Five years on, initiative proposed by Xi brings tangible results to Global South

Development goals of GDI bearing fruit

For Md. Hasan, a 20-year-old in Chattogram, Bangladesh, a three-month computer course opened up the possibility of running his own business.

Raised by his grandparents in a low-income household, Hasan worked as a helper at a printing shop. He wanted better opportunities but lacked the technical skills to pursue them.

After receiving the computer training, he secured a job at a photocopy shop. He is now preparing to open a digital service and photocopy center in his community, offering printing, computer assistance and online services. He hopes the business will support his family and eventually create jobs for other young people.

"This training has given me valuable digital skills and the confidence to pursue my dreams," the United Nations Development Programme quoted Hasan as saying in a report on its website.

The training was provided through a project called Livelihoods Support for Urban Poor Communities in Bangladesh, which receives support from the China International Development Cooperation Agency through the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund.

The fund is one of the financing mechanisms supporting the Global Development Initiative, which marks its fifth anniversary on Monday.

President Xi Jinping proposed the initiative in a video address to the general debate of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly on Sept 21, 2021.

"Development holds the key to people's well-being," Xi said. He outlined six guiding principles: prioritizing development, taking a people-centered approach, ensuring benefits for all, pursuing innovation-driven development, promoting harmony between humanity and nature, and pursuing results-oriented actions.

The initiative seeks to accelerate implementation of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through cooperation in areas including poverty reduction, green development, industrialization, the digital economy and connectivity.

In June 2022, at the High-Level Dialogue on Global Development, Xi announced that China would upgrade its South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund into the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund and add $1 billion to the $3 billion already committed.

China and its partners have implemented more than 2,000 projects and provided training for more than 200,000 professionals since the GDI was launched five years ago, benefiting people in more than 120 countries, Xi said at the recently concluded 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, the capital of India.

Xi urged Global South countries to pursue people-centered development and advance the 2030 Agenda. He added that China would continue to implement the GDI to share opportunities and prosper together with all countries.

According to the Foreign Ministry, in the past five years, more than 130 countries and international organizations have expressed support for the GDI and participated in related cooperation, while nearly 100 countries and international and regional organizations have signed GDI cooperation documents with China.

The Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative has expanded to 88 countries, and China has established more than 30 cooperation mechanisms and platforms to help Global South countries strengthen their capacity for development.

Through the China-UN Peace and Development Fund, the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund and other funding initiatives, more than $23 billion has been mobilized.

The emphasis on inclusive development helps explain the initiative's growing support, according to Abbey Makoe, founder of the Global South Media Network.

Writing on Independent Online, a South African news website, Makoe said that, amid international fragmentation and conflict, the GDI offers a basis for cooperation around shared development goals. He described it as "a magnet for global cooperation based on peaceful coexistence".

In Burkina Faso, cooperation with China reflects the GDI's principles by responding to national development priorities, wrote Nadege Yameogo, a journalist with Burkina Faso's national newspaper Sidwaya, in a commentary.

She pointed to Chinese support for agriculture as contributing to Burkina Faso's pursuit of food sovereignty, and to solar energy projects as supporting energy independence and a green transition suited to local conditions. She said the GDI's broader results demonstrated the credibility of China's approach: clear commitments followed by concrete action.

Kyrgyz Ambassador to China Aktilek Musaeva also emphasized cooperation that strengthens countries' capacity for development, describing the GDI as important for sustainable growth and for narrowing development gaps.

"For Kyrgyzstan, as a developing country, cooperation aimed at improving infrastructure and transport connectivity, enhancing investment capacity, advancing technology and developing human capital is especially valuable," she said.

Regarding artificial intelligence cooperation with China, Musaeva highlighted the importance of building Kyrgyzstan's own capabilities.

"We are interested not only in adopting ready-made technological solutions, but also in developing our own capabilities — from training specialists and advancing scientific cooperation to creating practical applications for public administration and the real economy," she said.

At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit held earlier this month in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Xi identified the SCO as a priority area for advancing Belt and Road cooperation and implementing the GDI. He announced plans to establish an international AI application cooperation center with other SCO countries and jointly implement 100 technological cooperation projects over the next three years.

Such practical cooperation shows how China is translating its development proposals into tangible contributions to global development through the GDI, said Li Kai-sheng, vice-president of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.

Years of reform and the strengths of China's industrial and technological systems have helped drive advances in innovation, he said. Through industrial cooperation and capacity building under the GDI, those advances have created development opportunities in other countries.

"China is providing not only new products, technologies and industries, but also new pathways for development and opportunities to put innovation into practice," Li said.

Over the past five years, the GDI has evolved from a Chinese proposal into an international consensus, with cooperation expanding from aligning development goals to practical work across a range of sectors, he said. Its call for renewed attention to development and stronger cooperation has drawn a positive response internationally.