THE first high-level conference of the Forum on Global Action for Shared Development kicked off in Beijing yesterday in a bid to transform the Global Development Initiative (GDI) from being a Chinese proposal to an international consensus, and from a unilateral initiative to multilateral actions.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the conference. In his letter, Xi said transformation of the world unseen in a century is unfolding at a faster pace, the world economy is struggling to recover and the global development agenda is facing challenges.

“To build consensus on cooperation and promote common development, I have put forward the Global Development Initiative in order to help accelerate the implementation of the U.N. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and I am pleased to see that with the joint participation of all parties, cooperation on the Global Development Initiative has yielded important early results and benefited many developing countries,” Xi said.

Representatives from over 130 countries and international organizations attended the event online and onsite.

At a time when the global economy is in recession and the U.N. development agenda is facing setbacks, there is an urgent need for the international community to build broad consensus on development and bring the development issue back to the center of the international agenda, said Zhao Fengtao, deputy head of the China International Development Cooperation Agency.

The purpose of the GDI, he said, is to align and accelerate the implementation of the U.N. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

He said that countries should avoid the narrow-minded geopolitical and Cold War mentality when interpreting the GDI as it is an open and inclusive initiative.

According to Zhao, within the framework of the GDI, China has implemented a number of early harvest projects through grant assistance, concessional loans and the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund in areas like climate change and environmental protection, which have benefited more than 60 developing countries.

Tang Ying, director of the Global Development Promotion Center of the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), said the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund has been integrated and upgraded into the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, with increased funding of up to US$4 billion.

“By the end of last year, under this fund, we have collaborated with over 20 international organizations to implement more than 130 projects, benefiting over 20 million people in developing countries,” she said.

(Xinhua, China Daily)