United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) jointly with the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) and in partnership with Yingke Law Firm are organizing an event on “South-South Investment for Sustainable Development Goals: Policy and Legal Environment in Asia”. The event will be held in Bangkok on 23 August 2017.
Any discussion on achieving sustainable development must consider the importance of South-South cooperation which has emerged as an important vehicle in accelerating sustainable development and will assume greater importance in the future. Trade and investment are important dimensions which are rapidly increasing among Southern countries. It is estimated that by 2030 both will surpass North-South flows. Asia and the Pacific region have experienced the largest growth in trade with ASEAN (including China, Japan and Republic of Korea) accounting for the largest intra-subregional trade, while the largest investment recipients are in East Asia and South-East Asia regions.
The private sector provides and conducts a large sum of those transactions. However, there are still challenges to achieve the full potential of private sectors' role in development, including their participation in South-South Cooperation, through public-private partnerships, especially in the Asian countries.
The aim of this event is to highlight the contributions of South-South investment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Asia, and identify challenges and good practices in policy and legal areas that can facilitate better South-South investment for the achievement of the SDGs. The discussion and contributions in the event will feed into the formulation of a research agenda that aims to inform better policy-making and strengthen the linkages of trade and investment policies within Asia. The research will be carried out by members of the South-South Global Thinkers: the Global Coalition of Think Tank Networks for South-South Cooperation, jointly supported by the UNOSSC and UNDP, in partnership with Yingke Law Firm.
For more information on the event, kindly contact Shams Banihani, Policy Analyst on South-South Cooperation, at [email protected].