Indonesia’s South-South Triangular Initiatives: History and Current Situation

Indonesia, as the 16^th biggest economy in the world with stable economic growth around 5.5% in 2015[1], has emerged as one of the important key players in the development cooperation field. Eventhough Indonesia still receives big amounts of officials development assistance (ODA), 64 million USD in 2013[2] , Indonesia has been implementing South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) initiatives for more than thirty years in its commitment to contribute in global development cooperation. According to ILO’s GB (2012), SSTC is a manifestation of solidarity among the countries and peoples of the South that contributes to their national well-being, national and collective self-reliance, and the attainment of internationally agreed development goals.

Indonesia started its involvement in global cooperation architecture in the 1950s when Indonesia -together with India, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sri Lanka- initiated the first Asian African Conference (AAC) in Bandung, Indonesia, which gathered numbers of Asian and African countries in solidarity to strengthen the cooperation among themselves. The conference outcome documents, called Bandung Communique, outlined the idea of the South as developing countries and the North as developed countries while promoting mutual cooperation among Southern Countries.

[1] OECD Data, 2015

[2] World Development Indicators Data, 2015

The 45^th Consultative Committee Meeting of the Colombo Plan (the 45^th CCM CP) is held in Suva, Republic of Fiji from 28 to 30 of October 2016. The Conference has proceded by a pre-conference meeting of the Heads of Delegation on 28 September 2016.  A meeting is implementing at Grand Pacific Hotel, Suva.

The CCM is the highest forum to the Colombo Plan and serves as a biennial meeting that provide a forum for the exchange of views on current development problems facing member countries, strategies and programs to address their changing needs and review the work of the Colombo Plan in economic and social development within the region since the last CCM held in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2014.