Annual meetings set to provide pointers on future of global development

Discussions expected to focus on strategies to ensure sustainable growth. 

As the two sessions, the major event in China's political calendar, begin, the international community is looking forward to seeing how the world's largest developing country plans to advance global development when the world faces multiple pressing challenges, observers and experts said.

It is expected that China will continue to facilitate the sustainable growth of developing countries by implementing its own development strategies, particularly the Global Development Initiative, they said.

During the annual meetings of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, thousands of national lawmakers and political advisers will set the tone for the way forward in every aspect of China's development and the people's well-being.

Common aspirations

Last year, President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Development Initiative at the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

He called on countries to work together to overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global development, to accelerate implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to build a global community of development with a shared future.

Wang Hongxin, head of the Academy for Global Development at Beijing Normal University, said, "The GDI responds to the common aspirations of the international community, especially many developing countries, and points the way forward for global development."

He added that the initiative also shows China's strategic vision for global development and adds confidence and positive energy for other countries to jointly overcome the current difficulties.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the GDI has been warmly received by the international community as nearly 100 countries and many international organizations, including the UN, have expressed support.

Antonio Guterres, UN secretary-general, has said the announcement of the GDI brought forward new potential in its deep alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.

In October, Guterres said the UN stands ready to support implementation of the GDI and provide technical assistance to ensure compliance with recognized international norms and standards.

Chen Xiaochen, executive deputy director of the Centre for Asia Pacific Studies at East China Normal University in Shanghai, said, "The pandemic, together with changes unseen in a century, has caused a direct negative impact on the UN 2030 Agenda and also aggravated the 'development deficit' that already existed."

According to the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021, published by the UN, progress slowed in terms of achieving all 17 SDGs-such as eradicating poverty, zero hunger and reduced inequalities-in 2020, as the world entered the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Estimates from the report suggest that in 2020, an additional 119 to 124 million people were pushed back into extreme poverty globally, while an additional 83 to 132 million were likely to have experienced hunger as a result of the pandemic.

"The figures mean that global efforts to alleviate poverty over the past decade have been swallowed up, and the 2030 Agenda is in danger of stagnating, moving backward or even falling apart," Chen said, noting that the most urgent task now faced by many developing countries is to beat the pandemic and restore economic growth.

"The GDI is the approach provided by China to reinvigorate global development, and the international community should join hands and work together to put this initiative in place," he added.

In January, China launched the Group of Friends of the GDI at the UN headquarters in New York.

Speaking at the launch meeting, attended by delegates from over 100 countries, Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, said the country looks forward to working with all parties to implement the GDI, seizing opportunities and meeting challenges together.

"In the new year, we hope to work with other group members to closely integrate the implementation of the initiative with the UN development agenda through thematic activities and exchanges, and to help countries achieve common, transformative and green development," Zhang said.