IANS | 17 Nov, 2023
The Global South needs to discuss ways and means for countries to act
together to ensure that our supply chains are more open, secure and
resilient, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday at
the 2nd Voice of Global South Summit.
Goyal said that the crisis
of Covid-19 pandemic, impact of climate change and raging geopolitical
tensions have disrupted and underscored the fragility of global supply
chains.
These disruptions have created monumental challenges of
food and energy security, cost of living and achievement of the
Sustainable Development Goals, he added.
During India's G 20
presidency, the G20 generic framework for mapping global value chains
(GVCs) was adopted to make them more resilient and inclusive. He said
that the 4-point framework has been prepared, keeping in mind how
countries of the global south could not only become an integral part of
GVCs, but also move up the value chain to generate more prosperity for
the people.
With respect to the global South, the first need is to
identify global value chains, where each of the countries could focus
on not only increasing their participation, but also improving the
quality of their participation by moving up the value chain, Goyal
remarked. This will help them to partake, largest share of high value
added parts of the GVCs.
Secondly, he said, it will help GVCs to withstand both natural and manmade shocks.
Thirdly, better integration of our micro small and medium enterprises in international markets and trade.
Finally, it will help us to visualise gaps in our logistics infrastructure.
The
filling up of these critical gaps would help further integration and
participation of the global south in global trade, he said.
The
framework promotes transparency and confidence amongst all stakeholders,
as well as allows anticipation and estimation of potential risks
embedded within value chains, he said.
He pointed out that the key building blocks of the framework are data analysis and representation.
By
incorporating this building blocks, the framework can help in the
identification of sectors and products critical to GVC resilience for
each of the countries.
He urged the participating countries to
adopt this mapping framework as they undertake an exercise to assess
their abilities and their GVCs both at the sector and product level as
well as identify opportunities that will open up, he said, adding that
this framework, once implemented, has the potential to address four key
concerns related to resilience and inclusivity.
"If we work
together on this, we could accelerate the transformative impact that
solves our trade can have in the overall growth and prosperity and also
specifically on achieving sustainable development goals. For example,
the phenomenal nine-fold increase in South-South trade from $600 billion
in 1995 to $5.3 trillion in 2021 had a major impact on economic growth
and resilience of many countries," he added.
Goyal pointed out
that India successfully hosted the G 20 Summit in Delhi in September,
under the theme "one earth, one family and one future" with the support
of the Global South.
During its presidency, India made strong
interventions in strengthening the voice of the global south including
by making the African Union a permanent member of the grouping and by
galvanising concrete action oriented, G 20 outcomes for the Global
South, he said.
It is necessary to make further efforts to
strengthen the voice of the global south and to come together for our
and humanity's future, the minister added.