Develop a Global Partnership for Development
Global partnership is divided into a series of parts; altogether, there are six targets going A through F on specific points that they would like to stress. I will go over each of the six parts.
The first target is target A: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system, which explains that the members of G20 resist protectionist measures initiated in response to the global financial crisis. With only a small percentage of trade restrictions that were brought in by the end of 2008 have been terminated. The protectionist measures have caused much misfortune, affecting almost three percent of the global trade!
The second target would be, of course, target B: Address the special needs of least developed countries, which means exactly what the title states; they would like to address the special needs of countries most deserving. Tariffs on developed countries have remained unchanged since 2004, when excluding agricultural products. And, there has been a long-awaited debt relief that reduced the external debt on heavily indebted, poor countries. However, there are still 20 developing countries that remain at a high risk of debt distress.
The third and fourth targets are rather small, and will be put into the same paragraph. So, the next two targets are target C: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing States. And target D: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries. Target C pertains to landlocked countries that fell in 2010 for the first time in a decade, while the aid of small island developing States increased significantly. Target D pertains to dealing with the deb problems within said developing countries; thus saying that the debt to GDP ratio decreased for many, though not all, developing countries.
The fifth target is target E, which states: In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries; which means that they would like to up the medicines within the country, by providing resources and disease-fighting funds. However, there has been little improvement on this target.
Lastly, the sixth and final target, target F, states: In cooperation with the private sector, make available benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications. Which means exactly what is states; they are trying their hardest to bring more technology into developing countries. This target was very refreshing! It is great to see that developing countries are becoming more established with the internet and technologies. 77 percent of inhabitants of developed countries are internet users, which is definitely not a shocker, but only 31 percent of inhabitants of developing countries are internet users – a pretty large drop in comparison to developed countries!
I feel very strongly about the G20 resisting the protectionist measures, since they have caused such a detriment to the global trade. That being said, target B also brings out a very good point, and I am happy to be reading about the positives in which they are trying to enforce in order to aid the developing countries. When jumping down to target E, I was a little saddened to see that there had been little improvement on the pharmaceutical needs of the developing countries. However, in all, I was pleased with the progression of the global partnership.
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