Parliamentarians praise country's development

Parliamentary leaders from developing countries say China has played an important role in boosting sustainable development around the world, and that developing countries should learn from China's experiences.

On Wednesday, 153 parliamentary leaders and legislators from 32 of the Inter-Parliamentary Union's 180 member countries gathered in Beijing to attend the 2024 Interregional Seminar on the Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals for Parliaments of Developing Countries.

The seminar also commemorated the 40th anniversary of the affiliation of China's National People's Congress — the nation's top legislature — with the IPU, a global organization of parliaments dedicated to promoting democratic governance, institutions and values.

Mauritius National Assembly Speaker Adrien Duval said the assembly and the NPC signed a memorandum of understanding in 2018 and have discussed cooperation at mutual levels ever since.

"I think it's important to keep dialogue open with all the countries at the IPU," he said. "It's also important to have the dialogue and the network so we can lay the foundations for an even greater prosperity endowment."

China has greatly supported Mauritius' development through the years and played a key role in helping the country fight the COVID-19 pandemic, providing Mauritius with vaccines and assisting the African nation's recovery, Duval said.

Segepoh Solomon Thomas, speaker of the Parliament of Sierra Leone, said China's governance model has been quite impressive, and that it's necessary for other nations to learn from China.

Thomas said China's governance model is the reason it is making progress, because it allows people to focus on development.

IPU Secretary-General Martin Chungong said the organization has sought to bring together parliaments to learn from China's experience in sustainable development. "This is something that is very important for us in the IPU, and we are grateful to the NPC for providing that opportunity," Chungong said.

Parliamentary leaders also refuted claims that China's approach of boosting cooperation with other developing countries is so-called "neocolonialism".

China respects different countries' own development paths, and it's untrue to say that China is running a new form of colonialism in Africa as claimed by some media, Thomas said.

"China is not dictating how we live our lives or how we run our government," he said.

"I think that China's cooperation with Africa has created a necessary and positive impact on the African continent."

Manzoor Nadir, speaker of the National Assembly of Guyana, said he often laughs at claims that the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China is a different form of colonialism.

"I laugh because, first of all, people have choices. China didn't force any country to sign an agreement," Nadir said, adding that China's cooperation with Guyana and Caribbean countries was based on total respect.