Print: 30 Oct 2025
The twenty-four years of Pakistani rule had largely exploited the then East Pakistan’s economy and contributed little to its own requirements. When Bangladesh became independent, it had a devastated economy due to the nine-month-long bloody War of Liberation. Prior to 1971, the physical infrastructure of East Pakistan had already been very weak. Moreover, it had been further damaged by the war. As a result, there was not any adequate infrastructure to support economic development and trade in an independent country. Since Bangladesh had emphasised a non-aligned foreign policy from the beginning, it did not receive much project aid from the Western countries. On the other hand, the ability of the developing countries to provide financial assistance was also very limited. Although Russia and India had pledged financial assistance, in reality, no such assistance was forthcoming. Therefore, Bangladesh gradually had to realign its aid policy to accommodate the requirements of the World Bank and IMF and, at the same time, those of the Western countries. It means, no matter how much Bangladesh ideologically braced the South-South Cooperation, it could not straighten out its economy on that principle.
Globally, the non-aligned movement had heavily influenced the concept of south-south cooperation, but little progress was seen, on the one hand, due to the Cold War rivalry, and on the other, due to the limited financial capacity of the South. However, the term remained topical in the international forums, including the United Nations. The leaders loved to include that specific term in their speeches at the United Nations. The United Nations, influenced by its vast majority of members, officially endorsed the concept in its systems since 1974. But in the actual workplace, there has been little visible evidence of such cooperation. After 1990, when we experienced the fall of the Soviet Union, we also saw the decline of non-aligned politics. It was then the rise of China that brought the possibility of the south-south cooperation to the forefront.
After the end of the Cold War, ideas about a new world order came to the forefront, and as a result, at the initiation of the advanced developing countries worldwide, talks about the reform of the United Nations arose, especially the debate and discussion on the permanent membership of the Security Council. Many countries – Japan, India, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Nigeria, Italy, Argentina, Australia, Pakistan, and Malaysia – actively participated in these discussions. Many of these countries took proactive steps to kindle the south-south cooperation. Some of these took the initiative to form regional cooperation alliances. Some reignited their aid packages with the aim of creating their own spheres of influence.
However, not many countries, particularly those in the developing world, had the capacity to act at a global level. It started with the formation of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation – UNOSSC. Some other international and regional organisations like UNCTAD, FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), G77+, the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), the Islamic Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, ASEAN and some individual countries like China, Brazil and India also started financing various projects in the developing countries for bolstering south-south endeavours. The UNOSSC worked closely with the FAO and IFAD to align these UN organisations to encourage such endeavours.
India supported numerous projects in countries worldwide through the India-UN Development Partnership Fund. One of the notable examples was seen in India’s Vaccine Maitree programme during the coronavirus-led pandemic. Along with the health sector, India also contributed to enhancing the digital infrastructure in many developing countries. Its contribution to the UN peacekeeping operations is also noteworthy.
Brazil incorporated south-south cooperation as a tool of its foreign policy. The Brazil Cooperation Agency (ABC) focuses on sharing knowledge, technical expertise and best practices with other developing nations in areas like social justice, agriculture, health and environment. Many of the beneficiary countries are in Africa, like Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mozambique and Mali. The cotton production in countries like Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali gained competitiveness through Brazil’s aid. Medicine factories and waste management in Mozambique and agriculture in Senegal received support from Brazil. India and Brazil, together with South Africa, have created the India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) Fund for a similar purpose.
As China has emerged as the second largest economy in the world, its contribution to South-South Cooperation has become the most significant. Its cooperation schemes are so wide that it regularly engages itself in dialogues with the developing countries. China’s relationships with regional organisations like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the African Union (AU) and the Community of Latin American & Caribbean States (CELAC) started to grow gradually. China has floated the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation.
Along with Russia, China also contributed to the New Development Bank. In addition, it initiated the Silk Road Fund, and with the support of the BRICS members, it housed the headquarters of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to finance development projects of the global south. And finally, in 2013, it initiated its flagship global infrastructure endeavour – the Belt and Road Initiative.
The China International Centre for Economic & Technical Exchanges (CICETE) works in close cooperation with the UNOSSC and together initiated the Global South-South Development Centre (GSSDC) Project in 2019. Most of these projects were aimed at strengthening public-private partnerships and promoting economic and technical cooperation between China and other developing countries. As the enterprise reached its first ten years of operation, the partners now expect that the next phase will launch strategic initiatives spanning from food systems to new industrialisation to energy transition, focusing on women, youth, digital transformation and green alternatives. The GSSDC projects bring together more than ten UN entities in its fold – including UNDP, WFP, UNAIDS, UNEP, WHO, UNWOMEN, IFAD, UNICEF, FAO, UNFPA, ILO, etc.
