News stories by Jomo Kwame Sundaram, page 35

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Mar 08 (IPS) - The grandiose sounding Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will be signed in Santiago de Chile today, 8 March. Instead of doing something to advance the condition of women on International Women's Day, trade representatives from 11 Pacific rim countries will sign the CPTPP, which some critics argue will further set back the progress of humanity, including women who hold up ‘half the sky'.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb 26 (IPS) - In early 2016, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement -- involving twelve countries on the Pacific Ocean rim, including the USA -- was signed in New Zealand. Right after his inauguration in January 2017, newly elected US President Donald Trump withdrew from the TPP, effectively killing the agreement as its terms require the participation of both the US and Japan.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 13 (IPS) - Over the last few decades, people in the developing world have been rejecting the intellectual property (IP) regime as it has been increasingly imposed on them following the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) including its trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs) regime. IP rights (IPRs) have been further enforced through ostensible free trade agreements (FTAs) and investment treaties among two (bilateral) or more (plurilateral) partners.

SYDNEY & KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 (IPS) - At this year's Davos World Economic Forum (WEF), Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau warned the world's business leaders and fellow politicians, "tackle inequality or risk failure".

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 23 (IPS) - As the ‘masters of the universe' gather for their annual retreat at Davos, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has just published its Inclusive Development Index (IDI) for the second time.

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 (IPS) - The United Nations Agenda 2030 for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is being touted in financial circles as offering huge investment opportunities requiring trillions of dollars. In 67 low- and middle-income countries, achieving SDG 3 — healthy lives and well-being for all, at all ages — is estimated to require new investments increasing over time, from an initial $134 billion annually to $371 billion yearly by 2030, according to recent estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO) reported in The Lancet.

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 03 (IPS) - As feared, the Eleventh Ministerial Conference (MC11) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 10-13 December 2017, ended in failure. It failed to even produce the customary ministerial declaration reiterating the centrality of the global trading system and the importance of trade as a driver of development.

SYDNEY/KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14 (IPS) - Although the Cold War came to an end over a quarter century ago, international arms sales only declined temporarily at the end of the last century. Instead, the United States under President Trump is extending its arms superiority over the rest of the world.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 05 (IPS) - Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have emerged in recent years as the development ‘flavour of the decade' in place of aspects of the old Washington Consensus. Instead of replacing the role of government or consigning it to the garbage bin of history, corporations are increasingly using governments to advance their own interests through PPPs.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 (IPS) - Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are essentially long-term contracts, underwritten by government guarantees, with which the private sector builds (and sometimes runs) major infrastructure projects or services traditionally provided by the state, such as hospitals, schools, roads, railways, water, sanitation and energy.