Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

In July 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping called on BRICS countries to build a Partnership on New Industrial Revolution (PartNIR). In September 2021, President Xi proposed the Global Development Initiative (GDI) to further foster consensus and promote global sustainable development. From the PartNIR to the GDI, it embodies the president's great attention to and foresight of global sustainable development. The PartNIR marks an important measure and early outcome of the implementation of the GDI. Expanding the PartNIR will accelerate the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, injecting an impetus into sustainable growth for all member states toward a global community of development with shared future.
I. Great significance of the PartNIR for global sustainable development
The PartNIR aims to maximize the opportunities and address the challenges arising from the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, so as to jointly safeguard the development interests of developing countries and emerging economies. Expanding the PartNIR to deepen innovation cooperation and meet global challenges together in the new industrial revolution is of great and profound significance for promoting global sustainable development.
The PartNIR is a strategic choice to grasp the opportunities emerging in the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. At present, the digital economy is booming in the midst of accelerating new technological revolution and industrial transformation. This gives rise to a large number of new industries, new business formats and new models that are reshaping global resource allocation, industrial structure and competition pattern in a profound way. More importantly, the new technological revolution and industrial transformation has opened up a new track where countries around the world all stand at the same starting line in the era of digital economy. This brings new opportunities of development to developing countries including China. Expanding the PartNIR to strengthen cooperation in big data, 5G and artificial intelligence will assist developing countries in fully seizing the historic opportunities brought by the new technological revolution and industrial transformation and tapping new driving force of post-pandemic economic recovery to achieve development by leaps and bounds with a faster global development process.
The PartNIR represents an important move to boost the industrialization of developing countries. Industrialization is the sole route to prosperity and strength for a country, as well as a nation. Global economic history suggests that it is impossible to become a prosperous and strong developed country without successful industrialization. Even today, despite the absolute advantage of the service sector in their national economic structure, developed countries still implement the reindustrialization strategy centering on the revitalization of the manufacturing sector, which adopts a combination of policies and measures on tax, trade, finance and technological innovation to continuously consolidate and enhance industrial strength and international competitiveness. Expanding the PartNIR to create a platform for global exchanges and strengthen the strategic partnership for mutual benefit and coordinated development will enable developing countries to raise industrial production capacity and manufacturing level, and better integrate into the global industrial chain, value chain and supply chain in a faster process of industrialization and modernization.
The PartNIR offers a realistic pathway to building an open world economy. Economic globalization is an engine of world economic growth that conforms to historical trends, as well as the trends of the times. As the impact of the centurial pandemic is scaled up, the international landscape is facing profound changes, with rising unilateralism and protectionism and surging undercurrents of anti-globalization. However, the tides of peaceful cooperation, openness and integration, reform and innovation are billowing. Mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation and openness remains the common choice of the vast majority of the international community. Expanding the PartNIRto bolster mutual trust, cooperation and exchanges and jointly deal with risks and challenges will contribute to closer global development partnership of developing countries, promote open and innovative growth towards an open world economy, and make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all.
II. Realistic foundations for the development of PartNIR 
Under the new situation, emerging market countries and developing countries continue to strengthen cooperation in industrialization, digitalization, and get actively involved in the global governance system, which paves a solid foundation for further deepening cooperation and achieving common sustainable development.
1. The comprehensive strength has steadily improved. Economic output and industrial strength exhibit steady growth. In 2021, the share of developed countries in GDP fell to 57.8 percent, while the contribution of developing countries rose to 42.2 percent. China has maintained the world's largest manufacturing hub for 12 consecutive years. The value added of its manufacturing sector in 2021 reached 31.4 trillion yuan, accounting for nearly one-third of the world's total. India, Russia and Indonesia ranked among the world's top 10 of industrial added value in 2020. Trade exchanges swell substantially. In 2021, bilateral trade between China and Africa stood at $254.3 billion, and import and export trade between China and Latin America hit around $451.591 billion, up 35.3 percent and 41.1 percent year-on-year respectively. Mutual trade and investment among emerging economies such as India and Brazil are also rapidly heating up, while trade among developing countries is growing faster than the global average. Innovation strength makes headway for catch-up. According to the Global Innovation Index 2021 of the World Intellectual Property Organization, China (No.12), Turkey (No.41), Vietnam (No.44), India (No.46) and the Philippines (No.51) have quickly climbed in the rankings over the past 10 years.
