Uruguay Joins Prestigious OECD Development Centre

By Jaya Ramachandran | IDN-InDepthNews Report

BERLIN | PARIS (IDN) – Uruguay has become the 10th member country in Latin America and the Caribbean to join a group of 50 OECD and non-OECD countries that are already members of the Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Explaining the accession, a press release said, Uruguay’s structural characteristics, development experience and challenges offer rich opportunities for knowledge sharing among the Centre’s member countries.

Since its banking and financial crisis in 2002, it added, Uruguay has made remarkable progress. Stable macroeconomic policies and a favourable external environment permitted brisk growth and the financing of social policies, yielding the longest period of economic growth in decades.

Uncertainty Prods Europeans to Yearn for a Better Yesterday

By Roberto Savio | IDN-InDepthNews Viewpoint

ROME (IDN | Other News) – The recent elections in Switzerland and Poland are good indicators of what will happen elsewhere in Europe in the face of an irresistible growing wave of refugees. But let us first consider a few key elements.

First, the present system of international relations and national governance is not functioning any longer. We are in a period of transition, but nobody knows to where. The Left is without a manifesto, and the Right is just riding the status quo. There is no long-term political thinking.

Second, we are living in a “new economy,” based on the supremacy of finance over man’s production. Unelected officials, like governors of central banks and bankers, have increasingly more power than ever before. This “new economy” considers job insecurity and lay-offs as natural, social inequality as a legitimate reality, the market as the sole basis for societal development and the state as inefficient and a brake on the private sector.

Australia Under Heavy Criticism For Nuclear Agreement with India

By Neena Bhandari | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis


SYDNEY (IDN) – Though the Australian Parliament has not yet ratified the Australia-India Nuclear Cooperation Agreement signed in 2014, civil society, environment and disarmament advocates caution that sale of uranium to India would fuel a nuclear arms race in the region and undermine Australia’s strong credentials as an exponent of nuclear safeguards policies.

Saudi Nuclear Blustering Remains Hollow – for Now

By Emad Mekay* | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis


CAIRO (IDN) – When the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal was announced in July, the image in state-controlled Saudi media was of Western powers caving in to a new powerful neighboring foe. The usually reticent Saudi officials paid the usual diplomatic lip-service to the agreement but social media, academia and state-owned news outlet all portrayed a different picture; profound Saudi anxiety that included statements that the oil-rich country can use its wealth to go nuclear.

Development Agenda Crucial for Nairobi Global Trade Conference

By Dr. Patrick Gomes, ACP Seretary-General | IDN-InDepthNews VIewpoint

BRUSSELS (IDN) – The year 2015 has witnessed a number of global events so important to development, namely; the Financing for Development Conference that took place in Addis Ababa from July 13 to16, 2015, the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in New York that took place from the September 25 to 27, 2015, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) scheduled to take place in Paris from the November 30 to December 11, 2015 and the World Trade Organization Tenth Ministerial Conference (MC10) scheduled for the December 15 to 18, 2015 in Nairobi Kenya.

This is the first time that a WTO Ministerial Conference will be held on the continent of Africa and in an ACP Country, therefore I have no doubt that we are all equally enthused by this fact. Some reports from Geneva on developments in the negotiations at the WTO might damper our enthusiasm.

Agreement on issues of particular interest to the ACP Group, especially the development aspect, remains elusive. We have learnt of sentiments from some WTO Members that suggest that it is now time to fold the Doha Development Round (DDA) and close shop because of this lack of agreement on the issues under negotiation.

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