Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has called for the smart partnership movement to generate a genuine consensus in developing a clear agenda for development.

In reinventing itself, he said, the decade-old smart partnership movement should encompass three crucial ingredients for developing economies to grow - poverty eradication, capacity building and human capital development.

This is to ensure its continued relevance in the future in building a resilient and robust network among the South nations, he said today when addressing fellow smart partners at the official opening of the Global 2005 Southern Africa International Dialogue (SAID'05), in Maseru, Lesotho.

A Bernama report says that bAbdullah is leading a 70-member delegation to the four-day dialogue which is also being attended by over 300 participants from 14 countries, mostly from Africa.

Also present at the opening was host and Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, King Mswati III of Swaziland, former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar and Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Jamaludin Jarjis.

The dialogue, themed "Towards a Smarter Globe: Resourcing for Growth Through Smart Partnership", is co-organised by the Commonwealth Partnership for Technology Management (CPTM).

The smart partnership movement, which began with the first Langkawi International Dialogue in 1995 and which later spawned similar editions in southern and eastern Africa, has emerged as a clarion call for South-South nations to prosper equitably.

SAID aims to promote smart partnership through dialogue discussions and networking among the government and private sectors of the South-South countries.

Abdullah, attending the dialogue for the first time in Africa, said the three ingredients for development could work as a tripartite plan in engendering sustainable progress in increasing international competitiveness among the movement's participating states.

"This dialogue (SAID'05) and those to come should serve not only to develop the intellectual framework of this agenda but also to map out how this agenda might be achieved vis-a-vis smart partnerships and joint co-operative efforts between the people of member countries," he said.

Mobilise resources

He said the smart partners should honestly and genuinely discuss ways to mobilise their resources and bring together private and public sectors across borders into a grand partnership that delivers specific interventions borne out of strategic roadmaps, with the ultimate result focused on enhancing the welfare of the people.

"That indeed must be the raison d'etre of South-South co-operation and the lifeblood of the smart partnership movement," Abdullah said.

The discussion on the action plan for development of the movement should not also be limited to covering the political, social and economic issues but also involve issues on peace and security of each member country, he said.

The prime minister said the movement should also try to answer what the smart partnership movement should deliver.

To this end, he said, the dialogue should focus on creating a sustainable core which member countries could identify as the common ground that binds them together.