Only through continuous development can people’s dream for a better life and social stability be realized.
The Global Development Initiative (GDI), proposed by President Xi Jinping last September, aimed to effectively respond to the global crisis and challenges, and help developing countries achieve the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, is gaining traction and forging global solidarity.
While the whole world is facing the risk of being plunged into a geopolitical vortex owing to the West’s obsession with poking into other countries’ domestic affairs out of their hegemonic mindset, China endeavors to divert the global attention to what it should be on – global development.
President Xi Jinping called for the global community to gather consensus on promoting development, strive to foster an international environment that is conducive to global growth, and proactively harness new growth drivers for global development on August 12. In his congratulatory letter to the International Civil Society Solidarity Conference on the Global Development Initiative in Beijing, President Xi urged the international community to jointly develop a global development partnership.
As the world now faces the overlapping effects of a food crisis, energy crisis, safety issues, climate change, faltering economic growth, and COVID-19, all of which are being further intensified by the turbulent global geopolitical landscape, the GDI is becoming even more relevant. As Xi noted, the UN 2030 Agenda is suffering setbacks; only by shoring up confidence, building up solidarity, and concretely putting in place the 2030 Agenda can the peoples of different nations live a better life and human society can embrace a brighter future.
Chinese President Xi Jinping chairs the High-level Dialogue on Global Development via video link in Beijing on June 24, 2022.
A Timely Proposal
Nearly one year ago, President Xi proposed the GDI at the general debate of the 76th session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on September 21, 2021. Stressing the combined impacts of changes unseen in a century and the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi noted that people around the world are longing for peace and development more than ever before, their call for equity and justice is growing stronger, and they are more determined in pursuing win-win cooperation. One year on, the global call for peace, development, equity, justice, and cooperation has only become even more urgent.
Xi stressed the importance of global development in solving various problems facing the humankind. “We must revitalize the economy, pursue more robust, greener, and more balanced global development, and work together to steer global development toward a new stage of balanced, coordinated and inclusive growth,” he said.
Regarding the GDI, Xi emphasized six points. First, the need to put development high on the global macro policy agenda, strengthen policy coordination among major economies, and ensure policy continuity, consistency, and sustainability. Second, a people-centered approach. He called on countries to make sure that development is for the people and by the people, and that its fruits are shared among the people. Third, benefits for all. “We should care about the special needs of developing countries. We may employ such means as debt suspension and development aid to help developing countries, particularly the vulnerable ones facing exceptional difficulties, with emphasis on addressing unbalanced and inadequate development among and within countries,” he noted. Fourth, innovation-driven development. Xi emphasized the need to seize the historic opportunities created by the latest round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, redouble efforts to harness technological achievements to boost productivity, and foster an open, fair, equitable and non-discriminatory environment for the development of science and technology. Fifth, harmony between humankind and nature. He stressed the need to improve global environmental governance, actively respond to climate change, and create a community of life for humans and nature. “We need to accelerate the transition to a green and low-carbon economy and achieve green recovery and development,” Xi said. Sixth, results-oriented actions. He highlighted the need to increase input in development, and advance cooperation on poverty alleviation, food security, COVID-19 response and vaccines, development financing, climate change and green development, industrialization, digital economy, and connectivity, among other areas, so as to build a global community of development with a shared future.
Put into Action
Development is a timeless theme for humanity. Only through continuous development can people’s dream for a better life and social stability be realized, President Xi noted in his speech delivered at the High-level Dialogue on Global Development in Beijing via video link on June 24. In a world rife with challenges as well as full of hope, Xi called for fostering a development paradigm featuring benefits for all, balance, coordination, inclusiveness, win-win cooperation, and common prosperity.
In his speech, Xi emphasized the following four points: jointly building an international consensus on promoting development, creating an enabling international environment for development, fostering new drivers for global development, and forging a global development partnership. It is important that countries put development front and center on the international agenda, deliver on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and build political consensus to ensure everyone values development and all countries pursue cooperation together, Xi noted. He then went on to emphasize the need for the North and South to work in the same direction to forge a united, equal, balanced, and inclusive global development partnership. “Only by working together can we accomplish big and great things with a far-reaching impact,” he pointed out.
At the Dialogue, Xi announced the pragmatic steps China would take to give continued support to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. China will upgrade the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund to a Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, and increase input to the UN Peace and Development Trust Fund. China will also work with all sides to advance cooperation in priority areas and mobilize resources for development. In addition, China will set up a platform for experience and knowledge sharing on international development, a global development promotion center, and a global knowledge network for development, for the purpose of exchanging governance experience.
At the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum on June 22, Xi highlighted the need to increase the representation and say of emerging markets and developing countries in global economic governance, which will ensure that all countries enjoy equal rights, follow the rules as equals, and share equal opportunities.
Pointing out that the GDI aims to “re-energize the implementation of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and build a global community of development,” Xi indicated that “China stands ready to work with BRICS partners to add more substance to the GDI and contribute to stronger, greener, and healthier global development.”
“Only when countries develop together can there be true development; only when countries prosper together can there be true prosperity,” he noted.
Widespread International Support
The GDI, which is intended to offset impacts from global crises and keep global development goals afloat, has so far won the backing of more than 100 countries and international organizations, with 60 countries joining the Group of Friends of the GDI, a platform launched by China at the UN for sharing experiences, enhancing cooperation and promoting development.
Senior Chinese agronomist Xu Zhouda explains pest prevention and control measures to trainees in Sao Tome and Principe, an African island nation in the southeast of the Gulf of Guinea, on December 17, 2021.
“The Chinese people not only hope for a better life themselves but also better lives for people of different countries. Only when the people of various countries live a better life can we ensure long-lasting prosperity and security,” Liu Jianchao, head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, pointed out at the International Civil Society Solidarity Conference on the Global Development Initiative.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif indicated via video link at the event that the GDI was another visionary proposal following the Belt and Road Initiative. He applauded the role of the GDI in bringing together various countries, jointly addressing the common economic challenges faced by developing countries, and giving impetus to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit said in a speech via video link that the GDI “maximizes the comparative advantages of multilateral cooperation mechanisms,” as have been promoted by the United Nations, the G20, and the BRICS, among other international groupings. He expects his country to benefit in the areas of poverty alleviation, food security, development financing, climate change, the digital economy, and connectivity under the framework of the GDI. “Additionally, it provides an opportunity to capitalize on a diverse knowledge base, strengths, perspectives, and skill sets from different sectors with the aim of transforming new experiences into collective action,” he said.
Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, in a recent written interview with Chinese media, said that the GDI is crucial in supporting least developed countries to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and to reduce poverty. He takes the GDI as another public good that China provides to the rest of the world. The GDI reminds us that each nation wants development and growth, hence cooperation is needed, he indicated.
