues of documentation thus appear to be a priority to guarantee full coverage of potential beneficiaries.
In Brazil, the social transfers have contributed decisively to fight both poverty and inequality. Spending on social transfers have increased in the past decade in pace with a policy of real increases in the minimum wage to which both BPC and the rural pension are linked. Unlike South Africa, Brazil has opted to adopt conditionalities for Bolsa Familia that resembles the Child Support Grant in other aspects. Bolsa Familia has also been a protagonist with regards to the relationship among the different layers of government, involving municipalities in the implementation of the programme unlike others CCT programmes in Latin America. This close link with municipalities has also helped to consolidate the Unique System of Social Assistance (SUAS). The single registry for social programmes that grown in scale with the spread of Bolsa Familia may be of interest as a model to the other countries to operationally integrate their different social development programmes.
In India, social transfers are not as widespread as in the other two countries. However, India has recently expanded the eligibility for the National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS) to cover the elderly living below the poverty line, and not just the destitute. Its largely decentralized nature (state level programmes in addition to the central government programme) poses challenges in terms of ensuring coverage as well as adequate levels of payment especially in the poorer states. India’s main equivalent social investment programme encompasses a more explicit gender dimension. Ladli, the social security pension allowance scheme aims to change parents’ behavior vis-à-vis their girl children. Under the scheme, on the birth of the second girl child on or after August 20, 2005, the mother as well as the new-born girl child would get an annual transfer for a span of five years with the amount being invested and maturing when the second girl child attains the age of 18. Under the Ladli Social Security Scheme in the state of Haryana, parents who are left to fend for themselves after the marriage of their daughters would also be able to receive a monthly pension from their 55th year until their 60th birthday. The programme was initially launched by the governments of Delhi and Haryana and is now being extended to a number of other states with some variation in design. Also of interest is the convergence approach to different programmes which has been adopted by the Government of India. In particular, in the union territory of Delhi, Mission Convergence has been set up with a view to integrate different social protection programmes and perhaps to introduce a state level CCT/cash transfer programme.
Some of the questions that will be addressed at the Forum regarding social cash transfers from a comparative policy perspective are:
• How important have the conditionalities been for ensuring development impacts?
• What accounts for their differential impacts on poverty and inequality across the three countries? What has been the primary focus - income transfer and consumption smoothing or long term investment?
Fabio Veras, Coordinator: Social Protection and Cash Transfers
International Policy Center for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG)
Date : 08 avril 2010, 17:09
The role of the emerging countries in shaping world politics.
In political economy, the world is divided into two – the developed countries and the developing countries. While United States of America (U.S.A) is leading developed countries which includes Europe; India, Brazil and South Africa are leading democratic developing countries.
In the world geography, India is located in Asia, Brazil in Latin America and South Africa in Africa and incidentally, these regions have the highest number of developing countries. The emerging countries role in shaping world politics could be analyzed from their internal domestic success.
Political mobilization: groups were historically discriminated or ignored but who are now learning to compete for power through the ballot are rising, increasing political awareness among disadvantaged groups has forced governments to pay more attention to the creation of compensatory privileges – negotiation of greater commitment from the state; i.e. participatory democracy (citizens choice and voice) respected – (citizen - centric governance).
High electoral turnover of leadership: voters through ballot vote out incumbent governments and poorer people usually vote the most passionately.
Given the leadership role of the emerging countries in developing countries positions on global political issues such as the WTO conferences, these traits manifest, hence their role in shaping world politics.
Though, their weaknesses are corruption, citizens’ limited access to information and elite – driven democracy.
Key issues on the global agenda
Emerging countries should share knowledge and strengthen cooperation through bilateral and multilateral relationships with developing countries in key issues like technological development and market reforms.
Technological development: Rapid growth in the knowledge – based economy (Industrial Revolution Phase 11) of the emerging countries positioned them as key stake holders in global politics. This resulted in the emerging countries rise to large and technologically sophisticated firms ownership in relation to the declining large multinational corporations that are no longer exclusively owned and headquartered in the developed countries, engendered the developing countries influence in shaping world political economy.
Market Reforms: Since the end of the Cold War, emerging countries market reforms have removed many of the barriers that formerly impeded private economic modernization, the countries were able to enhance the quality of public services.
Effective policies towards inclusive growth and human development
An improved policy dialogue among developing country must anchor on the following:
Executive Effectiveness: Good governance, institutional capacity building, infrastructural development, human capacity building, Ethical service.
Legislative effectiveness: citizens’ participatory representation, effective legislation, efficient oversight of the executive.
