Media Wire Express Correspondent
In recent periods, regional opinion polls across the different parts of the Global South suggest that there appears to be growing support for regional economic cooperation and regional integration.
A look at the opinion polls conducted in all of the main parts of the developing world – Latin America, Africa, Asia – reveals a relatively high level of support for regional integration even as the current shape of the global governance construct is increasingly cast into doubt.
In what follows we look at the main polls conducted in Latin America, Africa and Asia on the support of the population and the business circles for regional integration initiatives and regional organizations.
In Latin America a new study conducted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) (the Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL) of the IDB’s Integration and Trade Sector) in partnership with the firm Latinobarómetro showed that 79% of Latin Americans support their country’s integration with other Latin American countries, the highest level since this data began to be collected.
The study also reveals that higher levels of education are associated with higher support for regional integration – support for regional integration reached 87% among those respondents with a complete university education.
Positive attitudes towards economic integration are higher among the younger respondents, who in turn accord greater importance to the opportunities provided by integration to study or work abroad.
For a total of 61% of respondents the question “What does regional integration mean?” was associated with more employment, for 56% with more technology, for 52% with higher salaries, for 50% with study or work opportunities in other countries, for 46% with access to a greater variety of products, and for 40% with access to cheaper goods.
In one of the fastest growing regions of the world economy and the leading regional bloc in Asia, namely ASEAN, opinions across the member states point to an increasingly positive evaluation of ASEAN.
The latest 2024 State of Southeast Asia Survey (SSEA 2024) by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute assembled respondents’ evaluation of ASEAN’s performance over the past year – the results of the poll suggest that “when compared to other countries/regional organisations, ASEAN performs relatively well. In fact, it enjoyed a significant rise in positive perceptions this year”.
With respect to the question “In whom do you have the most confidence to champion the global free trade agenda?” 29.7% of respondents in 2024 named ASEAN, a significant increase compared to 2023 when the figure stood at 23.5%. The corresponding increase for China amounted to 3.7 percentage points to 18.5% in 2024. Also, 58.4% of respondents welcomed the growing regional political and strategic influence of ASEAN.
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In answering the question “In your view, which country/regional organization has the most political and strategic influence in Southeast Asia?”, 20% of respondent opted for ASEAN, nearly 7 percentage points higher than in 2023. The positive assessment of China also increased – from 41.5% in 2023 to 43.9% in 2024.
In Africa, according to the 2024 Paftrac Africa CEO Trade Survey launched by the African Business and the Pan-African Private Sector Trade and Investment Committee (Paftrac), more than 50% of Africa’s businesses expressed the opinion that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) would have a positive effect. Earlier in 2019-2021 the surveys conducted by Afrobarometer revealed that 47 percent of Africans supported policies directed at protecting domestic industries, while 49 percent supported open borders for trade.
Also, in the 2019-2021 surveys by Afrobarometer, regional organizations such as the African Union as well as other regional organizations were among the “external influencers” with some of the highest positive perception in Africa.
Across 34 countries in Africa the average positive support for the African Union stood at 53%, while for other regional organizations in Africa the corresponding figure reached 57% of respondents.
Overall, the significant support accorded to regional integration in some of the key regions of the Global South bodes well for further progress in regional economic cooperation among developing countries.
It is noteworthy that some of the above surveys also revealed a high degree of support for building economic ties outside of the respective regions (77% of respondents in Latin America support their country’s integration with other countries outside the region (seven percentage points more than in 2020)) – this may be indicative of the scope available for building inter-regional economic linkages across the main regional integration blocs of the Global South.
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