Nation shares its public goods with the world

Editor's note: A survey among China Daily's overseas readers ahead of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China shows that the nation's ecological progress, economy, diplomacy, science and technology, and the Belt and Road Initiative are among some of the most closely observed issues. China Daily is publishing a series of special articles to offer readers an in-depth look at these topics.

Development experience and solutions to challenges provided to numerous countries

In Kasane, northern Botswana, construction workers are racing against time to build a primary school that could provide access to education for 560 children.

It will be the fourth primary school built in the southern African nation with aid from the Chinese government.

Meanwhile, in Fiji, Chinese experts have trained 1,704 locals, including female farmers, disabled people and even tour managers who lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to cultivate mushrooms.

In Ecuador, 58 farmers have just completed an online training session offered by Chinese experts on designing and making furniture and lamps from bamboo, one of the South American nation's richest resources.

Over the past decade, China has emerged as one of the top providers of global public goods, sharing its experience on development and offering solutions to challenges with much of the developing world.

As the Communist Party of China holds its 20th National Congress, which opened on Sunday, analysts and observers have highlighted the significance of the nation's international development cooperation in enabling a better response to various challenges worldwide, including underdeveloped infrastructure, food security and climate change.

Wang Luo, director of the Institute of International Development Cooperation at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, hailed action taken by the nation.

"From the Belt and Road Initiative and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, to the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, we can clearly see that China, led by the CPC, is responding to global development challenges in a more proactive manner.

"This has to do with the fact that the CPC strives for both the wellbeing of the Chinese people and human progress. The Party has made its mission to make new and greater contributions for mankind."

With the lingering COVID-19 pandemic posing challenges to global development, and the crisis in Ukraine resulting in new risks and challenges, China has done its best to present its own solutions, especially the Global Development Initiative, or GDI, to bridge the worldwide development gap, Wang said.

President Xi Jinping first proposed the GDI during a session of the UN General Assembly in September last year. He named eight priority areas for the global community to step up cooperation — poverty alleviation, food security, COVID-19 response and vaccines, development financing, climate change and green development, industrialization, the digital economy, and connectivity.

The president hosted the High-level Dialogue on Global Development in June, which brought together leaders from 18 developing countries, pledging to upgrade the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund to a Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, and adding $1 billion to the fund on top of the $3 billion already committed.

Chen Zhaoyuan, an assistant researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, or CASS, said China has expanded cooperation with developing nations and used its own advantages to facilitate pilot projects for common prosperity. It has done so while developed economies have reduced their contribution to international development cooperation since the onset of the pandemic.

"Emerging economies, including China, continue to undertake international responsibilities in keeping with their own development stages and actual capabilities, and actively promote the upgrading of international development cooperation with greater investment," he said.

Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization — or CCG — and a counselor with the State Council, said Xi has championed the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, a key concept that has been included in key UN documents and which has won widespread recognition in the international community.

Guided by this concept, Beijing has actively promoted multilateral cooperation and pushed the global economy toward a more balanced, inclusive and win-win direction, he said.