As the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the major undertaking of the UN systems, all development efforts of the international community are now centredaround them. As a result, the south-south cooperation also concentrates its efforts around the SDGs. China, too, considers that the challenges faced by the developing countries in achieving the SDGs, including crosscutting issues like energy and food security, should be the cornerstones of any future multilateral development efforts.
Though many think that the south-south cooperation should include the donor countries of the developed world in a triangular mechanism in order to bring pragmatism to the cooperation efforts, as that may pour in essential funding, China is relentless in providing technical assistance, sharing experience and at the same time putting in financial aid to ensure implementation of the projects. In addition, over the past two decades, a fundamental transformation has taken place in the global economy due to the impressive economic growth in many of the developing countries like China, India, Brazil, and South Africa; as well as a significant rise of Global South is now clearly visible; and this is a clear reflection of the growing south-south cooperation. Now it is not a fiction but a reality that the center of gravity of the global economic center is shifting towards the developing south, and it is definite that China is leading that new reality from the front.
Bangladesh is a major beneficiary of China’s growing intent of redoubling the south-south cooperation and may increase the benefits further by taking full advantage of the Chinese policy. There are many ongoing and upcoming projects in Bangladesh that include the Padma Bridge Rail Link, the Dhaka Motorway, Mongla Port Modernisation, the establishment of the Chinese Industrial Economic Zone, the Teesta River Restoration Project, etc.
At various junctures in history, different states have played important roles in world peace and global prosperity. The invention of the steam engine in the West led to rapid industrialisation, which led to the Industrial Revolution in Europe and the development of human civilisation. Then, the dominance of Western countries began to replace the thousand-year-old Chinese and Indian dominance. This history is not very long ago. It was only two hundred years ago. History is probably now reversing its course. As a result, as we see China's rise, we see a greater role for China's economic involvement in the world. Previously, south-south cooperation was only lip service, but today it is a dominating development trend. As China leads the trend, Bangladesh can only aspire to garner greater benefits from it.
Mahfuzur Rahmanis a former Bangladeshi ambassador
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Bangladesh’s benefit from China’s South-South Cooperation
The twenty-four years of Pakistani rule had largely exploited the then East Pakistan’s economy and contributed little to its own requirements. When Bangladesh became independent, it had a devastated economy due to the nine-month-long bloody War of Liberation. Prior to 1971, the physical infrastructure of East Pakistan had already been very weak. Moreover, it had been further damaged by the war. As a result, there was not any adequate infrastructure to support economic development and trade in an independent country. Since Bangladesh had emphasised a non-aligned foreign policy from the beginning, it did not receive much project aid from the Western countries. On the other hand, the ability of the developing countries to provide financial assistance was also very limited. Although Russia and India had pledged financial assistance, in reality, no such assistance was forthcoming. Therefore, Bangladesh gradually had to realign its aid policy to accommodate the requirements of the World Bank and IMF and, at the same time, those of the Western countries. It means, no matter how much Bangladesh ideologically braced the South-South Cooperation, it could not straighten out its economy on that principle.
Globally, the non-aligned movement had heavily influenced the concept of south-south cooperation, but little progress was seen, on the one hand, due to the Cold War rivalry, and on the other, due to the limited financial capacity of the South. However, the term remained topical in the international forums, including the United Nations. The leaders loved to include that specific term in their speeches at the United Nations. The United Nations, influenced by its vast majority of members, officially endorsed the concept in its systems since 1974. But in the actual workplace, there has been little visible evidence of such cooperation. After 1990, when we experienced the fall of the Soviet Union, we also saw the decline of non-aligned politics. It was then the rise of China that brought the possibility of the south-south cooperation to the forefront.
After the end of the Cold War, ideas about a new world order came to the forefront, and as a result, at the initiation of the advanced developing countries worldwide, talks about the reform of the United Nations arose, especially the debate and discussion on the permanent membership of the Security Council. Many countries – Japan, India, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Nigeria, Italy, Argentina, Australia, Pakistan, and Malaysia – actively participated in these discussions. Many of these countries took proactive steps to kindle the south-south cooperation. Some of these took the initiative to form regional cooperation alliances. Some reignited their aid packages with the aim of creating their own spheres of influence.