Judicial effectiveness: Justice, accessibility and sustained social balance.
Civil Society Effectiveness: Participatory democracy, power sharing with the state actors and networking.
Credible elections, anti corruption efforts and access to information are fundamentals to an improved policy dialogue for inclusive growth and human development.
Alphonsus C. Nwoye
Date : 07 avril 2010, 11:18
Two important events for the Global South will take place in Brasilia in April: the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) and the Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRIC) summits. The International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG), whose headquarters is in Brasilia, is privileged to be closely involved in a number of the activities associated with the summits, especially the organisation of the “Academic Forum: A Policy Dialogue” for the IBSA gathering.
We expect these meetings to have great resonance for the future shape of South-South cooperation. The first decade of the twenty-first century has been marked by the intersection of three debates that previously had been conducted in separate domains with limited interaction. Traditionally, the debate on global economic governance has been situated in the G-8 and in discussions associated with the governance of the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation. The debate on development cooperation has largely been conducted from the perspective of donors, and has mostly been about aid, whether for or against. Foreign policy strategies have been viewed principally from the perspective of national strategic interests and, apart from specific initiatives rooted in the history of the Cold War, have been typically bilateral in scope and nature, other than for past and present superpowers.
The rapid increase in the number of emerging economies as global players—leading to a significant re-examination of the fundamental assumptions regarding voice, domain and the agency of global economic governance—is closely related to their greater involvement in development cooperation. This is rooted in a deep historical engagement with the global South and is based on political solidarity with other developing nations. It is now apparent that foreign policy strategies will have to take account of the growing role of the emerging economies in shaping the future architecture of global economic governance and development cooperation. For that reason the IBSA and BRIC summits are front-page news in capitals across the world. The neat division between bilateral, regional and global foreign policy strategies has become more diffuse. There is a fork in the road. Will the rise of the emerging economies portend just a broadening of the “great game”, the only result being a little more elbow room for developing countries in their engagement with the G-20 economies? Or will the global South seize this opportunity to forge a new and more inclusive paradigm that secures faster, more inclusive and more sustainable development for all citizens?
Dr. Rathin Roy
Director, International Policy Center for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IC)
Date : 03 avril 2010, 09:15
Inclusive growth is fine to talk and discussed but in reality it is towards exlusive growth. The major steps towards inclusive growth include besides others:
-developing rural growth centres by enclouraging sustainble agricultural farming and farm practices.
-limiting the expanse of urbanization and commercialization.
-prohibition of conversion of agricultural land to nonagricultural purposes.
-first rights of indigenous communities, tribal, to their own habitation.
-conservation and sustainable development of habitat.
Date : 02 avril 2010, 07:16
What are the consequences of the creation of new groupings of emerging economies with a strong emphasis on South-South cooperation?
From the perspective of the integration process of several converging forces south-south, it is necessary to identify the factors that unite them rather than more, rather cause separation.
The story has allowed us to see a series of elements that come to distort the idea "south", making us feel to be weak, backward and dependent primarily and above all, unable to leave our own stagnation. That lie, which we believe as if it were true.
The differences we find within the South - South, are the strong trends that will meet their own limitations, to marry a particular ideology or prejudice, which we defend as absolute truth.
We fall into the trap of the North, considering that we are weak, on the contrary, we are stronger and richer in the broadest sense, because what if the south has to make a strategic alliance to sell no more goods to the north and simultaneously start a new market among themselves- South - South -, creating a trading platform, stronger than the current one, which is dominated by the North.
Consider it appropriate to create opportunities for feedback between the various sectors identified in the new economic groupings to establish a process to promote the social economy, ie, thus, can achieve real cohesion sector, demonstrating the strength which means be South, so thus, it could create new conditions of an economy for development
How do we get civil society involved in high level political debates?
O current trends that have been developed in the South, each day has meant that more sectors of civil society events in decision making at the political level, a situation shown with increasing force. An example of this are the environmental groups, who are acting directly on the political level, not for being the highest political level, but complaints and taking actions that involve a number of civil society actors in certain cases.
Today, civil society participation is not confined to just be spectators, that is, seeing the bull from the sidelines, but players have become involved and take hits to match topics relevant and shocking for that sector, and even have turned their backs on the political sectors when they have tried to impose on the political agenda certain issues which, under pressure from various civil society actors have to put them in the drawer.
The fundamental idea in making civil society joins in the discussion before the political level, is established through the various social actors involved, a process of empowerment, which will transmit and receive, at first hand the information needed to decision making. With a knowledgeable and engaged civil society, the political class takes the necessary guidelines to adequately communicate their projects, i.e. not be playing on the ignorance of the people.
