A ship docks at the port of Dalian in Northeast China's Liaoning Province on July 3, 2022, marking the start of operations for a new service connecting China to Vietnam and Thailand. Dalian port currently hosts 88 export-oriented container shipment routes. Photo: cnsphoto

The China-proposed Global Development Initiative (GDI) is "extremely important" given the crises the world is experiencing and the UN will provide its "fullest" support to ensure that the GDI will match global norms and standards, a UN official told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

"It is very important that any nation state, any member state that it comes up with the initiatives to advance the sustainable development goals… because it is about global prosperity, it is about lifting people out of poverty, and it is about giving people hope and an opportunity… so we don't leave anyone behind. And that is what the GDI is also premised on… is to leave no person behind, and that is where the centrality of this is," said Siddharth Chatterjee, the UN Resident Coordinator in China.

Chatterjee made the remarks during a group interview on the sidelines of a major forum titled Global Development: Maximizing Synergies for the Implementation of 2030 Agenda held on Tuesday in Beijing, where officials, scholars and businesses hailed the GDI as a key global initiative to tackle mounting global challenges. 

The GDI was first proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 21, 2021 at the general debate of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, where Xi called for countries to work together to steer global development toward a new stage of balanced, coordinated and inclusive growth, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

"The UN will provide its fullest technical capacity and support to making sure that the Global Development Initiative also matches global norms and standards," said Chatterjee.

Participants at Tuesday's forum also noted that as global challenges such as food security and climate change have been mounting, some global development goals seem to have been lost in the process, and the GDI comes just at the right time.

"This concept of global development also demonstrates China's responsibility as a major country in the new world development landscape. There will be a follow-up discussion on whether GDI and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are complementary or mutually supportive. The final solution to all problems requires the concerted efforts of people all over the world," said Yao Yang, dean of the National School of Development at Peking University.

"The initiative has another significance, which is to draw more attention to South-South cooperation. Developing countries around the world can exchange experience and technologies, and aim for a common goal," Yao told the Global Times on the sidelines of the forum on Monday.


Global Times