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Project of CUTS London Resource Centre

Veena Jha, India Programme Coordinator, UNCTAD presenting at the Project Launch Meeting in New Delhi, on October 08, 2005

Mekong-Ganga Project

South-South Economic Cooperation: Exploring the Mekong-Ganga relationship.

 

Background

The Mekong-Ganga project aimed to strengthen regional trade and cooperation between India and the three countries of the Greater Mekong region (GMS), i.e. Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao PDR. Regional trade and investment is an effective way for developing countries to accelerate their economic development, without exposing themselves to the risks and fluctuations inherent in the global economy.

The Mekong-Ganga project was supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

 

Concept

The project was essentially a research and mapping exercise, consisting of both academic research and field interviews and discussions.

The project had the following inter-related objectives:

  • Information sharing - to facilitate cross-fertilisation of experiences and lessons learnt on trade and investment cooperation between India and the three GMS countries in order to develop appropriate policy responses.
  • Capacity building – to strengthen the capacity of the GMS countries to explore and articulate issues relating to South-South economic cooperation by providing necessary know-how to policy-makers, the business community, civil society and other stakeholders.
  • Networking - to facilitate links between governments, civil society organisations and other stakeholders in order for them to learn from each other and increase their understanding of future economic cooperation scenarios between India and the GMS countries.
  • Summarising and disseminating lessons - to prepare an advocacy document for public education on development-oriented South-South economic cooperation with reference to India-GMS links.

 

Outcomes

The final consultancy documents were discussed at seminars in each project country in October 2005. The conclusions drawn from the consultations were far-reaching, incisive and thought-provoking.

The concluding advocacy paper highlights many areas where cooperation could be productively pursued. In most instances, the recommendation is for technology transfer from India to the Mekong countries: India could ‘export’ its expertise in for instance high-yielding agriculture, IT, building financial infrastructure and the English language.

There are also recommendations to lower the barriers to mobility of persons between these countries: coordination between training and higher education institutions (including the recognition of degrees and diplomas) could increase academic mobility, and improving transport links would enable more contact.

The countries have the potential to access each others’ niche markets. The report suggests that the creation of business associations would be helpful to disseminate market information. Indeed, availability of and access to market information was seen as a key constraint to improved commercial links.

In general, with accelerated economic activity in all these countries, trade and investment opportunities are growing. However, a significant power imbalance between the countries is discernible, with India acting as the economic powerhouse. There is a danger that the benefits of increased regional trade will accrue mainly to the strongest partner, with the others finding themselves with debilitating trade imbalances. The report frequently cites the multilateral regional body ASEAN as the preferred conduit for interaction between countries; a system that could counter the potential trade imbalances between India and Vietnam, Lao and Cambodia.

 

For more information on the project, please go to the Mekong-Ganga website

Project of CUTS London Resource Centre