ABSTRACT
The main weakness of a turn towards a regional financial architecture for development is of course that these regions are financially and economically weak to start with, if to differing degrees. The verdict is still out on these new South-South multilateral development banks (MDBs), but there is at least the start of a core South-South initiative, effectively under the leadership of China, that promises to deliver on scaling up development finance substantially. Even so, regional developing country initiatives to promote development finance along the lines suggested would appear to stand the most realistic chance of beginning to turn the tables on global corporate rentierism and the 'cholera' of financialisation. However, given the sheer scale of productive investment required to achieve structural transformation within a meaningful timeframe, positive net transfers from advanced to developing economies – whether through aid and other types of international public finance, debt relief, or foreign direct investment – will remain important.
