Tanzanian president calls for stepping up South-South cooperation

Benjamin William Mkapa, the visiting Tanzanian president, called for stepping up the South-South cooperation while giving a lecture in the China University of Foreign Affairs Monday in Beijing.

"We must have a global regime for trade, investment, science and technology and culture that respects our legitimate needs, andcaptures our perspectives on global affairs, and that's why I argue from my heart for stepping up South-South cooperation," he said.

"I came to China to advocate that the time for talking about South-South cooperation has to end now; the time for walking the talk has to begin now," Mkapa said.

"Increasingly, countries of the South must integrate their economies, trade much more with each other, share knowledge and experience, and show unprecedented solidarity in their dealings with richer countries," the Tanzanian president said.

Mkapa said Tanzania and China had a long history of "all-weather" friendship.

"Together we struggle to fight for a new international economicorder, together we now struggle to unite countries of the South ina common cause for sovereign dignity and development, and togetherwe must continue to struggle against the unfairness of the currentprocess of globalization."

In a reply to a question, Mkapa said that the urgent task for developing countries is to build strong and sustainable national economy and therefore developing countries could have a fair shareand utilization of their natural resources, explaining that it is the best tool for developing counties to further integrate into the globalization and help review and reshape the process.

Mkapa is here as guest of Chinese President Hu Jintao, and he attended the Global Conference on Scaling Up Poverty before arriving here.