South-South Integration and the SDGs: Enhancing Structural Transformation
in Key Partner Countries of the Belt and Road Initiative
Synopsis
The project aimed to build capacity in partner countries in the key policy areas for structural transformation: investment, trade, finance/debt, and technology. To do so, the project intended to share experience from China with first-hand experience in the transformation process and an ambitious foreign economic policy based on cross-regional infrastructure connectivity and productive investment known as the Belt & Road initiative (BRI) with other countries in the Global South.
A new dimension was added to the project, which called for an “improved understanding of selected BRI partner countries on the economic shock from Covid-19 and appropriate policy options in responding to the shock.” The added dimension involved analytical work on economic and financial impact of COVID-19 in pilot countries and their responses. In addition, it enabled the sharing of successful policy experiences of other developing countries with the project’s beneficiaries and the assessment and formulation of policy options addressing their rising debt burdens during the pandemic. Through this new stream of work, the project reached out and supported other countries such as South Africa, Malaysia and Pakistan.
Overall, the project increased target countries’ knowledge and understanding of China’s development experience and policy options as well as enhanced their ability to design their policy strategies and institutional mechanisms to align the BRI initiative undertakings with the 2030 Agenda.
The project’s main deliverables include:
- Organization of five global conferences in 2019 and in 2022; 9 webinars from 2020 to 2022, including high-level ones in preparation for the UNCTAD XV. These meetings pooled over 200 participants including ministers or ministerial officials, ambassadors, senior level policy makers and renowned researchers, to discuss the project research outputs and policy recommendations, share their respective insights in relevant policy areas, and exchange the views on how to formulate better development policy to promote structural transformation in developing countries.
- More than 15 policy recommendations were identified for all three project countries and submitted to the relevant high-level policymakers for consideration.
- Production of 30 project research papers on industrial policy, macro-finance, global value chains (GVC) and trade, digital economy, and debt management, 6 policy briefs (two per pilot country) on two national key priority areas for structural transformation, 2 books and 2 substantive meeting reports on China’s policy experience of advancing structural transformation and their adaptability in other developing countries, as well as the challenges and binding constraints that project countries face in the process of structural transformation and in the context of the Covid-19 shock. These knowledge materials have been uploaded to the , as well as presented by their authors in various project events to disseminate the findings and policy recommendations to a broader audience including policy makers, experts and academia.
- Establishment of the that will facilitate policy sharing and peer-learning among developing countries beyond project completion.
Resources
- (2 Feb 2022)
- (4 Feb 2022)
- (7 Feb 2022)
- Case Study Report (7 Mar 2022)
- Hybrid meeting (8 Mar 2022)
- Project publication (9 Mar 2022)
- Hybrid end-of-the-project meeting (14-15 Mar 2022)
- Hybrid meeting (11 May 2022)