This view, articulated by South Africa's deputy president TM Mbeki at some of the early sessions of the NAM summit, found support among NAM foreign ministers at their meeting yesterday (Aug 31).

Said Mbeki at Monday's ministerial meeting: "The very fact of globalisation, in all its forms, meansthat our own success as developing countries in terms of the upliftment of our people cannot be achieved in conditions of autarky or self-contained development within our national boundaries or regions. It cannot be achieved through opting out of the world economy and therefore extricating ourselves from the process of globalisation." Clearly, NAM is moving away from confrontation to engagement with the first world.

The meeting, which will be followed up by others today, took the unique form of a round table discussion to formulate a NAM view on the challenges facing the developing world. The round table discussed the report of an ad hoc panel of economists headed by Gamani Corea, former secretary-general of the Unctad, which submitted a report last April on the subject.

The round-table of ministers decided to take the Corea report on record and felt that there was need to clarify, prioritise and give definition to an agenda for developing countries so that a common negotiating position can be taken atWTO and other multilateral negotiations. The next meeting of WTO's negotiations for the year 2000 are scheduled for later this month in Geneva.

The round-table recognised the fact that different developing countries may have varying emphasis on what constitutes the problem area in regard to free trade and globalisation. While some feel that immediate debt relief to the poorest countries should be given top priority, other felt that commodity prices cannot be left entirely to the market. Almost everyone, however, felt that something ought to be done about volatile foreign exchange flows that were destroying national economies almost at the drop of a hat.

Among the important issues that will be discussed further is the need or desirability of some kind of tax on non-trade foreign currency transactions. There is a feeling that the transaction costs of moving foreign exchange across borders are practically nil with trillions of dollars being traded every day. NAM ministers feel that there is an acuteimbalance between portfolio flows (which tend to inherently unstable since they constitute money looking for best returns) and trade and direct investment-related flows, which are more long-term oriented.

The final position of NAM on economic issues will be known only by tomorrow. But enough indication is available that final draft will be less anti-west than in the past.