World Insights: China's Global Development Initiative suites global needs

BEIJING -- China-proposed Global Development Initiative (GDI) responds to the urgent needs and dynamics of global development, said Joseph Matthews, a senior professor at the BELTEI International University in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

"The initiative focuses on development as the master key to addressing all problems, and strives to solve difficult issues of development and create more opportunities for development, leaving no countries and no individuals behind," he said.

China has been seeking to renew global focus on development issues and explore pathways for practical cooperation in an era when the world is bedeviled by daunting challenges and great uncertainties.

The initiative, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the General Debate of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2021, aims to steer global development toward a new stage of balanced, coordinated and inclusive growth.

"Through the Global Development Initiative and the Belt and Road Initiative, China has made great contributions to promoting the steady growth of global economy in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, and has always shared its fruits of development with the rest of the world," said Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute of Cambodia, an arm of the Royal Academy of Cambodia.

Phea said China has always provided assistance to other developing countries with no political conditions attached, greatly advancing their socioeconomic growth and reducing poverty.

"China has played and will continue to play a pivotal role in promoting global development, governance, globalization, multilateralism and free trade, which are fundamental to building a just, equitable, open, and inclusive world," he told Xinhua.

Since putting forward the GDI in 2021, China has promoted the sharing of development fruits with other countries to build more consensus and create more opportunities for global development.

China has taken a big step toward the recovery of the whole world through the GDI, said Selcuk Colakoglu, director of the Ankara-based Turkish Center for Asia Pacific Studies.

"This is a reflection of China's responsibility to pay attention to global growth in general, and also in the post-pandemic world. This is a roadmap of how global development is put on track," said the scholar.

"The initiative will be a guideline for global development in the next stage in the post-pandemic world," he added.

"The GDI is another public good that China provides to the rest of the world," Matthews said. "It has importantly contributed to strengthening international development cooperation."

"The GDI advocates the spirit of open and inclusive partnership," he said, expressing his confidence that it will inject vigorous impetus into the implementation of the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

China has stood shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the world in terms of promoting holistic and impactful human development, said Cavince Adhere, a Kenya-based international relations scholar, adding that Chinese firms operating in Africa have contributed over 20 percent to the continent's economic development in the last decade.

China's great contribution to global development is not only reflected in its own development, but also in sharing development experience with other countries and assuming global responsibilities, said Xulio Rios, director of the Observatory of Chinese Politics in Spain, hailing China's development experience as the common wealth of all mankind, which is particularly important to the countries in the Global South.

To support the implementation of the GDI, China announced 32 concrete actions in 2022, half of which have been accomplished by now. The GDI project pool, with its first list of projects released last year, is being enlarged and now includes nearly 200 projects. China has created the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund and increased its capital to 4 billion U.S. dollars.

Over 100 countries and international organizations showed their support of the GDI, and nearly 70 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the GDI. China has also signed Memorandums of Understanding on cooperation with nearly 20 countries and international organizations in this regard.