It is necessary and urgent to train civil society, but from a perspective of knowledge, according to their specific inclinations, so that if it can create different segments of knowledge, may address various issues, which led to intervention of society civil action on several fronts.
Developing an empowering process, will make possible, that the civil society, to become an actor in its own development of their environment, without allowing themselves to be exposed to the elements of ignorance constants, which very well know how to handle the political class.
Date : 31 mars 2010, 19:29
I am responding to the last question: " In which ways an improved dialogue among developing countries can contribute to the implementation of effective policies towards the achievement of inclusive growth and human development"?
The India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Summit is due to be held in Brasilia, Brazil on the 15th of April, a trilateral developmental initiative between India, Brazil and South Africa to strengthen South-South cooperation and policy dialogue and coordination among these major emerging countries.
The World Bank Innovation Fair is due to be held at Cape Town, South Africa on April 13-15, 2010 on the subject of moving beyond conflict showcasing leading proposals for transforming the world.
The theme of the Innovation Fair is, "necessity is the mother of invention. Many times, people living and working under the most difficult and challenging conditions, with minimal tools and capacity, have come up with creative and even innovative solutions to the enormous challenges they face. Organizations and researchers around the world have been equally creative working with communities living in situations of fragility and conflict to find solutions to ensure delivery of basic services, improve governance and create jobs.
Innovation Fair: Moving beyond Conflict - this Innovation Fair, organized by the World Bank Group, is seeking to identify such high-impact approaches to working in fragile and conflict-affected states in order to share and, if possible, scale them up. The Fair will convene international experts on conflict and fragility, development researchers and practitioners, software developers, donors and private sector to exchange experience, establish new collaboration, and forge longer-term partnerships.
Communications for Governance and Service Delivery: Fragility is often associated with the lack of institutional capacity to deliver basic services, and often with low transparency between citizens and states. Proposals feature innovation that utilize cutting-edge technologies and communication tools for improving service delivery or improving citizen-state relationships through enhanced transparency and accountability.
Life Line to Business (LL2B) India's "e-Administration, an Open Source Tool for e-Governance and Conflict Resolution" was judged as one of the top ranked proposals and a big idea that can make the difference and a high impact approach that can work well, by an expert panel of the World Bank Innovation Fair. The details of the project submitted are as follows:
The world is besieged with problems of governance resulting in conflicts. What is lacking is stakeholder empowerment to actively participate and collaborate in decision making. Every nation in the world is entrenched in its own system of bureaucracy and red-tape, preventing free flow of information and autocratic decision making by those holding high positions in government.
Despite vast development in Information and Communication technology, there is no single communication and work-flow tool available in any country for citizens to actively participate in matters concerning their welfare from the local to the national / global level.
There is no single tool to integrate the entire activities of the society / community, encompassing governments, communities and citizens, to bridge the divides to ensure transparency and accountability, to create all round peace and prosperity.
More details can be seen at:
http://innovationfair.spigit.com/homepagelight
http://innovationfair.spigit.com/Sector/View?[..] three super powers of South viz. India, Brazil and South Africa can utilize the 4th Academic Forum and IBSA Summit to be held in Brasilia on April 12-15 and the World Bank Innovation Fair, Cape Town, South Africa on April 13-15, 2010 to evolve suitable policies for promotion and implementation of inclusive growth and human development in South-South co-operation.
Date : 29 mars 2010, 14:28
The third question is more crucial to respond to at this time because it is about dialogue. India, Brazil and South Africa can be integrated into three linguistic organizations for example Portuguese speaking, English speaking and French Speaking. India and Brazil have an important population which came from Portugal. South Africa is close to Mozambic, its neighbour country, with which it had an important history of labour exchange. The uniqueness of South Africa is that it belongs to the Dutch speaking world. We know by now that there are countries which have to decide on what is their international language, and we are eager to know, when Spanish will become for example the international language for Portugal. India, South Africa and Brazil are big countries, which are Non- European although they have an important population from Europe, and the inclusion of other Portuguese speaking countries like Angola and Mozambic as well as the German speaking countries can start an important debate on whether or not to consider Portuguese and German as International languages. This debate was initiated with the debate on the control of landmines, which were taking away the freedom of circulation of most of the populations who wanted food security and holidays in safe conditions for example.
Date : 29 mars 2010, 12:14
Concerning the question: In which ways an improved dialogue among developing countries can contribute to the implementation of effective policies towards the achievement of inclusive growth and human development?
