From "Periphery" to Growth Engine: The Global South reshapes a new paradigm for development cooperation

Editor's note: Jin Jun is an associate professor at the School of Management of Zhejiang University. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Strengthening health systems, adapting to climate change, advancing digital innovation and transformation, and achieving the Global Development Goals are grand challenges facing countries across the globe, and they have also become shared missions that require international cooperation. Against this backdrop, context-driven innovation, creative-driven innovation, and people-centered innovation have emerged as key approaches, allowing more organizations and individuals to address socio-economic problems as innovators together.

These innovation approaches are gradually transforming Global South countries into a new source of scientific and technological innovation, a new hub of innovation value, and a new paradigm of model innovation. With their position in the global value chain on the rise, they have become an increasingly vital engine of global economic growth.

Context-driven innovation: A new source of scientific and technological innovation

When tackling shared global challenges such as climate change, countries are confronted with different problems, have differing infrastructures, and operate in different contexts. These variations generate differentiated needs for innovation and call for tailored innovative solutions. Therefore, various organizations and stakeholders collaborate on technological and industrial innovation so as to achieve shared goals. Meanwhile, the strong demand for socio-economic development and digital transformation in the Global South is creating diverse scenarios for the application and innovation of emerging technologies, helping to ignite a fresh wave of technological revolution.

Creative-driven innovation: A new hub of innovation value

As digital technologies become widely adopted, the orange economy, originally centered on creativity and cultural industries, has grown increasingly influential across the global economy and other industries, becoming a critical growth driver for economic development in Global South countries. The integration of innovation elements rooted in national features and local cultural characteristics with technologies such as artificial intelligence not only further sparks innovative vitality, fosters autonomy of the Global South countries and accelerates their industrial transformation, but also emerges as a new model of value co-creation among enterprises, consumers, and diverse innovation organizations in the rest of the world. This imbues product innovation with greater economic value and richer emotional resonance.

People-centered innovation: A new paradigm of innovation models

As a new model, people-centered innovation engages a broad spectrum of stakeholders, especially end-users, in innovation activities, where they co-create solutions to various social challenges. The utilization of technologies such as low code and social media allows more people to partake in varied innovation activities and contribute solutions to socio-economic issues as innovators. In this sense, the earlier notion of creative-driven innovation can also be viewed as a manifestation of people-centered innovation.

Lancang–Mekong cooperation: A representative case of the new cooperation paradigm

Supported by mechanisms such as the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special Fund, the government agencies, enterprises, and research institutes of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and China have collaborated to tackle region-specific socio-economic issues such as rural e-commerce development, smart agriculture, and public health. These efforts have enhanced the capacity of local governments and enterprises to independently solve problems and strengthen indigenous industrial innovation, thereby advancing digital and green transformation.

Conclusion

In summary, digital and green transformation is fostering new models and mechanisms of innovation cooperation for Global South countries, while creating opportunities for them to elevate their standings in the global value chain. The widespread application and dissemination of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, aerospace technologies, and new energy technologies, will further transcend geographical constraints, reconfigure international partnerships, and reshape a new paradigm of global development cooperation. In doing so, these technologies will enable the Global South countries to play an increasingly significant role in addressing grand global challenges.