Colombo hosts 2nd dialogue on Asian approaches to development cooperation

Governor of the Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal

The Asia Foundation (TAF) and the Korea Development Institute (KDI) jointly sponsored a regional dialogue in Colombo on 15-16 June that brought together development cooperation experts from Korea, China, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand to discuss and compare development assistance strategies employed by these Asian development partners.

This was the second in a series of three meetings under the TAF-KDI project that also involved aid recipient countries regarding development and aid effectiveness.

The outputs of the dialogue series will inform the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4) to be held in Busan, Korea, 29 Nov.-1 Dec.

The current international aid architecture is largely a product of the consensus amongst OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donors around the purpose of aid, where it should be directed and how it should be managed. 

This consensus is being challenged, however, by the increasing presence of non-Western development partners that are not members of the DAC or who have newly joined the group.

The multi country participants

In combination these development partners are contributing major resources to development efforts in recipient countries.

At the same time these development partners take a different approach to development cooperation, placing more emphasis on mutual benefit, non-interference in political issues, infrastructure investment and concessional loans.

Many of these development partners base the design of their cooperation programmes on their own experience as late emerging economies.  A number of these development partners are Asian countries and these are the focus of this dialogues series.

While some observers fear that these development partners may be undermining the DAC-led efforts to promote greater aid transparency, improved governance, debt relief and harmonization, others see opportunities for different innovative aid modalities, such as South-South and triangular cooperation.  OECD/DAC donors are keen to learn and understand more about these important development actors. 

The ultimate purpose of this dialogue is to contribute to improving development effectiveness and rationalising the global aid architecture by facilitating mutual learning amongst Asian and ‘traditional’ donors. 

Senior Government representatives from these six Asian partner countries included Lim Woongsoon, Deputy Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Korea; Mao Xiaojing, Associate Research Fellow, Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Commerce, China; J.S. Mukul, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, India; Aiyub Bin Omar, Principal Assistant Secretary, Malaysian Technical Cooperation Program, Malaysia; in Fook Koh, Director, Technical Co-operation Directorate, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore; and Banchong Amornchewin, Director, International Organisations Partnership, Thailand International Development Cooperation Agency, Thailand participated in the two-day dialogue.

Senior Government officials from the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Ministry of External Affairs and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka participated on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka.

The Governor of the Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal gave the keynote speech at the welcome dinner.