Manuel: Lack of cooperation between nations will stagger progress for shared global vision on growth & development

Former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel says a lack of cooperation between nations will only stagger progress for a shared global vision on growth and development.

Manuel made the comments while addressing delegates at the B20 Summit, currently underway at the Sandton Convention Centre. The B20 is the business leg of the G20, which is concluding under South Africa’s presidency this week.

Global cooperation is among the themes on the table, with some global leaders pushing for multilateralism in the face of strong scepticism, particularly from US President Donald Trump. Trump’s return to the White House and his approach to foreign policy have shifted traditional multilateralism.

Manuel argues that fragmentation has no place in the global order.

“It's about respect between nations and developing systems that advance people. And that now is very broken. And that's what we need to understand in order to engage with it going forward. The question is not that might is right, but how nations, states accommodate each other in order to advance the betterment of everybody. That's a big challenge. And if you don't have that, you don't have the predictability that allows for decision-making anywhere - whether in business or government. That's the big challenge that we face right now.”