GDPC head attends dialogue on promoting global development

The China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) hosted a dialogue on promoting global development virtually on Sept 23.

Over 50 representatives from foreign governments including Russia, Brazil, Pakistan, Laos, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Mozambique, Japan, Germany and Singapore, international organizations and non-governmental organizations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the World Food Pragramme and the Gates Foundation, as well as China's governmental bodies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Health Commission, the International Poverty Reduction Center, and the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, attended the dialogue that focuses on theories and practices from the perspectives of poverty reduction and public health.

 Xu Wei, director-general of the Department of International Cooperation of the CIDCA, delivered an opening speech on the topics of poverty reduction and international development cooperation.

He said that development, an eternal theme for human civilization and a common wish shared by people from all over the world, has suffered setbacks due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, regional conflicts and climate change. Last year, China proposed the Global Development Initiative (GDI), which prioritizes poverty reduction in key cooperation areas and meets the urgent expectation of poverty elimination from the global community. To fully implement the GDI, China upgraded the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund to the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, which aims to carry out pragmatic cooperation with United Nations agencies in such key areas as poverty reduction, food security, pandemic response, climate change, green development and industrialization, he said.

As the biggest developing country in the world, China has been devoted to contributing China’s solutions and strength in fighting poverty, helping in the capacity building of various areas in other developing countries and supporting their post-pandemic development, he added.

Tang Ying, director of the Global Development Promotion Center of the CIDCA, introduced the center’s role as a promotion and action platform for the implementation of the GDI and achieving the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Tang said that the center has started building a project pool for global development, and is preparing to launch a global shared development forum next year. She looks forward to working with all attending parties to expand cooperation and jointly tackle global challenges.

Siddharth Chatterjee, the UN resident coordinator in China, said multilateralism, international cooperation and global unity are the world’s only way to address recent setbacks, and that the UN welcomes China's GDI, which can help in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Attending parties lauded China's GDI and shared their experiences in poverty reduction and public health, raising positive proposals and reaching extensive consensuses on global development.