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ndonesia is hosting the 60th anniversary of the Asian-African Conference in Jakarta and Bandung. With 109 leaders of Asian and African countries invited, the event will attempt to reinvigorate a new face for the Asian-African Conference and the contemporary dimensions of South-South cooperation.

The commemoration, however, evokes questions about how these countries can improve their cooperation and, more importantly, whether and why the conference'€™s legacy still matters for people on the two developing continents.

Asian and African countries should focus on economic development and social justice as their common agendas when they regroup here.

But they must be realistic in identifying and selecting practical areas of cooperation and do-able cooperative actions, such as in agriculture and food sovereignty, education, micro, small and medium enterprises, rural development and maritime issues and fisheries.

For instance, the countries can cooperate in agriculture, food sovereignty and rural development. Asian and African countries can exchange their seeds, give and take agricultural technology and food management techniques to improve yields, to produce healthy foods, to empower local agricultural traditions and to develop their own rural areas.

The development of local food economies and farmer'€™s empowerment for quality products would also help in responding effectively in the event of a food crisis in these areas.

Apart from using information technology to exchange ideas and experiences the countries can also facilitate cooperation among their universities on vocational training and student exchanges between the continents, as well as in other ways.

The countries could also develop the fisheries of coastal nations on the Asian and African continents. They can also enhance fisher-community empowerment, cooperation in maritime and coastal tourism and economic development in coastal areas between their regions.

Empowerment of SMEs on the Asian and African continents is another crucial area of cooperation. The World Bank revealed that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in East Asia, the Pacific and South Asia was almost 47 million per 1,000 people. In the Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa the figure was more than 17 million MSMEs per 1,000 people.

There is obviously quite a huge number of Asian and African people who depend on such enterprises. Therefore, governments and banks in Asia and Africa can work extensively and cooperatively in their training and micro-financing. Hopefully, MSMEs may raise higher public awareness on entrepreneurship and create decent living wages for local communities.

Indonesia wants the cooperation among the continents to contribute to international peace and security, economic development and social welfare for developing and least-developed countries. It also hopes that the inter-regional cooperation between Asia and Africa can be a useful platform for exchanging ideas and experiences, which contribute positively to the architecture of regional and global governance. For instance, ASEAN'€™s regional integration processes, through the ASEAN Community, can provide an example for other regional entities in Asia and Africa when they attempt their own regional integration.

Furthermore, Indonesia also promotes regional cooperation as a main framework for Asian and African countries to work together to deal with common challenges, such as poverty, income disparity, global health and social injustice.

But as Asian and African countries face different challenges in political and security issues, the conference should focus on economic development and social welfare and outline how Asian and African countries could boost South-South cooperation. At the same time, they may enlarge participation of civil society and the business community under the cooperation arrangement.

Therefore, the governments of Asian and African countries need to continue to facilitate interactions among civil society and business communities. Feasibility in down-to-earth programs is the key.
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The writer is a political and economic analyst on global affairs at the University of Indonesia. The views expressed are his own.