By the end of 2023, the United Nations 2030 Agenda has passed the halfway point of implementation, but the implementation of the SDGs has been slow due to the overlapping impact of multiple crises. In this process, the importance of global multilateral cooperation has become increasingly prominent.
With the theme of "Building a Global Partnership for Development and Jointly Promoting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development", the Academy of International Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in China recently jointly held the 4th China-International Development Forum in Beijing. The forum attracted more than 160 guests and representatives from relevant domestic and foreign departments, embassies and consulates in China, international institutions, scientific research institutes, enterprises and institutions, social organizations and other institutions, and carried out in-depth research. The forum also held one side event and 10 thematic sessions, and released the flagship report "China and International Development Report: Perspectives and Prospects 2023-2024".
The importance of global multilateral cooperation has become prominent
Over the past three years, the pandemic has seen regional wars and conflicts, as well as the financial constraints faced by most developing countries, rising debt pressures, challenges and crises, and the deteriorating global climate ......We know that no country or organization can tackle these challenges alone. In fact, the just-concluded United Nations Climate Summit (COP28) demonstrated the importance of multilateralism and global cooperation. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Representative in China, Yating Bai, said in her speech.
Bai Yating said that 2024 is coming, but the progress of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals is not going smoothly at present. Of these, only 15% of the SDGs are on track, and more than 30% have stalled or even reversed.
In Bai Yating's view, this is also the reason why the theme of the forum, "Building a Global Partnership for Development, Jointly Promoting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development", is so important. In view of the scarcity of resources for development and the growing demand for assistance, it is imperative to strengthen international development cooperation. As a stakeholder, China can work with other development partners to make greater contributions to global sustainable development, and can better provide best practices and leverage its experience in areas such as green energy transition.
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Li Junhua, said that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the associated 17 Sustainable Development Goals remain the best guide to a more sustainable, resilient, equitable and inclusive future. China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Global Development Initiative (GDI) have brought optimistic signals to the world, and South-South cooperation and corresponding development cooperation** have provided critical and broad support for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) pointed out that "China is willing to increase resources for global development cooperation, is committed to narrowing the gap between the North and the South, and firmly supports and helps developing countries accelerate their development." * At the High-level Dialogue on Global Development, the President proposed to "build a global partnership for development that is united, equal, balanced and beneficial for all".
Gu Xueming, President of the Institute of International Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, believes that the world has entered a new period of turbulence and change, and global sustainable development is facing multiple challenges. Under the new circumstances, China is accelerating the pace of transformation to international development cooperation. In this process, it is more necessary for the government, industry, academia and research parties to strengthen coordination, open exchanges with the international community, deepen cooperation, and jointly build a global partnership for development.
Gu Xueming said that in this context, this forum is committed to building a platform for dialogue, jointly improving the concepts, mechanisms and best practices of international development cooperation under the new situation, and building consensus and contributing wisdom to promote the realization of global sustainable development.
Development is the key to solving all problems, and cooperation is the only way to promote development. This is one of the essences of China's experience in governing the country, and it is also a precious spiritual wealth that China is willing to share with the world and encourage the whole world. Li Ming, Deputy Director-General of the Policy and Planning Department of the China International Development Cooperation Agency, stressed that China has always practiced its ideas with actions, verified its initiatives with results, and won consensus with sincerity. China's Global Development Initiative (GDI) aims to better implement the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The International Cooperation Agency and other relevant departments have done a lot of work and achieved positive results, and "we are willing to continue to work with all countries and all parties to make greater contributions to the implementation of the Global Development Initiative, the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind."
Jointly explore mature development plans
Tanzania's ambassador to China, Khamis Omar, said that the achievement of the SDGs is still far from expectations. It can be seen that none of these goals has yet reached a 50 per cent completion rate, and nearly half of the targets have even been derailed. More monitoring and evaluation is needed to accelerate progress towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. It is not only necessary to carry out an objective, pragmatic and critical mid-term review, but also to face up to real problems and seek solutions.
Referring to the imbalance between investment and aid, Omar shared a set of data: In Africa, for example, official development assistance to Africa fell by 7 percent year-on-year last year4 per cent, which is particularly evident in the field of foreign direct investment (FDI). Official data provided by the UNCTAD shows that FDI flows to Africa amounted to US$45 billion over the past year, down 44% year-on-year and back to 2019 levels. At the same time, however, more than $916 billion of FDI went to developing countries, of which $208 billion in FDI in Latin America and the Caribbean, up 51 percent year-on-year.
Omar stressed that the African region needs to pay more attention to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and expects more development initiatives like the Global Development Initiative.
Pilar Garrido Gonzalo, Director of the Development Cooperation Division of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, believes that effective development cooperation is a key lever to address inequality and poverty. In the face of growing development needs, the world needs more development cooperation, more efficient ways of working together, and greater transparency.
Garrido said that an assessment of the implementation of the SDGs could effectively guide future development cooperation efforts. In the future, the OECD hopes to work more closely with China to explore mature development models, seek best practices at the international level, and further improve existing principles and guidelines for action to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The world is changing, and so is global cooperation. Yu Zirong, vice president of the Institute of International Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, said that the deep adjustment of the global political and economic order has given birth to a new pattern of global development, which is manifested in structural changes in both supply, demand and attributes, that is, the decline in investment and insufficient momentum on the supply side of global development, and the increase in quantity and quality and the dominant rotation on the demand sideThe economic and aid attributes of global development have been relatively weakened, and the political and strategic attributes have been strengthened.
Yu Zirong believes that under the new pattern, the international community needs to promote the construction of more inclusive international development cooperation from the three aspects of concept, subject and method, focus on building a new international development consensus, focus on giving full play to the main role of the "Global South", and strive to promote more extensive trilateral cooperation.
As the largest developing country, the engine of global economic growth that contributes more than 30% of the momentum, and the world's second largest economy, China's solutions and contributions to more inclusive international development cooperation are indispensable. Yu Zirong pointed out that this is mainly reflected in three levels, one is to provide richer international public goods for global development, the second is to build a solid, equal, balanced and inclusive global development partnership, and the third is to build a stable and transparent international development policy system.
In addition, China is also constantly improving the model of international development cooperation with Chinese characteristics, including the development mode based on the combination of foreign aid and two-way investment, and striving to make up for the shortcomings of diversified aid, non-first-class aid and third-party cooperation, so as to achieve complementary integration and flexible implementation of various aid methods. In terms of development resources, efforts should be made to optimize the development financing model, and various innovative methods such as debt restructuring, debt-to-investment, and debt-to-debt development should be used to revitalize the stock of development funds.
Reporter Liu Xuying.