Prominent American scholar Jeffrey Sachs speaks with the Global Times on the sidelines of 2026 China Development Forum which takes place from March 22 to 23, 2026, in Beijing. Photo: Chen Qingqing/GT

China's development will remain very positive because China has taken the innovation route, prominent American scholar Jeffrey Sachs told the Global Times on Sunday on the sidelines of 2026 China Development Forum (CDF) that is taking place in Beijing from Sunday to Monday.

During the interview, Sachs talked about China's innovation clusters, saying that those are very important. 

"The NO.1 cluster is Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Guangzhou. This is a very important, three of the top six innovation clusters of the world are in China, also Beijing and Shanghai," he said.

This gives China a tremendous impulse and a tremendous contribution to the world economy. And it's all the more reason to be optimistic about the coming years, Sachs said.

"China's support for the other emerging economies to make their energy systems cleaner and more resilient, and to adopt advanced digital technologies is very strong. And that will be a mutual benefit of China and the emerging economies of the world," the American scholar said.

The annual CDF is held under the theme "China in its 15th Five-Year Plan Period: Advancing High-Quality Development and Creating New Opportunities Together."

More than 100 representatives from major international organizations, global multinational corporations, and leading research institutions, along with internationally renowned scholars, will gather at the forum, according to the forum's organizer.