The Govt Director of the South Centre Dr. Carlos Correa has noticed that the present protectionist insurance policies of the foremost western powers might paradoxically strengthen cooperation amongst growing nations, creating new alternatives for the ‘International South’ to reshape the worldwide financial order by way of strategic approaches and regional collaboration.
Referring particularly to the confrontational U.S. commerce insurance policies driving surprising shifts amongst rising economies, he famous that “The US helps India and China to return nearer, and if India and China work collectively, the worldwide financial system and politics might change dramatically.”
Dr. Correa, a number one authority on worldwide commerce, innovation, and mental property, made these observations when on 3 November 2025, throughout a go to to Sri Lanka to ship the Centenary Gamani Corea Memorial Lecture, he participated within the inaugural RCSS Strategic Dialogue on the theme ‘Analysis Priorities for the ‘International South’ in Difficult Instances’.
Moderated by the Govt Director of the RCSS Amb. (Retd.) Ravinatha Aryasinha, it introduced collectively serving and retired senior public servants, diplomats, lecturers, heads of analysis institutes and civil society representatives.
Dr. Correa noticed that over the previous 10 years South-South commerce has expanded to round 40% of world commerce, whereas substantial investments in science and know-how amongst main states within the international south – equivalent to China, Brazil, and India have additionally elevated considerably.
This shift represents a transition towards larger financial pluralism and regional company, demanding systematic analysis and coverage evaluation. Nevertheless, he recognized two tensions that undermine efficient scholarship: the problem of balancing educational freedom with coverage relevance, and likewise the distorting affect of donor-driven agendas – the place international funding dictates analysis parameters.
Drawing examples from the work of the Geneva based mostly South Centre which undertakes analysis and evaluation on numerous worldwide coverage areas and helps nations of the South to evolve frequent negotiating positions, he posited that analysis should stay goal and fact-based, whereas reflecting International South views and priorities.
Dr. Correa challenged the standard theories that emphasise that growth flows naturally from static comparative benefits. “It’s not about what you will have, however how you employ it,” he argued.
He emphasised that growing nations want complete analysis on industrial technique and worth addition, shifting past uncooked materials exports to seize worth by way of home processing and manufacturing.
Positing that “information is crucial for growth,” he beneficial that growing nations should develop dynamic comparative benefits by way of strategic funding in schooling, innovation, and technological functionality.
The dialogue additionally grappled with elementary questions concerning the coherence and continued relevance of the ‘International South’ as an analytical class.
Dr. Correa said that regardless of the huge heterogeneity of the ‘International South’, persisting international structural inequalities each necessitate and justify collective frameworks.
He mentioned China’s financial system now surpasses America’s in absolute PPP phrases, but the USA maintains extraordinary affect by way of its dominance of the IMF and World Financial institution, the worldwide greenback system, and know-how.
Understanding the mismatch between financial weight and institutional energy has emerged as a crucial analysis precedence for students and policymakers.
Dr. Correa remarked that addressing these questions require critical examination of how uneven commerce agreements perpetuate dependency, such because the U.S. imposing tariffs of as much as nineteen p.c on exports from nations like Malaysia and Cambodia whereas going through zero tariffs by itself exports to those nations.
Equally vital is investigating the mechanisms by way of which technological dominance reinforces energy imbalances, and the way Southern establishments can construct various frameworks for equitable financial governance.
Moreover, students additionally have to doc the evolution of South-South cooperation, monitoring how bilateral commerce preparations, regional financing mechanisms, and rising foreign money diversification efforts steadily problem established hierarchies whereas respecting the varied contexts and capabilities of growing nations.
Moreover, he defined that growing nations stay severely under-represented regardless of their rising financial
weight, highlighting that options to the normal Bretton Woods establishments, equivalent to BRICS and numerous regional and bilateral preparations, sign significant shifts towards pluralism within the worldwide financial structure, phenomena requiring energetic documentation and evaluation by ‘International South’ analysis communities.
Nevertheless, it was additionally acknowledged that substantial shifts within the worldwide financial order, significantly de-dollarization and various commerce and financial frameworks, can be drawn out and take time, stopping the ‘International South’ from profiting from the rapid alternatives out there, which might change over time.
This problem underscores the urgency of growing strong, policy-relevant analysis that may information incremental however strategic actions within the close to time period, whereas constructing towards longer-term structural transformation.
Amb. (Retd.) Ravinatha Aryasinha in closing the dialogue, thanked Dr. Correa for sharing the South Centre’s present considering and offering helpful comparisons with the state of affairs in growing nations and areas throughout the globe, which can assist as Sri Lanka and extra broadly the South Asian area navigates the current challenges.
In flip, Dr. Correa inspired Sri Lankan and South Asian researchers to make use of the huge community of over 7000 policymakers out there to the South Centre to assist disseminate their scholarship extra broadly with these engaged in comparable analysis in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
On the graduation of the dialogue a second of silence was noticed in reminiscence of Professor Shelton Kodikara, founding father of the RCSS in 1992 and Sri Lanka’s foremost Worldwide Relations scholar, on the event of his loss of life anniversary, in addition to Dr. John Gunaratne, a former Appearing Govt Director of RCSS, who handed away just lately.
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