Study: Developed countries benefit more from globalisation

Developed countries benefited more from globalization than developing economies, and more "proactive development cooperation" was needed for closing the prosperity gap, said a German think tank on Monday. A recent study based on 42 nations commissioned by Bertelsmann Foundation found that all the examined nations benefited from globalization, as they all experienced increased growth due to the process of interdependencies. The growth, however, increased in different pace, said the Guetersloh-based institute in a statement. Per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in the top 20 industrialized nations increased by some 1000 euros (about 1377 U.S. dollars) per year on average due to globalization. On the contrary, it rose by less than 100 euros in countries such as Mexico, China and India. Germany was one of the biggest winner of globalization, the study found, ranking just behind Finland, Denmark and Japan. Between 1990 and 2011, Germany's real GDP grew by an average of 100 billion euros per year due to globalization, accounting for some 20 percent of economic growth of the Europe's largest economy. Per capita GDP rose by an average of 1240 euros. "This makes clear that globalization tends to widen the gap between rich and poor ... first-world countries are the ones who benefit from globalization in particular," said Aart De Geus, chairman and CEO of the Bertelsmann Foundation. "More proactive development cooperation is needed," he said. Experts from the foundation said that developed countries should offer more help to their developing counterparts in order to close the prosperity gap. Industrial nations should open their markets to products from less developed countries, they said, in addition to reducing subsidies for agricultural products at home, funding educational programs, as well as expansion of infrastructure, production facilities and relevant technologies in developing countries.