ifda dossier 74 - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

A debate in Cairo
A Third World perspective on interdepen-
dence, integration and collective self-reliance
by Mohamed Sid-Ahmed
22 Ibn Zanki Street
Zamaiek, Cairo, Egypt
On 15-16 May 1989, the Arab Society of Economic Research organized its First
Scientific Conference in Cairo on the topic of Interdependence, Economic
Infeqc1/ion and Collective Self-Reliance, from the specific perspective of the Third
World and with special attention to the Arab world. Outstanding economists of
various schools of thought from Arab countries from both the Mashrik and the
Maghreb took part in the two-day deliberations.
I will not attempt here to review the wide range of issues, theoretical and
technical, addressed by the Conference, but, rather, to shed some light on the
niiijor problemaiiques which the discussions underscored.
To begin with, the opening session was largely devoted to trying to define
interdependence, an issue of particular relevance given the scarcity of academic
literature on the subject. This scarcity is surprising in a context where, with the
growing internationalization of the world economy and the appearance of new
forms of integration in industrialized capitalist countries, interdependcnce with its
implications for the world at large has become an issue of paramount importance
everywhere. To mention only one such implication: the potential ability of the
transnational corporations which already hold 40% of world trade, to revolutionize
the world economy by promoting a world market going beyond all national
frontiers.
As mentioned by 1sni;iil-Sabri Abdalla in his openiiigssi;itcmcnt. interdependence
is affecting all walks of economic life: the processes of production, R & D, trade
and financing, capital and labor transnational mobility. It is affecting relations
between niiirkei ;ind centrally planned economies rind, of p;irticukir interest to the
Conlcrcnce, the ability of Third World economics to cope with the new situation.
as no society ran isolate itself from this multifarious all-encompassing phenonien-
on. In all Hdds of human encleuvour, politics, econon~ics, culture, even sports,
extra-national factors are exerting an ever-growing influence on the life of the
individual citizen. This perception of ;I directly accessible, ever-shrinking planet in