Embassy of India

Hungary and Bosnia & Herzegovina

Embassy of India
Budapest

Press Release

     India assumed the Presidency of G-20 in December 2022.  India has set itself several priorities in harnessing the strengths of the G-20 for the betterment of economic and global relations between the countries.  One of the focus areas has been the development of the North-South cooperation and in this regard, a Global Voice of the South Summit was organised by India on 12-14 Jan 2023.  One of the sessions (session Vi) was dedicated to the trade aspects on the topic of “Developing  Synergies in South: Trade,Technology, Tourism, Resources’ on which a virtual conference was held on 13 January 2023 chaired by H.E. Mr. Piyush Goyal Hon'ble Minister of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.  Several Ministers from  African countries, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in the Session. Participants underlined the need for broader cooperation in several areas highlighting opportunities for investment and sharing of technology between the countries while also speaking aboutchallenges for key emerging areas. Among the speakers H.E. Ljiljana Lovrić, Deputy Minister Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Economic Relations, Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina mentioned the importance of South countries in the context of the expansion of G-8 to G20 as well as the expansion of the BRICs, having contributed to more than half of global growth in recent years. However Deputy Minister Lovrić also noted that the rise of the South remains uneven and incomplete, and highlighted 3 objectives crucial to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals: 

a) main challenges and opportunities in South-South trade, investment and financing issues and identificaiton of relevant policies

b) opportunities for South-South cooperation on technology transfers and partnerships for technological innovation

c) challenges and opportunities and suitable policies for inonovatinve South-South cooperation and partnerships in key emerging areas susch as “Industry 4.0”

Deputy Minister Lovrić stressed the importance of addressing both the “push” and “pull” factors encouraging the regional and interregional integration mechanisms, mentioning the frustrations from limitations and failures of the global financial architechture and traditional multilateral lenders as push factors and emphasizing the importance of better support mechanisms for further encouraging southern regional integration as pull factors to be more inclusive and sustainable.

H.E Mr. Piyush Goyal, Hon'ble Minister of Commerce and Industry said that India enjoys excellent trade relationship with the South countries and called for the further enhancement of trade linkages,  inftrastructural connectivity and business investments. 

Hon’ble Minister also highlighted the importance of cooperation in skill development, exchange of best practices, technology, cooperation in the financial sector, tourism, cooperation in the exploitation of mineral resources, oil and gas, etc for the future benefit of all countries.

The participants agreed to enhance their ties and cooperation in principle to ensure the development of the South countries.

Delivering his opening remarks, the Minister called upon countries of Global South to forge new partnerships and mechanisms so that the voice of the Global South is reflected on the decision-making table. The Minister said the objective of the Summit is to pay attention to the issues pertaining to the Global South and those issues before key global forums like G20, the UN and other multilateral settings. Touching upon the theme of the Session, Shri Goyal said these are the key pillars for development of the countries of the South.

Highlighting the impact of COVID-19 on global trade and particularly on developing countries, he stressed upon the need to work together to build resilient supply chains. He also emphasised upon the need for de-politicization of the global supply of essential medicines. He said, “At the WTO Ministerial Conference held in Geneva in June 2022, India, South Africa, and other developing countries worked together to obtain the TRIPS waiver decision providing equitable and affordable access to vaccines. We shall redouble our efforts at the WTO to get the TRIPS waiver extended to COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics.”

Shri Goyal highlighted that the countries of the Global South are now contributing more than half of the world’s economic growth with South-South trade touching $5.3 trillion in 2021. In this regard, he urged for enhanced trade linkages for the mutual benefit of all our countries.

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17 January 2023