Being a young proffessional in Government in South Africa, I am very aware of the change of the global economy towards knowledge and information services. A crucial factor for broad development in this sector is the availability of affordable communications...and in this regard South Africa has a great deal to learn from its bigger southen partners, Brazil and India. Of primary importance is regulated competition in the the provision of cellular and/or mobile services, which surpass both fixed line and internet in terms of access and usage for business. The inabiity of the South African state communications regulator ICASA, to enforce reduced call rates as well as the de facto monopoly that the two major cellular providers have on the market, continue to make our communications one of the most expensive in the world.
A few years ago the Mobile Networks, one after the other got ICASA to agree to their making it more expensive to dial to another Network. Previously it cost the same amount regardless of which Network was called. To make the market competitive ICASA could set the interconnect rate at what they have determined is the cost, that is,40 cents. Networks could make up their profits by charging whatever they wanted on the origination of the call. This would in turn be brought down by requiring smaller operators to be given access to infrasturcture that was in part paid for by the state anyway, to improve competition.
In India the rates to any network, land line or mobile, anywhere in India on a pay-as-you-go card is around Rs0.01 per minute. That translates to about R0.16 - 16 cents a minute . Other Networks advertise calls to any phone anywhere in India at even less than this. A call to a South African cell-phone from an Indian pay-as-you-go card was Rs9, about
R1.44, which is cheaper than a cell-to-cell calls on a South African pay-as-you go-card. After every call made an on-screen message appears on your phone with the cost.
In addition ICASA, or the government, should grant GSM licenses to operators like Telkom and Neotel, which both have the basic infrastructure. By doing this and setting the interconnect rate to the lowest possible amount the market
would begin to be competitive. Telkom and Neotel would have to come in with lower rates to get market share, and with the interconnect rate low they could do so.
The Networks are utilities that have been allowed to get away with excessive rates for too long. If ICASA does not have the will or ability to take effective action it is time for the government to put the interests of the country first and step in without delay. I believe ther is much we can learn from India and Brazil inthis regard.
The same is true of the regulation of broadband internet access, neccesary to access the true potential of the internet, but which remains monopolised by the moslty state owned entitiy Telkom. Again the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) and the Department of Communications is undermining further price cuts. ICASA is set to unbundle the local loop by November 2011, but the unbundling process has been dragging on for several years with umpteen delays. Taking a 4Mbps line with a 5GB cap – as much as 79% of the cost is access to the Telkom network and you haven't even downloaded your first e-mail yet.
Although there have been mixed results internationally when the local loop has been unbundled, why the regulator does not step in and make connectivity more affordable in the short-term by forcing the hand of the incumbent operators who stubbornly protect their revenue streams to the detriment of consumers, is open to conspiracy accusations.
More broadband penetration, and the resultant benefits of the information age and globailsed market, can only be achieved by a reduction in wholesale data prices and the unbundling of the local loop. Only once these issues are dealt with will we see truly competitive prices for the consumer.
It is my plee on behalf of the young entreprenuers and state officials involved in facilitating the transition of South Africa, as a leader in Africa, into the information economy, that those present on our behalf at the IBSA forum learn from the progress made by India and Brazil as regards the accessabilty and affordability of communications for national development.
Date : 29 mars 2010, 11:34
Dears orgninazers of this FORUM .
This is new for us .
When to read this title , I think about dialoge on policy between Vietnam -Lao,Campuchia on the Trade in border , forest development , exploitation of river .... .But most difficult is foreign language for FORUM ? Writing in foreign language is not easy for 3 countries.
Now in Vietnam the government is taking comments in Vietnamese language about policy in Goverment Portal http://www.chinhphu.gov.vn
Informs this FORUM to Internet -Net working in Vietnam and invite the team working with Brazil , India and South Africa to joine to this FORUM
My knowledge about South -South cooperation is very limited .Long time ago I read one document about South -South cooperation .But in this topic I think it should add the ENVIRONMENT protection in all aspects .
I prefef topic " Health Innovation, intellectual property rights and access to essential drugs "
In our country , in hot speed development the environment is not good protecting. It badly impact to foods to air and water . It badly impact to Health of people , more diseases appered ...
The price for medicine is very high to compare with income .
Intellectuall property rights are difficult implemented in Vietnam because the law system still not appropried .We use VND money in cash , very difficult pay money to International market . Very few persons use International cards in U S D .
Vietnamese enterprises dream expand the relationships with many countries , with India , Brazil and South Africa.
Thank you
Allemand
Espagnol
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Italien
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Coréen
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