However, not many countries, particularly those in the developing world, had the capacity to act at a global level. It started with the formation of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation – UNOSSC. Some other international and regional organisations like UNCTAD, FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), G77+, the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), the Islamic Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, ASEAN and some individual countries like China, Brazil and India also started financing various projects in the developing countries for bolstering south-south endeavours. The UNOSSC worked closely with the FAO and IFAD to align these UN organisations to encourage such endeavours.
India supported numerous projects in countries worldwide through the India-UN Development Partnership Fund. One of the notable examples was seen in India’s Vaccine Maitree programme during the coronavirus-led pandemic. Along with the health sector, India also contributed to enhancing the digital infrastructure in many developing countries. Its contribution to the UN peacekeeping operations is also noteworthy.
Brazil incorporated south-south cooperation as a tool of its foreign policy. The Brazil Cooperation Agency (ABC) focuses on sharing knowledge, technical expertise and best practices with other developing nations in areas like social justice, agriculture, health and environment. Many of the beneficiary countries are in Africa, like Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mozambique and Mali. The cotton production in countries like Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali gained competitiveness through Brazil’s aid. Medicine factories and waste management in Mozambique and agriculture in Senegal received support from Brazil. India and Brazil, together with South Africa, have created the India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) Fund for a similar purpose.
As China has emerged as the second largest economy in the world, its contribution to South-South Cooperation has become the most significant. Its cooperation schemes are so wide that it regularly engages itself in dialogues with the developing countries. China’s relationships with regional organisations like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the African Union (AU) and the Community of Latin American & Caribbean States (CELAC) started to grow gradually. China has floated the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation.
Along with Russia, China also contributed to the New Development Bank. In addition, it initiated the Silk Road Fund, and with the support of the BRICS members, it housed the headquarters of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to finance development projects of the global south. And finally, in 2013, it initiated its flagship global infrastructure endeavour – the Belt and Road Initiative.
The China International Centre for Economic & Technical Exchanges (CICETE) works in close cooperation with the UNOSSC and together initiated the Global South-South Development Centre (GSSDC) Project in 2019. Most of these projects were aimed at strengthening public-private partnerships and promoting economic and technical cooperation between China and other developing countries. As the enterprise reached its first ten years of operation, the partners now expect that the next phase will launch strategic initiatives spanning from food systems to new industrialisation to energy transition, focusing on women, youth, digital transformation and green alternatives. The GSSDC projects bring together more than ten UN entities in its fold – including UNDP, WFP, UNAIDS, UNEP, WHO, UNWOMEN, IFAD, UNICEF, FAO, UNFPA, ILO, etc.
As the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the major undertaking of the UN systems, all development efforts of the international community are now centredaround them. As a result, the south-south cooperation also concentrates its efforts around the SDGs. China, too, considers that the challenges faced by the developing countries in achieving the SDGs, including crosscutting issues like energy and food security, should be the cornerstones of any future multilateral development efforts.
Though many think that the south-south cooperation should include the donor countries of the developed world in a triangular mechanism in order to bring pragmatism to the cooperation efforts, as that may pour in essential funding, China is relentless in providing technical assistance, sharing experience and at the same time putting in financial aid to ensure implementation of the projects. In addition, over the past two decades, a fundamental transformation has taken place in the global economy due to the impressive economic growth in many of the developing countries like China, India, Brazil, and South Africa; as well as a significant rise of Global South is now clearly visible; and this is a clear reflection of the growing south-south cooperation. Now it is not a fiction but a reality that the center of gravity of the global economic center is shifting towards the developing south, and it is definite that China is leading that new reality from the front.
Bangladesh is a major beneficiary of China’s growing intent of redoubling the south-south cooperation and may increase the benefits further by taking full advantage of the Chinese policy. There are many ongoing and upcoming projects in Bangladesh that include the Padma Bridge Rail Link, the Dhaka Motorway, Mongla Port Modernisation, the establishment of the Chinese Industrial Economic Zone, the Teesta River Restoration Project, etc.
At various junctures in history, different states have played important roles in world peace and global prosperity. The invention of the steam engine in the West led to rapid industrialisation, which led to the Industrial Revolution in Europe and the development of human civilisation. Then, the dominance of Western countries began to replace the thousand-year-old Chinese and Indian dominance. This history is not very long ago. It was only two hundred years ago. History is probably now reversing its course. As a result, as we see China's rise, we see a greater role for China's economic involvement in the world. Previously, south-south cooperation was only lip service, but today it is a dominating development trend. As China leads the trend, Bangladesh can only aspire to garner greater benefits from it.
Mahfuzur Rahmanis a former Bangladeshi ambassador