Necessity of industrial cooperation among D-8 countries
Photo: STAR
The demographic transition from rural to urban is continuing in all countries in the world. The number of urban residents is growing by nearly 60 million every year. By 2030, six out of ten people will live in city and by 2050 this proportion will increase to seven out of ten people. Developing countries, in particular the D-8 countries, would not be of any exception. Rather it is estimated that the urban population of developing countries will be more than double by the middle of the twenty first century. This demographic transition is, however, deeply associated with shifts from an agriculture based economy to mass industry, technology and services. Considering the above facts and reality, it is clear to us that, to feed our people, change their life style and economy, bring them out of the poverty and give them hope of prosperity, we have no options left rather to move towards the industrial development and then industrialization. For making industrial development or industrialization one of the key points is enhancement of regional cooperation among developing countries. It can provide a wider market for goods and trade opportunity among the cooperating countries. Since its inception in 1997 the D-8 group of countries namely Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey, held seven summit meetings in different member countries. In these summit meetings the member countries set out some common goals and objectives, known as summit declaration, in order to improve the economies of these countries. Moreover, several ministerial meetings on industry reaffirming D-8 commitment and reiterating the directives of Tehran declarations related to industrial cooperation were also held at different times. All these efforts, as we feel, have laid the foundation of bringing industrial cooperation. The possible industrial areas where we can cooperate right now are (i) Jute industry, (ii) Automotive industries, (iii) Energy and Environmental Conservation, (iv) Food industry, (v) Electronics and ICT, (vi) Oil and Gas, (vii) Cement industry, (viii) Standardization and accreditation, (ix) Steel industry, (x) rubber industry and (xi) Textile and Garments. The potential high-tech technologies where all D-8 countries together can cooperate are (i) Nanotechnology, (ii) Spintronics, (iii) Macro-electronics (iv) Genetics and Biotechnology, (v) Photonics and (vi) Renewable energy. Countries in the D-8 group are located in different geographical locations with abundances of different natural resources and agricultural products. Exporting and importing items thus vary from country to country and, this variation favourably facilitates to create a big common market for goods and food products in the D-8 member states. For example, jute is produced only in Bangladesh in the D-8 countries. Entrepreneurs and investors of D-8 member states can invest in this sector to produce finer jute goods including carpets and apparels targeting intra- country and international consumers. Moreover, the genome sequence of the jute has now been discovered. This has opened the door of opportunity to modify the jute fiber genetically to make them stronger and more flexible to twisting; thus turn them more useful in preparing jute polymers applicable to produce different parts of automotive. Another important aspect of industrial cooperation is to identify countries which have potential resource and consumers for certain goods or products. This would help determine the type of cooperation needed, bilateral or multilateral, but all must be under the same umbrella of D-8 . For rubber industries, for example, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Egypt can form a task force for industrial cooperation. In this case a trilateral mutually beneficial initiative for stronger trade and investment can be formulated for producing and marketing rubber products. In the case of automotive industry three D-8 member states Malaysia, Turkey and Iran are producing vehicles. But automotive has potentially good markets in other member states including Bangladesh. As a part of industrial cooperation the three vehicle producing countries can cooperatively set automotive industries in other member state like Bangladesh and can harvest mutual benefit. Similar framework of cooperation in other industrial areas such as steel, manufacturing, foods, electronics and ICT etc. can be established among the D-8 member states. The peaceful use of nuclear energy in various industrial process and medical practices are already established. The D-8 member states should establish a common platform for easier access to nuclear power plants. It is anticipated that the amount of costs could be reduced by 20% to 30% through cooperation among D-8 members. Now we turn to the possible cooperation in the case of high-tech industry. The possible areas are nanotechnology, spintronics, microelectronics, photonics, renewable energy etc. The projected market size of nanotechnology is 1.6 Trillion by 2013. The worth of the market of spintronics is 100 billion dollars by 2014. The renewable energy includes energy comes from the natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat that are renewable (normally replenished). About 16% of global final energy comes from renewable right now. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the UN, said "renewable energy has the ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity". According to International Energy Agency solar power generator may produce most of the world's electricity within 50 years, dramatically reducing the emissions of green house gas that is damaging the environment relentlessly. Renewable energy can be particularly suitable for developing countries like the D-8 member states because millions of people in these countries do not have access to grid electricity. Establishing high technologies requires a huge amount of initial investment to meet the expenditure of scientific research and develop useful material and devices. Many developing countries in the D-8 group cannot afford financially to go for these technologies. The industrial cooperation in the area of R&D can thus open the door for high-tech technology in the D-8 member states. This will certainly change the economy and will make the D-8 member states suitable for competing with developed countries in the global market. Industrial cooperation among D-8 member states is vitally important for the mutually beneficial industrial development, industrialization and development of economy. For easy access to finance and financial stability cooperative banks by the D-8 governments or by the initiatives of private sectors should be established. An effective quality control system common to all member states must be in place before intra-country and international trading. A strong R & D and training programme under the umbrella of industrial cooperation is required for improving the quality of existing industrial products and also for designing and developing high-tech materials and devices for industrial development in future.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments