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Herald Correspondent
One year after leaders from 18 emerging markets and developing countries met virtually to discuss global development at the High-level Dialogue on Global Development hosted by China, the eponymous Global Development Initiative has proven to be a good framework that is relevant to participating countries.
The GDI aims to foster a development paradigm featuring benefits for all, balance, coordination, inclusiveness, win-win cooperation and common prosperity and comprises of a number of practical measures that chart a new course and marking a new stage of practical cooperation for the globe.
What the world has witnessed in the past year is not just a rethink of global cooperation, but the actual cooperation with real results, itself one of the philosophies of President Xi Jinping of China. Zimbabwe is among the participants of the GDI, and the country is set to benefit immensely because the framework is in line with Zimbabwe’s own development matrix, the Vision 2030 of attaining an upper middle income status by 2030.
GDI fits in with Africa’s Agenda 2063 as well as the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations.
President Mnangagwa has outlined the importance of GDI to Zimbabwe, which is part of the community of “Friends of the GDI”.
“There is no gainsaying that the global development agenda has entered a critical juncture, with developing countries facing serious challenges to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” President Mnangagwa said at the weekend. He was attending a virtual address to the High-Level Meeting of the Forum on Global Action for Shared Development hosted by his Chinese Counterpart, President Xi Jinping.
“It is in that regard that we in Zimbabwe appreciate and strongly support President Xi Jinping’s initiative, which aims at addressing the global development inequalities.
“We particularly value the fact that this initiative will put emphasis on global development partnerships that advance solidarity, equality, balanced and inclusive development,” President Mnangagwa said.
Relevance to Africa, globe
President Mnangagwa’s affirmation of the importance of GDI as an international framework and solution chimes in the with sentiments of other leaders and experts globally.
GDI is an important public good and cooperation platform proposed by the Chinese government for the whole world.
According to a report published recently evaluating the success of the initiative, GDI has become an acceptable framework because of its upholding the principles of openness, transparency and inclusiveness, as it widely accepts and adopts constructive opinions and suggestions from all parties, and enriches its concepts and improves its cooperation programmes in a timely manner to accelerate the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. The aforementioned reports notes that over the past year, the GDI has been widely received by the international community, and achieved positive progress and early harvests, injecting new momentum for accelerated implementation of the 2030 Agenda while it has been recognised as an important public good and cooperation platform proposed by the Chinese government for the whole world.
When it comes to Africa, the GDI speaks directly to Agenda 2063, the continental strategic framework for the socio-economic transformation of the continent over the next 50 years which builds on, and seeks to, accelerate the implementation of past and existing continental initiatives for growth and sustainable development. One Chinese diplomat, that country’s ambassador to Liberia, wrote an article clearly explaining the link between China and Africa through the framework.
“This Initiative also has broad support from 53 African countries and the African Union,” Ambassador Ren Yisheng wrote.
He noted that last year’s Dakar Declaration of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the Dakar Action Plan of FOCAC both clearly stated that African countries welcomed and support the GDI proposed by China, emphasising that improving the global development partnership is the key to the implementation of the 2030 agenda and the 2063 agenda of the African Union, and are committed to promoting a stronger, greener and healthier global development and building a community with a shared future for global development. “Development is the most important and most concerned issue for African countries,” he said.
“The GDI has provided a Chinese solution for developing countries, especially African countries, to break through the predicament. This is also highly consistent with the development demands of African countries and the 2030 Agenda.”
Demonstrably, during the 8th Ministerial Conference of the FOCAC in 2021, President Xi Jinping put forward a four-point proposal for building a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era, and announced the implementation of the “Nine Programmes”.
It not only focuses on the practical needs of African countries’ development, but also echoes the eight cooperation areas that are being promoted by the GDI, which fully demonstrates China’s sincere desire to support Africa’s development and revitalisation.
Taken together with the global Vision 2030 — the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — the GDI proves a commitment to bettering the lives of people across the world in a unified, friendly and cooperative manner. Remarkably, after the United Nations, it is only China that is pursuing this “global good” showing extreme level of maturity and leadership by China, at a time when other big powers continuously divide countries of the world, seek hegemonism, building of fences, imposition of sanctions and other unilateral actions.
Online Reporter