CIDCA spokesperson: Digital economy gives impetus to global development

Q: The recently concluded second high-level conference of the Forum on Global Action for Shared Development pioneered a livestreaming session on global development and the digital economy, where representatives from multiple Global South countries promoted their countries' quality goods as well as culture and tourism programs and interacted with netizens in an East Buy (a popular livestreaming e-commerce platform in China) livestreaming studio. What are your thoughts on this event? Does China have any plans for similar online streaming activities to promote cultural and tourism exchanges and trade between the country and other countries?

A: The event was jointly hosted by the Global Development Promotion Center of the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), East Buy and JD.com. It was a major sideline event of the Forum on Global Action for Shared Development that addressed the digital economy and interconnectivity in the digital age, two key cooperation areas of the Global Development Initiative (GDI). The livestreaming session focused on common development and digital empowerment under the framework of the GDI.

High-level representatives from Belarus, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Malawi, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and Thailand shared their experiences, told stories of global development and promoted specialty products and culture and tourism programs of their countries. The session lasted for 12 hours, showcasing over 60 kinds of imported specialty goods, with 33 million accumulated views, more than 100,000 average concurrent audience and over 160,000 peak concurrent audience. The livestreaming session received over 117 million likes, and was covered by more than 30 media outlets, including the China Media Group, with over 120 associated reports.

Foreign representatives and netizens spoke highly of the new impetus provided by the GDI to promote their countries' development, and affirmed the remarkable consensus and practical outcomes achieved at this high-level conference. They said that they hoped China would play a greater role in international development cooperation, and that people of all countries would share more fruits of global development in the digital era.

The CIDCA will continue to work with relevant countries, international organizations, enterprises and social institutions under the GDI framework to explore new models of cooperation, share with all parties the new development opportunities brought by the digital era, and promote the realization of the digital economy in more developing countries in a bid to improve people's well-being and create a better future for all.