SHANGHAI – China has managed to lift over 800 million people out of poverty over a four-decade period, and enlarged the middle-income group to over 400 million people, leading to corporations and trading partners of over 140 countries and regions.
With over 1.4 billion people on course toward modernisation, a number larger than the combined population of all developed countries, China has the potential to give a much stronger impetus to the global economy.
“We are making US$320 million direct investment around the world each day and attracting over 3 000 foreign businesses every month over the past decade,” said China’s foreign minister Quin Gang during the opening of the Lanting Forum on Chinese modernisation and the World in Shanghai on Friday.
He added China has contributed more to global growth than all the G7 countries combined.
“The China Development Forum and the Boao Forum for Asia, which were successfully held last month, attracted many political and business leaders from around the world. The most repeated call we heard was to seize the new opportunities that will come along with China’s high-quality development and
high-standard opening-up,” he stated.
Gang stated that the path to modernisation should not make the rich richer and the poor poorer, nor should it serve the interests of only a few countries or individuals.
“Common prosperity for the whole world requires the development of all countries. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Global Development Initiative (GDI) are public goods that China offers to the international community,” he said.
Gang noted: “Ten years on since the start of the BRI, over 3 000 cooperation projects have been launched, involving close to US$1 trillion of investment and creating 420 000 jobs for participating countries. Many nations have thus realised their dreams of railways, big bridges and poverty alleviation”.
He said initiatives like the GDI is widely welcomed by the international community, with the strong backing of over 100 countries and many international organisations, giving an impactful boost to the early attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.
The Gambia’s foreign affairs minister Mamadou Tangara during the opening of the forum said since the start of its modernisation era, China stands as a beacon of hope for all developing countries and symbolises the truth that mankind has a shared future, and that collaboration, cooperation and unity are indispensable for global prosperity.
“For Africa, there was a strong undercurrent that the perception of the continent as a place synonymous with brazen impoverishment is rendered a mere conjecture – and this unjust prediction is not made a reality,” he stated.
Tangara said: “China’s modernisation is one that addresses, in a resolute way, the global deficits of development, peace, governance and trust”.
He added that this course of action is being realised with the positive role of China in the global system and the regional architectures that have been developed to reshape The Gambia’s development agenda.
Tangara added the country has inspired many developing countries to seek their formula to reduce poverty, and promote their respective economic development and prosperity.
“The importance of our multilateral system cannot be over-emphasised particularly from a viewpoint of a small country like The Gambia. The recent challenges to the credibility of our international system are a stark challenge to the entrenched perception of civility and modus operandi in the discharge of the relationship and cooperation between states,” he emphasised.
Tangara said, as developing countries like The Gambia pursue their development agenda, they are continually confronted by multifaceted risks, which not only slows their socio-economic progress but threaten to reverse the gains registered over the past decade.
In a congratulatory message to the forum, China’s president Xi Jinping said a long and arduous quest, the Communist Party of China CPC) has led the entire Chinese nation to find a development path that is now building a strong country and advancing national rejuvenation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernisation.
Xi said China will provide new opportunities for global development with new accomplishments in Chinese modernisation, lend new impetus to humanity’s search for paths toward modernisation and better social systems, and work with all countries to advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. It suits the country’s conditions,” he said.
He said in pursuing modernisation, a country needs to follow certain general patterns.
More importantly, it should proceed from its realities and develop its features.
- psiririka@nepc.com.na