A medical worker collects a throat swab from a resident in a nucleic acid testing unit at a sampling site of Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Beijing, capital of China, June 24, 2020. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

 
Senior officials in Uganda's ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party have said that the world needs to emulate China's people-centered development philosophy, a key ingredient in the country's social and economic growth and fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Richard Todwong, deputy secretary general of NRM, told Xinhua that it is upon the understanding of this philosophy that the Communist Party of China (CPC) has led the country along its path of social and economic development.

"For the CPC, everything starts and ends with the people. This has put their people in the center of all that they do. The people are paramount above all," he said.

Augustine Otuko, an NRM youth leader in eastern Uganda, described the CPC as a highly institutionalized party with structures running from local to national levels.

"Under the CPC, there is wider consultation in different party structures about the needs and aspirations of the Chinese citizens. The consultations are aimed at guiding policy corrections or development. This makes people the heartbeat of the CPC," Otuko said.

He said leaders across the world should adopt a people-centered approach in their decision-making, as it creates participatory contribution by both citizens and government agencies in the implementation of any development agenda.

"Anything without the people becomes a myth," Otuko said.

According to the two leaders, China's central focus on ordinary citizens explains why the country has managed to control the COVID-19 pandemic, limiting its wide spread in the populous nation.

Under a people-centered approach, when a pandemic like the coronavirus attacks China, "it becomes the duty and responsibility of all party cadres and citizens to make safety of the people a priority," Otuko said.

"Leaders at all levels were seen advocating and educating the masses on the coronavirus," he added.