2. The demand for cooperation has grown significantly. Manufacturing is a major pillar of the national economy that plays an important role in meeting people's material and cultural needs, stimulating economic growth and boosting technological innovation. The Industrial Development Report 2022 of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization reveals that countries with stronger manufacturing capabilities and more diverse industrial sectors are have withered both the economic and the health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic better than their peers. Compared to pre-pandemic estimates, estimated output loss by 2021 in developing and emerging industrial economies is 7.7 percent on average, 3.8 percentage points higher than that of industrialized economies. Due to the centurial pandemic, developing countries increasingly demand to strengthen openness and cooperation. They have an urgent need to maximize the opportunities posed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution by basing themselves on their respective comparative advantages, and push forward technological progress, industrial transformation and economic development through cooperation at deeper levels. This helps improve sustainable industrial production capacity, enhance the resilience of economic development, and jointly achieve sustainable development.
3. The bedrock for cooperation has been continuously reinforced. Developing countries have broad space for cooperation on new industrial revolution owning to broad common interests and highly complementary industrial structures. In recent years, developing countries represented by the BRICS countries have continued to step up cooperation on new industrial revolution, with solider foundation and wider areas of cooperation. Multi-level pragmatic cooperation that has been carried out in the fields of digitization, industrialization, innovation, inclusiveness and investment not only effectively spurs common development, but also creates favorable conditions for expanding the PartNIR. For example, the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center has, since the construction in December 2020, released lists of more than 60 key tasks, built seven enabling platforms, launched nearly 40 model projects, and signed more than 30 BRICS cooperation projects related to new industrial revolution, which have become new areas, new highlights and new directions to deepen consensus and cooperation among BRICS countries.
III. Broader PartNIR to drive the leapfrog development of developing countries together
Under the GDI, developing countries should deepen cooperation on new industrial revolution in the spirit of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation, and build the PartNIR into an open, innovative, mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation platform that promotes stronger, greener and healthier global development.
1. Cooperation in industrial and supply chains should be enhanced. Developing countries should deepen industrial cooperation that fully leverages the United Nations, relevant international organizations and regional and sub-regional multilateral mechanisms to build a stable, safe and mutually beneficial industrial chain and supply chain collaboration system. Taking the opportunity of establishing BRICS innovation bases and industry competence centers, an industrial cooperation network of developing countries can be constructed to facilitate the free flow of funds, goods, talents, technologies and services and foster a community with shared interests in the industrial chain and supply chain. Enterprises are supported to apply digital technology to open up the industrial chain and supply chain, and develop platform-based applications such as procurement and manufacturing to speed up resource sharing and business collaboration and make industrial chain and supply chain more stable.
2. Cooperation in digital transformation should be accelerated. It is necessary to bolster up consensus on digital development, accelerate the deep integration of digital technology and industry, and fully harness the potential of next-generation information technology to advance the digital transformation of the real economy in a coordinated manner, especially the manufacturing sector. Concerted efforts should be made to strengthen the innovative applications of industrial internet, enhance the digitalization level of the whole business process of enterprises, guide enterprises and equipment to the cloud and platforms, and jointly foster and promote new digital models and new business formats such as platform-based design, intelligent manufacturing and personalized customization. It is also important to promote the alignment and connectivity of policies, standards and rules, and build mutually beneficial and win-win international cooperation platforms for digital transformation to strengthen sharing and exchanges. This will give new impetus to the industrial digitalization of developing countries by jointly creating a sound ecosystem for innovative development.
3. Industrial green and low-carbon cooperation should be increased. Developing countries should strengthen cooperation in innovative green and low-carbon technologies, and build an international cooperation platform that pools extensive innovation resources of member states to enable the joint research and iterative upgrading of green and low-carbon technologies. They should promote green and low-carbon transformation of production and consumption, improve green manufacturing and product supply systems, scale up the research and development, promotion and application of energy-saving and carbon-reducing technologies, and speed up the green and low-carbon transformation of key industries. For the purpose of harmonizing digital development and green development, next-generation information technology can be fully used to support the accurate monitoring and scientific analysis of energy consumption and carbon emissions in the entire industrial process, which provides a digital basis for decision-making by regulatory authorities, in a joint effort to explore the pathway to green and low-carbon transformation.
The author is Chief Engineer with the China Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (CICS-CERT). opinion@globaltimes.com.cn